Then contacting that guide – a Miss Marlyn Ramos, age 32 – to let her know what I was going to be there for, and what places I wanted to visit, so that she could make the hotel reservations and such – ensuring that we got the best possible rates. From previous experience, I knew that given a chance, too many businesses there had Filipino (regular) and American (inflated to varying degrees) prices for about everything. She was also the one to make contact with the officials in the different cities that we expected to visit, ensuring that we would have access to them when the time came.

At her suggestion, I agreed that she would be the one to hire our driver – so that he could also pull duty as a guard for us for increased pay.

Americans weren't immune to the political kidnappings that happened there, and she assured us that our driver/guard would be there for more than mere appearances. With the knowledge of what we were there for, and the main places we wanted to go, I gave her authority to make additions to our itinerary, and take care of the sequence and scheduling. She even emailed us a brief description of her qualifications for the job, along with her description and a digitized photo we could use to help identify her at the airport. When Kelly saw it, she just looked at it for a while, without saying anything. We responded in kind, sending descriptions and digitized photos of the two of us, as well.

With that taken care of, all that remained was to try to ensure that the house didn't burn down and that our cat, Cat, didn't starve while we were gone. Jan and the others quickly worked out a system and schedule of who would be doing what, and when, to make sure things would still be there when we got back. Every last one of them flatly refused any kind of compensation or offer I made them to repay them for their help; I quietly resolved that they would not go unrewarded – I remembered the beauty and delicacy of the silverwork I'd seen in Baguio, years before.