Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Philippine Adventures (Part I)

A Summary of my Adventures
Part I of II (Oct 2005 to Apr 2006)


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This is a picture of the view screen that was on the plane on my way to the Philippines. I had never been on a trip outside of the U.S. before and it had also been quite sometime since I had been on even a domestic flight. On this view screen we would get periodic updates of our speed, direction, and other details of the flight.


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Though every country or city has something like this on your way into it, this is the first thing that I saw when I arrived in the Philippines. Though this is a very simply introduction to the Philippines it was very beautiful to me at the time.


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Malu asked me to take a picture of Concepcion Market as a way to help me figure out where I would be going later. Concepcion Market (and also Cubao) turned out to be two main areas to catch connecting jeepneys or FXs when I traveled. I ran into many street kids in Concepcion, and had a lot of thoughts there as to what I was supposed to be doing there in Manila.


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These two pictures are from the main location of He Cares in Quezon City Project6. The photos show one of the livelyhood programs, a bead making workshop, that has been created for women and occasionally girls in the program. The background of these women range from average to uncommon, from poor in what was provided for their house holds, to poor in what they believed about themselves.

For the latter, work like this can help them see that God 'does' care for them and have a plan for their lives. Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I've learned in life that material wealth is not real wealth. The people in the Philippines, with all of their smiles and the joy in the life, simply helped to firm my perspective on that. In this regard the Philippines is much wealthier than the U.S.. I've found that same joy. The more I give the happier I have become.


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All of the homes in Erap city are raw one room 15'x15' cement block buildings with tin roofs. One area not much different in size to an average closet has a manual toilet installed. You never need heat in the Philippines and you rarely need air conditioning unless you have a medical condition or are of the spoiled sort. No, you're not going to die of heat you just feel that way. Eighty year old women smile at you in the heat but keep on working without a complaint. Sometimes they might say "ma init" (it is hot) but they say it as just a statement of fact.

Very few ever complain about the heat, they never say they wish they had an air conditioner. They simply keep going as they always have since they were young. I myself have had air conditioning most of my life and I simply took to their cue. I thank God for the strength that He's given me and smile. I look up at the sun every now and again and say "ma init".


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Most of homes here don't have running water. In fact I didn't see a single one that had it while I was there. Some of them don't even have electricity. This picture might seem to be a little sad as you think about it, but there really isn't anything to be sad about. Life here is hard but there is a lot of happiness here. There is more happiness here than I typically find in the U.S.. You might find this kind of happiness with the older hard working folk in the U.S. of another generation, but you don't find that kind of happiness in the U.S. on a regular basis. Here, though there are few hard moments where the smiles are gone. The smiles are much more common here. You can them every day of the week.


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This is a street in Erap City where many (if not most) of the men and women here were squatter's in Quezon City. A "squatter" is a person that has grabbed signboards, pieces of tin, cardboard, rejected pieces of concrete, or whatever they could find in order to make shelters inside the city of Manila or the other larger cities. These squatters would probably be better off if they lived in the rural areas of the Philippines and had some land to grow food on. I certainly think these people here now have it a little better having moved nearly an hour outside of Metro Manila.

What I've observed is that many of these families are second generation having moved from the reasonable rural living of traditional villages and being drawn to the allure of the cities where they thought they could provide a 'better' living for their families. I see this as one of the tragedies of not being satisfied with what you have. Sure you may have a motivation to acquire more than just food and shelter for your families, and you might even get it at first. But when thousands upon thousands are drawn toward that allure as well, you are left with over crowding and a drain on resources. When you see first hand so many perfect examples of happy fed content people across the globe, how can you not blame lack of contentment as the core problem. You can, the evidence outweighs that conclusion but you still can, I've seen it :-)


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Just a simple picture of McDonalds here in the Philippines. Not sure exactly why I took this picture at the time. I can think of a number of things that I think about when thinking about McDonald's in the Philippines. One, Filipinos have the custom of shortening and abreviating almost everything. So seldom do you hear McDonalds come out of a Filipinos mouth, instead you hear "McDo's"; it's even on the bill boards and commercials.

Also McDonald's has "Jolibee" as their main competor; it was here before McDo's. And because Jolibee is their main competor, McDo's has altered their U.S. menu to compete with the tastes that Jolibee has catored to here. Sweet style spaghetti is a main stay here in the Phils. Also McDo's has, get this, fried chicken. And would you believe that there isn't a milkshake on the entire McDonald's menu?; where is my milkshake man? God, please send me a McDonald's with a milkshake! :-)


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These pics show work being done on a Saturday in the feeding program at He Cares. Here in the old location we were feeding two hundred to three hundred street kids every Saturday. We had to shut down for about three weeks at the end of 2005 for planning preparations and relocatoin at the new place. Now in January of 2006 at the new location we are feeding about one hundred and twenty while the kids and parents find us again. Unfortunetly we can't call them or send them an email, we have to wait until word of mouth and the change of habit catch up.


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These large pots and pans are brought outside by the volunteers where it is easier to wash them.


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Do you see the North American influence in the clothing they wear? That Nike shirt probably would have cost ten to twenty dollars in the U.S. but you might find it here in Divisoria for about fifty or one hundrd pesos. About a hundred and twenty hungry kids would wait in this line at any given time for about an hour. It was difficult keeping them from running around chasing each other while they waited. Here at the old Quezon city location many of the neighbors just wanted quiet. They might say that they like what we were doing, they just didn't want us to do it in 'their' neighborhood. But we moved, and we'll continue to move as many times as it takes. God's direction to take care of the poor is more important than anything else.



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Here we have another example of a jeepney. This is one of the primary ways of getting around in the Philippines. Jeepneys are often chromed out and decorated with artist impressions of Jesus, "In God We Trust", "God's Chosen" or any number of other things that outwardly demonstrate the primary religion (and to another extent the faith) of the people in the Philippines.

The fare for getting around on a jeepney depends on how far you travel. So for as little as P7.50 (or about 16 cents) you can travel for a couple of hours and a distance that I 'think' is equivalent to three or four miles. And for P23.75 you can travel clear across metro Manila.

There are a couple of other ways of getting around also; the FX, the Tricycle, and MRT. The oddest sounding one, the tricycle, is actually a motorcycle with a passenger's compartment on the side of it. I'll write about the latter three later.


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I had never seen so many types of milk in my life. All of these flavors are very popular in the Philippines. This was at a Seven Eleven. Yes, they have Seven Eleven's even in the Philippines. I think I remember my mother really liking Seven Elevens when she used to live in Florida. And I remember getting slushies there as a kid.


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One of several trips I made to Cubao to visit the street kids. I didn't always take pictures of them because I felt a little funny about doing that when I fed them; almost as if I was exploiting them some how. This time however was different. Once the kids found out I had a camera phone and they just couldn't get enough of it.

"One more, one more". Every time I took a picture they would crowd around the tiny camera phone and start to giggle like crazy. I ended up taking twenty-eight pictures. Much more than I had wanted to because it was eating up the memory in my phone. I've seen kids have fun with picture phones before but this was nuts :-)


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Another visit to Cubao where I gave bread to some of the street kids. They just enjoyed having their pictures taken 'so' much. I gave bread because I found out that bread was such an important part of the Filipino diet. There are so many different kinds of bread. I wouldn't be suprised to see that there were a hundred different kinds of bread that the Filipinos have. In fact bread is uniquivocable served at 'every' meal.

However, after so many weeks of providing bread to the poor, though it was received with so much appreciation, I can't help but think about how I don't see the poor with fruits. So I've started to carry fresh oranges and bananas with me; though I had an accident or two doing that (transportation on the jeepney's and tricycles is rough and accidents are bound to happen).


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Here A.G. is playing a guitar at one of the small groups. He also is a strong advocate for Kabayan, Benguet; a small town in the Philippines. It's God, he says, that has drawn him to that little community just a few years ago. And now he visits there several weeks a year, bringing visitors in hopes of drawing more attention to the people and the town.

Originally Kabayan, Benguet was not know for much more than a few mummies there and a small museum set up to give visitors a view of those mummies. Now there are many woven handrafts; such as woven bags and baskets.

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Here we have many of the woman in Erap city. As I had mentioned before, most of them had been squatters in Quezon city. When their husbands weren't working they would come to. We had a meeting with them every week which served as a source of encouragement for them. Here we distributed money for most of the kids that were going to school. This also made it easy to distribute any extra food that we might have collected in Manila.


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Do you see the board propped against the wall behind the old man? Setting up that board on top of the red stand (which looks like a fence) in front of this gentleman is one of the ways this gentleman and his family have a livelihood. That board is actually a pool table that neighbors come by to play pool on.

And that red fence?; well there is a rooster under there. I wonder how the rooster feels having pool played over his head all day long? Hmm, is the rooster trained to peck at the legs of competitors to distract them? :-)


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Up on the telephone poles are the meters that are used for measuring the electricity in Erap City. I was told the reason these meters are way up there is because there were problems with the poor taking the meters and selling them.

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A typical day of working in Erap City. I helped build some of the cement walls that are being put up here for their beautification project.

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While the He Cares volunteers were working about a hundred meters down, I found these guys trying to dig a well. I figure, God gave me hands to help anyone no matter who it is. So I took a break from helping the folks with HeCares and instead started helping these guys. I am the 'larger' guy with the white towel tucked under the green hat.


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Here in this world, there is no such thing as women's work or men's work. Here in this world everyone does what they can, when they can. The smallest child carries cement blocks, the largest man sweeps the floor the house, the most feminine woman shovels dirt. Call me old fashioned, but I think this is the way God made us. To work together, to care for each other in a way that has substance, without adhering to customs and traditions. Put societal norms in a bag, go against the grain, love one another.


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So, you want to see how you fix a hole in a sewage pipe? Well first you get a little kid to use his small hands to dig out the excess dirt, then you cut a plastic coke bottle to the shape of the pipe. Then you cover the pipe and pour cement on top of it, and viola!


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This, and many other markets around the Philippines are where you go to buy fresh fish, vegetables, eggs, and even a broom, a plastic bucket or a pair of sandals.

Be sure to see below for Part II of my adventures in the Philippines. If you enjoy these or have any other questions about my trip, just drop me a line.



posted by Timothy at 5/23/2006 11:04:00 PM

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