And with the deepest apologies of having neglected you for longer than I normally do.
In my defense I have been epic busy of late, not that it justifies ignoring you lovely people. How about I give you a giant gingerbread cookie, smile sweetly at you and bat my eyelashes and you forgive my abandonment?
Excellent, now that my exceptionally sincere apologies are out of the way, I can explain to you the stories that have kept me busy for the past 10 or so days.
So Thursday I had my class for Community Organising which was taken by who used to be the head of the Social Work department at the university. I had ALOT of frustrations with this class. The first of which was that it was taken in tagalog, and not english. However two students very nicely decided to translate for Tania and I. The only problem was I feel really awkward with them feeling like they need to translate, because it means they are trying to listen to his information and then transform it into another language, then catch up on what they missed him saying while they were busy translating for us. It's alot of work for a 3 hour class, but they are such wonderful people and I always really appreciate it when they do this for us.
So the general jist of the conversation was about how to adapt in new communities, to identify leaders and aid the community to become self sustainable. Which obviously to me this made a lot of sense. However the frustrating thing was the teachers approach to the topic. He began preaching about how we should become the community organisors that Jesus intended us to be, and to be exactly like Jesus, and then talked ALOT about the bible and the plans God has for us.
...Oh I am sorry, I thought this was a university class and not a church sermon, my bad, let me scoot on out of here feeling exceptionally uncomfortable that people are judging my hethen ways.
Church talk aside, there was alot in the rest of what he was saying that resonated with me. That information was about adaptation into a new community, which is ultimately what I have been doing for the past 4 months living here in the Philippines. It's incredibly interesting to hear someone break it down into steps and finding those parallels in your own existence.
Saturday I went with Tania and another girl from our classes to another volunteer day with the children's organisation that I have been with previously. This workshop was to teach children about their rights and of course incorporating the teachings into games and creativity.
We got in there and i spied one little girl staring at us with a cheeky smirk, immediately I knew that I liked her. We tried to converse with her (with the help of a translator) and she had this face full of attitude when our conversation fell flat after our skills of interpretive dance let us down. She was so freaking cute!
Her and her friends would ask me to participate in their group with them, and I would follow and work with them on the tasks. When they weren't paying attention to the speaker and instead staring at tania and I, I would employ charades to tell them to turn around and listen. about the 4th time of doing that, she giggled and repeated my charades moves back at me, haha, cheeky.
I had so much fun playing games with these kids, they were incredible. The next task for them was to write down on pieces of paper what they identified as problems for them. My friend from Uni read out what the kids wrote as indentified problems. Here is what a few of them said
* always hungry
* sleeping on the street
* no money to pay out debts
* no money to buy food
* can't afford to get to school
etc etc. It broke my heart completely. With all the hardship that these kids are going through I realised it didn't matter how resilient they were, because what was happening to these kids was not OK, no matter how resilient they are to still remain kids. What set me over the edge was when they used pictionary to draw what they had written down, and to see a picture portraying violence that they suffer made me want to sit in the corner and weep. I wanted to grab all the kids and hug them. What made me feel even worse was when one of the kids asked me if I was rich. The answer is no, I am a student, but the cold reality is that in comparison to them, I am rich. And in my life I have been incredibly fortunate and it really put a giant perspective on life for me.
Tania made friends with this little boy that would chat away constantly in tagalog and even though he never got a response because we never understood him, he seemed exceptionally content to continue the one sided conversation. There was also a young boy who was about 7 and his grasp on English was amazing. We played a few more games with the kids, took some photo's together and then said our goodbyes.
It is safe to say, that my heart was broken that day, kids should never be exposed to this kind of life. It really is just fate that we are born into fortunate families, or in a fortunate country like Australia. How was it decided that we would be born into this and they were born into this poverty?
That night we went to Cubao expo to hang out with two Aussie boys. It was goodbye drinks for one of them as he had enough of the Philippines. Fair enough too, he copped it harder than any of us fighting his own morals with the strict morals of the church. Well, when the catholic church is handing out pamphlets saying "Condoms spread HIV" and the general consensus in the Philippines that tampons are evil, you can see why at times it would be a struggle when everyone you work with things that you are a hethen for having differing views.
Sunday Tania, Cathy, two of her friends, and I went to Pagsanjan falls. We hopped in a boat and scooted our way over there. We arrived at a lodge and got briefed on the activities of the day and hopped into our little canoes. Having Cath, Tan and I in one little canoe sure was cozy as we were basically sitting in each others laps, and we went down the river singing ridiculous songs at the top of our lungs. We hit some beautiful jungle areas. It was absolutely breathtaking. The greens were brighter than bright, and were surrounded by lush trees, and as Cathy put it "Tarzan jungle vines". It began to rain and the rain fell hard onto the river as the boat men pulled our boat over rocks and rapids. We made it to the falls which, were honestly not the most spectacular falls I have ever seen, but none-the-less were beautiful. We jumped on a little raft and proceeded to get drenched by going under them.
We then jumped back in our canoe and headed back down the river in the rain. The day was just so beautiful that words cannot even describe it, neither can the pictures I took unfortunately.
The next day we went with our other housemate Erin to Miriam college for a photography exhibit. The exhibit was done by the girls that Erin has been working with on her placement. These girls are all victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking now living in a safe house, and they had been taught by Erin about photography. The work was amazing, as was meeting the girls. Tania jumped on her guitar so that two of the girls (aspiring singers) could have the chance to perform two numbers. I was blown away by their talent and their voices and Tan had to hold back some tears. Again, at such a young age children should not experience such a harsh reality to be traded for their bodies, and grow up learning about sex in such a volatile way.
I spent the next few days furiously studying for an exam and finally sitting it on Thursday. I was shitting myself not having a great memory for exams. Turns out nothing we studied in class or revised for was actually on the exam...always handy.
Friday night Tania and I went to the University fair. We made it out in the rain to watch some amazingly talented musicians perform on stage, devouring snow cones and getting mud all over our feet. We checked out the stalls and bought a few goodies, such as books (I bought waiting for godot :P) and other various knick knacks. It was such a fun night out.
Saturday we spent going to the movies to see 'Safe House' as a household outing. At the end of the movie Tania and Erin broke out in some epic hip hop krumping movements under the screen much to the enjoyment of all the cinema staff. It was hilariously funny and I wonder if they teach their moves in classes. Where do i sign up??
Sunday was unfortunate as we had to say goodbye to our hosuemate Erin. Her placement here in the Philippines had come to the end so she was off to spend a week or two on Palawan island to relax. lucky her!! We will definitely miss our token redhead...
and that brings us to today, Monday the 20th of Feb. Only 5 more weeks of classes until I finish the semester and find my self on an island also. Although have amazing weekend trips planned before then :) looking forward to it.
Well, I am exhausted and have a paper that isn't going to write itself (unfortunately, i tried. I asked super politely and everything!)
Much love to all, and speak soon :)
Love B xox
No comments:
Post a Comment