excursions to the urban poor.

here we are again and i am starting to feel like time is speeding past me. which is exceptionally strange given that just a few weeks ago I was counting down the minutes and seconds of every single day until I could leave.
There are a few reasons for this i believe. First is my excursion over the weekend to ZOTO. ZOTO stands for the 'Zone One Tondo Organisation', which is an organisation here in the Philippines that, and I quote "is a federation of local urban poor organizations from relocation sites and areas for demolition. It organizes urban poor communities to build and rebuild their lives, turn shanties into empowered communities." Their website is here

This basically means that they work with the urban poor communities with disaster relief amongst other things. So my community organising class and i set out in our little bus to the office of this organisation. We sat in their community school room and were given a few videos to watch about the organisation. Specifically their work with the 'Bat People' who are people whose houses hang underneath bridges because they have nowhere else to go.


The second specific group we watched video's about were those who lost their houses in this past year to Typhoon Pedring. These families are currently living on basketball courts, each court housing around 85 families in the evacuation centers. The government currently wants them to move so they can have access to the courts again for basketball season, however these families have nowhere else to go.

So we split into groups and headed out to see these communities first hand.
Our first stop was to the shanty towns by the river, and to see the 'bat people'.
My first impression was that it reminded me greatly of the favellas in Brazil that i visited this time last year. The kids here however were covered in dirt from dead to toe, some not fully clothed, but all finding amusement within the simplest of things, and every child had a smile to give as you walked past. It was endearing to see the resilience in the kids even with their extreme poverty.
It got me thinking though about how much of our happiness within western cultures is dependent on our material objects. These families still have one another and with that they certainly get by. The other parallels that i could draw from this in comparison to the short time i spent working with the homeless communities in melbourne, and the ultimate difference i can see here between the individuals is that here in the Philippines, no matter what their is alot more support from families and no matter what they stick together. It is ultimately all about family over here.




The second place we went was to several of the evacuation sites. It was honestly shocking to see the amount of families that were squeezed into such a small area, and had been living that way since september 2011. the majority of the kids are not going to school anymore because getting to school now takes too long and is too expensive for transport, and with a lot of them being fisherman, have also lost alot of their livelihood.

The kids here really enjoyed having us come visit, and we were given alot of thankyou's by people as we walked past. They saw our being there as a sign of more help coming their way. The kids taught Tania how to play a hand clapping game, and every single kid that saw me with my camera asked politely and enthusiastically if they could have their picture taken. They had no interest in seeing the picture, but they got such pleasure in thinking that they were immortalised in film. I would show them the pictures i just took and they would giggle over their poses and then jump into a new pose.

With these experiences i remembered again why i got into social work and how incredibly rewarding it would be to work in this type of area, and bringing out more hope in those families who literally have nothing, except that glimmer of hope in their eyes and the fire in their bellies that makes them want to change their lives for the better.

Monday for lunch I went with Tania to go meet up with our German friends, Mara and Hannah. It was so lovely to catch up as we hadn't seen each other since before christmas. We also decided to take some weekend trips with each other down to Boracay and to swim with the whale sharks. Woo :) I love weekend trips!!

Tuesday came around and after having a toothache and sensitive teeth for almost a week, i headed to the dentist at the UP medical center. After waiting around an hour and a half in the waiting room they let me in. I was taking into a small cubicle office where she grabbed out the little mirrors to look at my teeth. She said she couldn't see anything wrong with them, but they would take a small xray just to make sure everything was ok underneath the gums.

I got led into a small room which to me resembled a small laundry or perhaps an older bathroom. there was hand towels hanging to dry in one corner and a sink below. They put the xray film in my mouth and took the picture.

After looking at the xray she said everything was fine, it might be that i am grinding my teeth in my sleep (as i used to do often) and am making them sensitive. It's likely. So she let me keep my xray and after paying a whole 80 pesos for the xray and appointment (equivilent of around $2) i was on my way.

Tania and i then spent the rest of the day finishing writing and recording a video of a song we wrote for our uni friends and uploading it. clearly a productive day.

Now here we are, and there are several things for me to look forward to this week, volunteering again this weekend with the children victims of militarisation, going to some waterfalls, dropping a class, and monday morning we are going to see a photography exhibition taken by young girls who are in a safe house after being sexually trafficked (a workshop our housemate has been doing on her placement).


So off I go now, peace out hombre!

Much love B xoxox


P.s. the uploading of photos on here is being incredibly annoying, so I will upload them later seperately, before i go crazy...you know more so than i already am.