I can feel the pain, the feeling of inferiority but the motivation for success and outlook for dreams is very high and will remain high.
They don't look so neat. The children wear stained clothes. Their hair is rough with extra large shirt: too large to be worn by them. The children don't look pleasing. Their skin is full of blemishes which obviously doesn't look like being given a proper care. It is very dry and out of enough conditioning. But in spite of these things that can be seen to them, they have their simple but happy family and the exceptional talent of "bonsai making," an art of making miniature trees in small containers.
At a young age, the children already work for a living - a situation I could not imagine myself doing. They have left the school and have to join their parents in selling their bonsai at around 1 dollar each.
The whole family is living at the slope of an active volcano called Mt. Mayon in the city of Tabaco in the Philippines and this mischievous volcano is a famous tourist attraction in this place because of the volcano's perfect cone shape.
However, the children and their parents have no plans leaving this area within the danger zone of volcanic eruption because it is in this place where tourists go and for this opportunity, they sell their craft to the tourists.
This encounter has taught me great lessons in life that can never be learned from the world's best universities. It is a lesson that can only be learned if you have the passion to help and have eyes that keenly observe -- things that students from PhD schools usually don't have because they are usually focused on learning on how to grow their careers.
This local encounter has changed my life in many things -- on the way I see the world, on the way I see people and on the way I see my self. I learned to value the least asset I have because the least asset can be the biggest asset for some less fortunate people. Thanks for this children, I learned the value of life!
