Mugundang Gabi! Or good evening!
Wow. What a huge past couple
of days. Thursday - we travelled to Santa Mesa (where the Manila Bahay
Tuluyan Centre is) and had language training in the morning, and learnt
some basics to help us at our homestay. Like delicious (Masarab)and
toilet (CR - comfort room).
Members of our family picked us up
after lunch, and Rowena (my homestay mum) collected me and 8 of our
group travelled together by our first public jeepney* to the area that
the families lived (a poor town in Manila).
*The public jeepneys
are an experience - you look at the windscreen for a card with the name
of the town you want to go to and then you climb in the back while it
is stopped (usually just because the traffic is slow, not because they
have specific stops) then you pay the driver 7.50 peso (about 20c) by
passing the money through the passengers to get it to the driver.
We
then each went to our respective 'houses', moving through small alleys
of doorways - the pavement wet from people washing their clothes and
themselves on the street, and littered with rubbish* and poo (from
children and animals) and while you are watching your feet dodging
rubbish, holes and grates - I had to watch my head, because I am a
giant to them, usually 2 heads taller!
*the rubbish is a huge problem - no one is taught to put their rubbish in the bin, they just throw it anywhere.
My
family consisted of one father - Ding (54), his son Christopher (25)
and his wife Rowena (20) and their two kids K-Ann (3) and R-Jay (1).
His other son and his wife, and a nephew and his wife also stayed there
(the others also in their 20's).
The house was three stories -
with the floor space probably 3m wide x 8m long. The bottom floor was
the lounge room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom* and Ding's bedroom.
The next floor up (after climbing very steep, scary stairs) was bedroom
for the two other couples, and then the third floor was the room for
Chris, Rowena, the kids and me.
*The bathroom was terrifying! It
is in a room 1m x 2m and filled with drums of water they collect (they
don't have running water) and there is always an inch of water on the
ground, and then there is a squat toilet squashed in between it all!
They don't use toilet paper, so you have to carry tissues and then put
them in the bin later. I'm going to get some good squat muscles by the
time I am home!
Ding and Rowena spoke english quite well,
while the kids didn't speak any - and didn't know I couldn't understand
them talking alot in Tagalog!
Rowena and I went to the market to
buy dinner. They have meat out like they do vegetables - with no
refridgeration, so I was scared it would be unsafe. We bought fish for
tea and pork. Vegetarianism doesn't exist in the Philippines - if you
ask for vegetables, it means vegetables with meat!
Ding is a
great cook and dinner was very good. No one would let me help, or even
wash my plate afterwards, and they would serve mine first, and would
wait for me to finish before serving themselves.
I slept with the
family on the floor - with a pillow and a sheet. A hard floor isn't
very comfortable and with the tv blaring past midnight, I didn't sleep
very well.
I woke at 6 and went down for breakfast (Ding said he
cooked breakfast then) and there was fried eggs, scrambled eggs and
rice! He had also brewed good coffee he got as a gift from somebody. I
felt really bad saying I didn't drink coffee, and told him I was
allergic to egg! So my gift of jam was really good, because I had that
with bread for breakfast!
That day, just hanging with family
- no one in the family works except for Rowena's new job at Macdonalds.
I know employment is bad, but they don't seem at all motivated to find
work, or to work, they just sleep and watch tv all day.
Anh's
(one of the girls here) family lived near mine, so she came to pick me
up for lunch. Her family was crazy. 7 kids under 10 years and all in
one room 3m x 3m! she had to come to my house to use the bathroom!
When
I got back home, Ding had also prepared lunch and wanted me to have
his, cos he cooked pork (which is kinda a big deal), so I had two
lunches.
Playing with kids and sleeping before dinner, retreating
to the bedroom early because I was tired, and was very hard making
conversation in broken english.
Next morning (this morning), I
woke up and had breakfast with Ding (the others disapearing somewhere)
and he asked if he could take this opportunity to ask me a favour.
Telling me what he wanted to do with the house to make money and if I
could send money back to him when I got home. He asked for 100 000 peso
- which is roughly over $2100! I was angry on the inside but told him I
wish I could, but we weren't allowed to. I think he understood, but it
ruined the experience for me, because they are given money to take us
(plus more, so the family can eat with us) and we aren't to give them
lots of gifts or money because it sets a bad pattern - thinking every
white person is wealthy or expect the next volunteer to give. And they
are told with the info they are given that it isn't appropriate to ask
for money.
Anyway, had fun with the kids, met Rowena's mother for lunch,
and again had two lunches. K-Ann is so gorgeous. When we walked back to
Shalom (where we are staying), she was playing with me, holding my hand
and then when I had to say goodbye, she wouldn't look at me cos she was
sad I had to leave, and was asking her mum if she could come with me. :(
The
biggest thing that struck me was that I was ready to leave after 2
nights, and they live like that every day! They kept apologising that
they didn't have much, but they don't seem to have the motivation or
drive to do anything different. Rowena is the only one that seems to
have that. She is 20 with two children and had to leave high school one
year early to have K-Ann. She said she wants to finish her education
and become a teacher and I told her that she could still do that -
before realising that she probably can't. I am so used to the
opportunities we have in Australia! She said she has to work, and the
tuition costs too much, so everything she does is for the kids!
So now, we just had a 'debriefing' with everyone and heard their
stories. Everyone's experience was so different! We had pizza which was
a treat, I'm sick of rice already!
And now that I've written an essay (I don't blame you if you skim through it all), I'll say goodbye for now!
xoxo
