Well, I’ve been in the Philippines now for just under a week... and what a busy week it’s been! I’ve had the chance to check out a lot of what my friend John has been up to during his year here, and it’s been amazing to see and experience it with him!
One of the things that we have done has been feeding programs in an area of Metro Manila called Sucat. The people that John works with in this area are from a squatting community who live in a shanty town. We’ve been out there twice now to provide meals for the kids and youth in this area as well as to visit with the families and just hang out and play with the kids. One thing about here in the Philippines is that the people here are not very tall... I am. Within about two minutes of being with the kids I had a nickname and became very popular. I have a feeling I will forever be known in that area as “Big Show.” Yeah. The second day that we went to this community the kids were yelling “Big Show! Big Show!” before we even made it to the community. It was a lot of fun to hang out with these kids and to see the joy that can be in their lives when people take the time to show them that someone cares about them.
The other main thing that we have been doing this last week has been the Day Care program that John works with at the church just around the corner from his apartment. (It’s actually a church started by International Teams and actually was his apartment for the first couple of months he lived here...) This program was started to serve the children and families of a very low income squatting/shanty community in this area of Metro Manila known as Makati. There are about 15 kids who come out to the day care program every morning of the week but Sunday and Monday. This program is free to the people in this community and also acts as a school for the children. Every morning there are games, songs, lessons and a snack. These kids are SOOO much fun!! Within minutes of the first time I came they were again, climbing all over me, amazed at my height. On Saturday I got to experience something truly amazing with a group of these kids. A field trip. We got to take 10 of the young kids (probably around age 3-6) to a children’s museum and to Manila Ocean City Aquarium. Chaos!! One of the kids, Lawrence, screamed and cried the whole way to the museum, yelling over and over again, non-stop in Tagalog, “I don’t want to be here! I don’t want to be here!” and as soon as we got there it looked like he had the best time in his life! He was all over the place in the museum and so wide-eyed and excited at the aquarium!
The kids (and adults) had an amazing time at the museum, but there is no other word to describe it than Chaos! The kids were running all over the place, getting in to trouble everywhere, making as much noise as possible... so much fun!! At one point in time they found a giant piano that you walk on to make it play and the kids just went crazy!! The one girl, Alli, just laid on her back and started rolling around on it with the BIGGEST grin on her face! Jet Jet (yes, his name is Jet Jet) just started stomping, Princess was just ridiculous... they all had so much fun, it was amazing to see!!
Also in a rain forest exhibit some of the kids must have thought that they were in a real forest seeing as how the one walked to the edge of the path and started peeing on the fake rocks... haha.
After the museum we took them to Manila Ocean City... it was packed, so we made sure that each adult had two kids each and they were not to let go of their hands AT ALL. However, myself and a new friend of mine, Tin Tin only got one kid each... not so much of a good thing though. We got the trouble makers! Tin Tin got the short stick and had to watch Bernadetd who is the most ADHD inside child EVER but SOOO cute and fun! And I got Princess. Lets just say that when all the other kids were exhausted and too tired to walk by the end of the day, Princess was still ready to go cause I had no other choice but to carry her through the whole aquarium. The one time that I did try to put her down, she was gone and trying to “pet” the sharks... yup, hand in the shark tank... And poor Tin Tin... she let go of Bernadetd once and she took off running... haha... good times. It was crazy, but it had to be one of the funnest days I’ve had with kids in a long time.
Other than the ministry stuff that I’ve been helping with we’ve gotten to see a bit of Manila as well. I went to Asia’s biggest mall the other day. Saw Inception at the Imax, found a watch I saw in Paris for over $600 and bought it here for $100. Every weekend at MOA (Mall of Asia) they have fireworks that put our Canada Day fireworks to shame. Today we went to the up scale, fancy pants mall where they have only Prada and those types of stores and went to a restaurant called “Bubba Gumps” ...Forest Gump themed. And later tonight for supper we’ll probably go somewhere I’ve been looking forward to going to for over a year now... The Hobbit Hole. It’s a restaurant where... wait for it... it’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Themed, and everyone that works there is apparently a Pilipino midget, dressed as a Hobbit! SOOO would not fly in our culture!!!
After today I only have two more days here in the Philippines and then I head back to Paris for a day on Wednesday night and then finally back home. I can not believe that I’ve been traveling now for this long. I left Canada one month ago today, although it does not feel at all like it’s been a month! ...if I could start again at the first day we landed in Paris, I would for sure do the whole thing over again right now... would probably leave Sarajevo right away and go to Croatia or something for that week, but I wouldn’t turn down another month of traveling for anything.
Well... only a few more days left to go... Thanks for reading, and I’ve sure I’ll have a few more things to write about in the next 5 days before I land in Toronto.
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