On Sunday, I arrived at my host family's house, Chris and Aya Chua, in Magallanes Village. They're in their mid-30's, and are pretty well off. I was introduced to more folks the org when we met up, including Roy, the friend of my GSI Funie who helped introduce me to Charity First. The next day, I visited the office in Quezon City and was introduced to the org members and the work I would be doing. After that I toured around the major landmarks and tourist sights in Manila with Chris, Roy, and Al, another person in the organization.
Tuesday I visited Payatas, Quezon City, one of the impoverished neighborhoods consisting of slums and squatter settlements on a garbage dump. I went with Roy, Al, Joey (one of the staff for Charity First), and Brother Efren, another staff member and Payatas Community members. Though I had seen some similar conditions in the previous week I had stayed in Pampanga, I had never seen poverty on this level. Many houses were shacks that were the size of a bathroom. The citizens came together to build a sewer system that the government failed to provide, which is an accomplishment in itself. However, there was trash everywhere, in the sewer and in the street. However, we were able to see what Charity First was doing with the families in this neighborhood. We visited a scholar of Charity First and other women who was given dump materials to reuse and sew into cloths and bags, to give them a source of income. I was not able to go further into the dump site because of time constraints. However, I would see people gathering garbage to reuse, sell, or take back to their homes. Even on the outside, it smelled pretty terrible. Though the people I saw lived in poverty like I had never seen it, they were happy, proud, and had a close knit community. I was glad I got to see them, and I look foward to see them again when I take another visit to the community.
After that I visited a cleft lip and cleft palate clinic in a Chinese General Hospital, a private hospital in Quezon City. Even though it was a private hospital, the lines were still incredibly long. I meet some of the families and and children with cleft lip and palate, which I had never seen before. The families and mothers were especially nice, especially the auntie of one boy named Jomar. The children were also cute, including one boy named Jon Paul.
Wednesday was a very long day. I did home visitations with Joey and one of the other Charity First members to the homes of scholarship applicants in Tondo Manila, one of the other impoverished areas of Manila. These visitations were probably the most depressing aspect of my week. It wasn't just that these students lived in incredible poverty. What really made it sad was the obstacles that these students have that keep them from an education. The first two students lived in the Parolla neighborhood, which consisted of squatter settlements. Houses are shacks stacked on top of each other. As we pulled up a boy was using the bathroom in the middle of the street. As we went through the day, I heard stories of children who's parents abandoned them, of families who live in the railroad squatter settlements who are being displaced by the government, children who are supporting their own families, and other similar stories. I could only make out a little of what they were saying in their interviews, but I could tell how much they all wanted the scholarship. It made me realize how much each of these children deserved the scholarship, and it breaks my heart to realize that they can't all have the scholarships due to the limited financial resources of the organization. But the end of the day, I was just silent and depressed.
Thursday, I stayed in the office, which was a good break, and Friday, I went back to another hospital, where some of the patients, including Jomar, were accepted to get a free cleft lip or cleft palate operation from Charity First and Operation Smile's partnership. In order to be eligible though you have to pass a physical exam that proves you're healthy enough to undergo the operation, which obviously many of the children aren't able to pass because of other ailments and malnourishment. However, it was good and eye-opening experience to meet some more patients, see the conditions of this hospital (a public hospital), and to see and meet more patients, including Jomar and his Tita.
This weekend, I just went with my host family and our friends to Cagayan De Oro to do white water rafting and sightseeing. It was a good break from the week and I look foward to tomorrow, where I'll be interviewed by a bunch of students at a public college that has a partnership with Charity First. I'll also be helping with the organization's dental mission, scholar interviews, and more selling of the Payatas women's materials. I hope you are all well. I miss my family and friends in the states very much, but I am enjoying this trip and the work I'm doing. I miss my squirelly too. Take care and keep in touch.
Peace and love,
Case
Some photos of my trip so far.
view from my lola's house in pampanga
lolo ben, lola, and mom
lola sarying and mom
cousins kyle and ian on the right, and our homie carla on the left
first time meeting charity first
at the Payatas home of melle, one of the scholars, who reuses dump materials provided by Charity First to sow materials and sell with her family
another one of the women in payatas in Charity First's sewing program
people in Payatas who gather together to protect their land from being seized by the government
one of the sowing centers in Payatas
angeles city
