Manila A mix of emotions!

I have arrived 'home' from Manila! And what an experience it was! I had previously been to Manila once but only saw part of it - the 'nice' part: the malls, hotels, restaurants etc... My opinion of Manila was slightly distorted and I was often thinking why do people complain and say it is so bad and how nice it is to live out here in the province! However, that was because my orginial version of Manila was not a true reflection of the sheer poverty and overcrowding I witnessed on my second visit!

I was introduced through my church to meet up with a pastor out here who was running a pre-school for the disadvantaged children of Manila. Great! I though a good opportunity to witness the 'real' Manila. His school called City Gates Academy only accepts the poorest of the poor! Their philosophy is that through education children can get themselves out of poverty. Only 1 in 10 children from slum areas will ever complete elementary (Primary) school!! As it is summer vacation there were no classes but I was able to get involved in the selection of new pupils! In order to make sure only those in greatest need receive the education the team at City Gates complete home visits and conduct an assessment. Because their school is so good many people will claim to be poor in order to send their children. What I witnessed was truly heart breaking and then on top of that to have to sit there and assess their 'possessions' just felt so unjust. One of the questions I had to answer was "ratio of family to house" Basically was their house "large, enough, small or none". How could I answer? All of the houses were small!! And yet many times I was circling 'enough' because each person had a space to sleep therefore it was enough! The house in the picture had 2 adults, 7 children and the mother was pregnant. Their house was 'small' and only slighly bigger than my kitchen at home (those of you who have seen it will no it is small!!!!). There was no furniture: bed, table etc... I was sitting on a log to complete the assessment. Inside was a simple wardrobe. So hard to understand and comprehend and that night as the rain was coming in all I could do was think of that poor family. 

I have been thinking a lot about how I will feel when I come home and experiencing 'culture shock' when faced with all our luxuries but Manila provided me with that experience 3 months early! From leaving the slums we went to the mall. Clean, air condition, expensive, bounteous in food! I have never been in a more affluent, clean shopping centre makes ours look small and dirty! From one extreme to another, it was hard to be there. Part of me just wanted to scream and the injustice and the other part recognised comforts of home and so my mind was in constant battle. I am so thankful for Glenn and Nadette they really ministered to me during this time and helped me deal with these conflicts. They also taught me to enjoy Manila too! Hence the Karaoke! They are 2 of the greatest people and we had a lot of laughs - mainly to my expense!!! I now have really seen Manila - the good, the bad and the ugly and these experiences will stay with me forever.

Easter Celebration

Firstly apologies for not updating my blog recently! Things have been very very busy here!! 

Easter here is a big celebration without the commercialism of home. It has been really refreshing and a good way to remind us about what Easter is truly about. No Easter bunny or Easter eggs here! In the Philippines Easter is a national holiday too and they all get Good Friday off. Its one of only 2 days (the other being Christmas Day) where everything is closed: malls, ferries, shops etc... Many Filipino's take the opportunity to spend time with their families and escape the cities for the coast. Being on an island away from Manila a lot of people passed through Calapan, there was a great holiday feeling!! Weather was helpful too lots of sunshine to get everyone in the mood! 

We had a wonderful time together on Easter Sunday. At Ruel we had a huge community meal where all the volunteer staff of Ruel and all the children shared together. We brought all the tables and high chairs outside and enjoyed a huge spread and no rice in sight! See pictures of kids and Bertie enjoying their Easter dinner! Was a typical English/New Zealand/Canadian dinner!! We spent time in the day preparing cooking at least 100 spuds! Well at least it felt that many when peeling! As a very special treat Jason brought back from Manila some ham - impossible to get here in Calapan! It tasted soooooo good! Even the next day in sandwiches and omelette's!!! We also made lots of jellies of all different colours - the children had great fun trying them all! For many it was the first experience of jelly! It was a great evening spending time with friends and family. We have been very lucky past few weeks as Jason and Theresa have had lots of visitors of friends and family. It is always great to meet new people from all over the world! 

Back to 'work' now after the Easter break, I say work but when you are doing what you love every day it really doesn't feel like that! Often find it hard to believe I am actually here doing this! Plan to paint a nice big Hungry Caterpillar this afternoon! Looking forward to it. Next week I head to Manila with the important task of buying new toys for the orphanage I can't wait!!