All set for the outreach

Our group is all set for the coming Feb 4 outreach. I am happy because of the outpour of people who wanted to help us in this activity. A lot of our friends and officemates were gracious enough in giving money, effort, prayers just to push through with the activity. We’ve even solicited more than enough for the scholarship program of PEARLS. My boss donated money for one scholar, which made me really happy. :-)

We called ourselves D' HOPEfulls for obvious reasons. We have high hopes for this country and for the Filipinos. This is the first activity of our group and we wanted to do more. We do not look at the little effort, only the big impact it could create.

Last week, with the help of our very passionate and able friends, we were able to pack the hygiene kits for 200 kids. We will distribute this on Feb 4. The kit contains shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush, face towel, etc. which the kids in Ulingan could use everyday.

This week, we taught Origami (the art of folding paper) to our group and the other volunteers who will join us during the outreach. We will teach this to the kids of Ulingan. What I like about Origami is that it keeps you focus and "no scissors needed" as what I usually say.

Origami...cranes, balls...we will also teach them how to make paper box so that they could put the cranes and the balls in it.

As of today, we still continue to receive donations and pledges. We told them about Project PEARLS so that even though we're done with the Feb 4 outreach, help and assistance will still continue to pour. We also told them about the Saturday feeding program which they could regularly participate in.

Again, thank you Sidney Snoeck for introducing PEARLS to us. You are are blessing to us. I am also in great awe for what you have been doing for the Filipino and for this country. Thank you!

A day with the Ulingan Kids, please support us!

We will sponsor one Saturday for the Ulingan Kids in Tondo on February 4. Please help us raise the funds we need. We will also distribute hygiene kits to 200 kids for them to use.

All proceeds will go to Project Pearls. To know more about their programs and their advocacy, please visit their site at: www.projectpearls.org

I miss being with the kids

I just came from an outreach that my DGroup conducted recently in a rehab center in Taguig. I love doing outreach activities for the kids. I think more than the help I could give and the time I could spend with them, they are giving me much more than I could offer. Spending time with them, seeing the smiles on their faces, and feeling their gratitude as if we have already given them the future (when in fact it was just a day)…is the most rewarding feeling which I could not contain. It's like I wish I could give them more...

This February, a friend, OKI is organizing another outreach activity. She’s eyeing the Pearl Project as the beneficiary. We first saw and learned about it through Sidney. Oki is already based in Japan and will return in March so hopefully everything goes smoothly before she leaves the country.

I have been alone with you inside my mind

I am addicted to the horrible pain of wanting somone so unattainable.

------

You could see me reaching...so why couldn't you have met me half way? ~ Incubus

You’ve been very busy lately you didn’t even notice I was watching you closely

When I was in Suwon, I walked the long road from the International Technical Cooperation Center (the place where we stayed) to the E-mart. It was a 15-20 minute walk. To get there, I had to climb an overpass. Half way through the overpass, I lingered and savored the moment. From there I could see the Suwon traffic and realized how busy life has been that sometimes I forget to stop and smell the air. It was an interesting sight, a bit different from the typical, chaotic, bustling Manila traffic. In Korea, it was all too orderly, spacious and less flurry. It rained a few hours ago so the street was wet and the air was fresh. I could have stayed there for hours but I had to buy groceries.

---------
Yesterday, Pat, Etch and I went to the hospital to visit our godchild who has been suffering from leukemia. He’s turning 2 this October and he’s been sick since he was a baby. His mother was talking to us about his condition and all the time I was staring at my godchild and I wanted to cry. His body was covered with blisters—a manifestation that he’s suffering inside. I was thinking, all his life he has known nothing but the feeling of physical pain. I think pain is the only thing he recognized. For awhile, I sincerely wished I could have at least have half of his pain…or maybe we, the godparents, could take a piece of his pain and bear them instead of him. Geezus, he is just a child. I’ve been praying hard these days. Mr. Brightside taught me how to pray. I used to pray but it was all too selfish…it’s all about me and how to deal with my own demons. Now, it’s all about other people and their happiness.

Unmindful

I spotted two kids in front of the church, sitting on the ground, playing with dirt...oblivious of their surrounding.

----------

"Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.” - E. Hoffer

Kissing

I had fun taking this photo at a children's party. I don't know who thought of this game but the kids need to kiss their partners for a few seconds in order to get the pot money. It turned out that some of the participants are both boys.

This image was taken using my old (and still very reliable) Nikon F55 35mm SLR. The image was scanned from the printed image.

------

Sandstorm

The wind carries with them a sand full of fears and doubts. The sand was too harsh for their young heart, still soft and untried. It was a strong wind carrying clouds of sand and dust through the air, but they were happy. In high spirits, they were glad to have received them.

------

Happy when you're HAPPY

A group of happy kids I bumped into while languidly traversing the rock-strewn street going to Brgy. Matolong in Pangasinan. They looked happy to see me in the same way that I was pleased to have met them.

---------

School for the Wireless

When I was in Davao City, I chanced upon this elementary school which was just a few steps away from our accomodation. It's called "Paaralang Elementarya ng Wireless" (Wireless Elementary School). The name amused me. I was curious to know the history so that me and a fellow photographer dawdled and asked the locals about the name. Unfortuntely, no one could tell us why the school was named "wireless". We should have entered the school ground and asked the teachers but then again we have some place else to go.

Students entering the "wireless" school ground.

"Wireless" students cross the street.

--------

Looking at things in parts

There was a time when I really thought that I could hold the world in my hand. A time wherein I thought I could fool everyone into believing that life is easy to navigate once you are equipped, you have a compass in one hand to provide direction and the brain and the guts to go on your way. I thought that every human being although unique in their own way, has always been kind. And that they reciprocate. I guess I was reading too much crap.

You know how they say, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”? It is logical. It’s how the universe works most of the times (if not all times). We comprehend things by its totality not by its parts. In my case, I like to see (appreciate) things in parts. That way, I don’t miss the little details that to others may seem trivial. Say, this flower for instance. I could have just taken a shot of the whole flower instead I zoomed in the petals which made me appreciate the role of the dews and how they accentuated the flower. But looking at things in parts has its downside too. One is bound for misunderstanding as one sees only the other side.

When we were in Kayangan Lake in Coron, Palawan a few weeks back, I was watching this Danish girl sitting in one of the rocks, playing with a school of flying fish. Her feet were floating on the water while the fishes prick her legs. It must be subtle because she never complained. Her mom was beside me on the bench, watching her too. A few minutes later, she cried and said that the fish bit her. She was speaking in Danish, I just got it from her actions. The little girl was pinpointing the sting on her leg, it's how I knew she was bitten. So what’s my point? My point is, never trust your instinct too much. Mine’s have always not been that reliable. Being stung is okay, but getting another one and not learning from it, is a huge sin.

I have been very vocal about my preference for taking photos of people, the human face in particular. It’s the best canvas in the world. The human face tells you deep emotion without having teh aid of words. Most of the time, the trick is in the eyes. We met Honey, the little girl in the photo, when we went in Coron. She is the grand daughter of our boatman. She and her aunt (almost her age) accompanied us during the trip to the islands. Her face interested me the moment I saw her. She rarely smiles, could it be because we were strangers to her and our group was really noisy that she rarely gave me a look. Her eyes speaks a lot, though. I had at least a whole series of her shots most them looking away, and there were a very few times that I caught her smile. And her smile was not even meant for me. One big, genuine smile is (so) rare to find these days.

--------

Children of Siem Reap (Part 1) ...and a postscript

All grown-ups were children first. (But few remember it).

- Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

I rarely remember my childhood days. But I do remember crying on top of a covered manhole which is located a few walks away from the gate of our house in Los Baños, Laguna. I was nine and my mother scolded me for something I could not recall right now. That was my idea of leaving home. Thinking that my mother would be sorry for what she did to me and beg me to come home, I stayed there for hours. But no one came for me. Eventually, I had to come home because I was afraid of the dark. Note, the word “was” I AM NO LONGER AFRAID OF THE DARK.

When I was in Siem Reap I learned how the word ‘childhood’ means so little to Cambodians.

The population of Cambodians right now is about 13+ million. With a country size of 69.9 sqm which is almost as big as Quezon City (64.2 sqm), considered to be the most populous city in the Philippines where I work right now and has been living for 6 years, 13+ million people is quite a lot. Quezon City has a population of 2.2 million only.

A great percentage of the population of Cambodia comprises of young people. These young people make up for a great chunk of their total labor force. I don’t have the statistics but being there in Cambodia will pretty much tell you about the living conditions of these children. In the touristy areas of Siem Reap, you will likely to encounter a horde of children working as vendors. And we’ve met quite a few of them. In fact, we’ve met a pack of them!

Quite frankly, these children are not on their top form. Most of them are emaciated and toasted. For such a young age, they look weathered-beaten already. They speak to you in broken English, but you’ll be amazed by the fluidity of how they converse with such an ease. We’ve met quite a few children who speak much better English than I do. I am drag in conversational English really. I'd keep my mouth shut most of the time. Children who can speak English are definitely of much advantage when it comes to this kind of business because they can easily yank tourists to eat in their resto or to enjoin them to buy one of their goods.

They seem to be happy talking to us. Filipinos are like their Asian twin. They even revive our songs and put Cambodian lyrics into it, which I find utterly amusing. We look like them in almost every way. I guess, it helps to look like them because when we haggle, they give in. They know we come from a poor country too. (yah, yah)

In the faces of these children, we saw the different facets of life and poverty. A face toughened by adversities and the will to survive. I was touched, I got angry, I was fed-up, I was emotionally battered, but amidst it all, I was never surprised. The feeling is (so) familiar but I have never gotten used to it. I will never be used to it. What bothers me more is that, it’s happening anywhere else. The Philippines is not a greenhorn to this issue.

This girl practically followed me around. We met her in one of the temples we've visited, Ta Phrom I think. I was trying to ignore her (among the other vendors) and instead, I said the word "later" to her, hoping I could shoo her away. Little did I know that she was damn serious about the idea of "later". She came up to me right after we went out of the temple. Children often remind grown-ups the meaning of "promise" and I had to keep it. I bought three pieces of her native bracelets. I get to keep one, the other two I gave to Oki and our tuk-tuk driver. I also bought the flute she was selling.

These are a group of kids we met during one of our stopovers. Lyn and Oki spotted this Cambodian delicacy being sold at the side of the street. It looks like our tupig here, but much bigger. It is rice cake stuffed with something inside. I didn't eat so I really can't tell you much of what it tastes like.

I call him the 'dolla kid'. We met him in Tonle Sap. Lyn bought a bunch of banana and gave him the one dollar bill which he instinctively rolled and kept.

These are a group of kids asking for 'contribution' . I forgot what for but they have brochures (in English) with them to explain. I didn't get one, but I remembered I gave something. We met them while we enter Pre Rup temple.

Three cuties enjoying the shade of the mango tree. We met them in Lolei temple. I gave some of them our candies (hehe, menthol pa!). That's all we can afford to give for free.

Kids in Cambodia are pretty much used to tourists wanting their photos. The 'peace sign' is almost part of that photo routine. These kids are playing near the road going to Neak Pean temple.

-------------

[Postscript: Batanes the Movie]

I went to see Batanes the movie on its opening night last Wednesday. Oki is pretty much busy these days with her Accountancy review so I wasn't able to drag her with me to watch the movie. I went to see it in Trinoma. It was my first time to try out that particular cinema house so I got a bit excited. The place was like any other cinema houses in Greenbelt or Glorieta except that the chairs are much cozier. Really, I could snooze in there.

Mitch texted me yesterday and asked me how did I find the movie. This is pretty much what I told him. The movie is a love story. It's a given. And movies with a theme like that is pretty much predictable so to speak, so don't expect too much, which I did. I came to watch because of three things: 1) They used Batanes as a background for the film. I haven't been to Batanes, I have been aching to go there so watching the movie will at least give me a glimpse of the feeling of how it is to be there. 2) My old time friend, Crim is a native of the Isle of Batan that's another reason. 3) The movie is inter-racial.

Overall, I got what I came there to watch. Well, pretty much. I have three things to say about the movie: 1) Batanes is a BEAUTIFUL place. Enough said. I will have to go there. This year. Or not. Definitely next year. I will, I will. 2) I like how the directors (Adolfo Alix Jr. and Dave Hukom) used the different faces/aspects of the sea as the central theme of the plot. After watching it, I am looking at the sea (a bit) differently now. Both scared and blissful. 3) I like the ending. Totaly, indie. Not spoon-feeding. It made the plot a bit unpredictable, shying away from the "...and they live happily after" typical ending. The audience get to decide. Did Ken Zhu and Iza Caldo ended up together? Take a wild guess. Let us ask the sea. :-)