Last Wednesday I went on an excursion trip to Smokey Mountain II, the area where waste is disposed, at the Manila bay. Smokey Mountain I was a famous icon in the Philippines in the 80s and 90s, plenty of photographers went there to show the extreme poverty and inhumane living conditions to the world. Seeing its controversy (there are people here who are as rich “as the ocean is deep”, others are starving), the government decided to strip it down (that was in 2002). They built housing blocks for the people that lived on the mountain, but the living conditions are pretty bad there and they didn’t think of relatives and friends of those people coming down to Manila as well… turns out that those housing blocks could not house all the people (and it’s expensive for them: the rent is about 20 euro per month, but those people only make 35 to 55 euro per month- when they’re lucky). So people had to move to the new dumping site, known as Smokey Mountain II. Around 12.000 people live there now, and more keep coming in every day.
When we arrived, we saw plenty of trucks full of garbage standing on a muddy dirt road, waiting to unload the trash on field next to it. Yuichi, my housemate, works for a Japanese NGO (ACCE) and they have a partner organisation on Smokey Mountain, so we first head out to their centre: a shack in the middle of the living compound, with no electricity during daytime and with a tin roof, hot as hell. Getting there was a bit of an adventure: we had to walk over a shabby wooden plank to get over the creek (full of garbage) and then through small alleys (not really alleys, they could fit 1 person), swarming with flies. In the NGO’s centre ( serves as a main office, school, medical centre, entertainment area, …), they explained us the history of Smokey Mountain and the poor people of the Philippines. Most people living there, scavenge for a living i.e. going through the garbage that the trucks dump there and look for anything worth selling. They make around 50 to 70 pesos a day (around 80 cents to 1 euro). As they work in the informal sector, they have no social security, no health insurance, no job security. They mostly eat “pag pag”: tossed away food they find in the garbage, dust off (that’s the “pag pag”) and fry it again. According to a recent study, people should earn 500 pesos a day just to survive here, put their kids to public school and provide for food and housing… You can imagine what conditions those people live in. We went to see the field where the garbage was disposed, people were going through it, looking for something pricy.
What struck me most was not the despair, but the hope of these people. They still have dreams, can laugh and hope for the best. They were not poor… because poor is the one who has no heart. May their dreams one day be fulfilled!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Bastille Day
The best, best, best treat in a long time: we got invited for Bastille day!
We got dressed up, hopped in the car at 6 o’clock and drove off to the Sofitel hotel, where the festivities for the French national holiday would be held. When we arrived, we saw really high society people, impressive cars, lots of security and big, German Sheperds, just the teensiest bit scary (as if!). Although we looked really fancy, we were totally underdressed compared to the others: people were wearing gowns and tuxedos or business suits… it made us feel a bit uneasy (just until after the first glass of champagne, haha!)
We went in and started mingling. After the speeches, we turned around to enter the buffet: It was designed to make you drool like a dog: camembert, brie, chaumes, roquefort, paté, rosette de lyon and other nice salami, pain de campagne, lamb chops, gratin dauphinois, red cabbage and a dessert buffet that would make anyone envious: crème brulée, milles feuilles, chocolat mousse, little tarts with strawberries, éclairs, … . We sat down at a table (after cleaning out the buffet) and started talking to people there, they said to us: “sorry, can’t talk now, have to concentrate on eating”. Haha! I think that’s how everyone felt! After the food, we watched the fireworks outside, talked to some people but mainly gazed at what the others were wearing and giving comments (we were too full to go and dance, haha!).
On Sunday I held a “Heroes” marathon, I watched the whole first season (not that I planned too, it was just too thrilling to stop watching it) and prepared for another week at work.
We got dressed up, hopped in the car at 6 o’clock and drove off to the Sofitel hotel, where the festivities for the French national holiday would be held. When we arrived, we saw really high society people, impressive cars, lots of security and big, German Sheperds, just the teensiest bit scary (as if!). Although we looked really fancy, we were totally underdressed compared to the others: people were wearing gowns and tuxedos or business suits… it made us feel a bit uneasy (just until after the first glass of champagne, haha!)
We went in and started mingling. After the speeches, we turned around to enter the buffet: It was designed to make you drool like a dog: camembert, brie, chaumes, roquefort, paté, rosette de lyon and other nice salami, pain de campagne, lamb chops, gratin dauphinois, red cabbage and a dessert buffet that would make anyone envious: crème brulée, milles feuilles, chocolat mousse, little tarts with strawberries, éclairs, … . We sat down at a table (after cleaning out the buffet) and started talking to people there, they said to us: “sorry, can’t talk now, have to concentrate on eating”. Haha! I think that’s how everyone felt! After the food, we watched the fireworks outside, talked to some people but mainly gazed at what the others were wearing and giving comments (we were too full to go and dance, haha!).
On Sunday I held a “Heroes” marathon, I watched the whole first season (not that I planned too, it was just too thrilling to stop watching it) and prepared for another week at work.
The beach getaway
In the weekend of 6th till 8th July Nana and I went to Davao for Sheila (Nana’s sister) and Rage’s wedding. Friday we spent the whole day in Davao, going for lunch, shopping, relaxing, meeting Nana’s family (they are so nice, really great people!) and telling family tales. Saturday morning we had to get up early, get washed and dress up for the wedding: first we drove to the church where Sheila and Rage exchanged vows, and then we were of to the boat that took us to Samal Island, a beach resort just 15 minutes from Davao. We stayed in this resort called Paradise island, and it was!!! We had lots of fun swimming, tanning and mostly eating! There was chicken barbeque, a lechon de leche (a roasted pig – this one wasn’t really leche anymore, it weighed 11 kilos- but still tender and good), a great chocolate cake, sashimi, …). And on Sunday morning room service for the 1st time in my life: Pancakes with strawberry jam and syrop + a cappuccino. DELICIOUS! We spend almost the whole day on the beach again, listening to Nana tell funny stories of her trips abroad, playing with Reema and Kallee (Nana’s nieces), and getting mangosteen and the sweet pomelo Davao is famous for. On Sunday night we flew back (temporarily stressed out though: our plane was delayed due to engine problems, and then when we went in, we sat on the 2nd row and I kept thinking (it was too freezing cold to sleep!!!) “if we crash, we’ll die too since we’re so close to the cockpit!” Fortunately, we arrived safely in Manila past midnight. And then it was just another work week, sweating over the new program 2008-2010 that we need to finish before I’m off to India in August and there’ still loads to do…
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