Today we headed out for day two of church visits and home visits!
This one we had to leave the bus parked out on the road and walk down a long driveway to get to the actual church. I kind of like that in a way though because it gives you more time to look at your surroundings - which in this case was several houses and a bunch of roosters. Rooster fighting is pretty big in the Philippines so you tend to see them chained outside peoples homes a lot. Oddly though, I never saw anything actually advertising the fights themselves so I suspect it might be a bit more underground despite the very clear displays of rooster ownership.
When we arrived at the church door we were greeted by project staff who gave us each a medal welcoming us to the church.
There were a few initial presentations, and there were displays around the room with portraits of the programs graduates (people who had previously been sponsored children and are now adults). It had their names, and their current occupations. It was amazing to see how many there were and that they were also still keeping in touch with the project centre. Not only that, but this was only a small number of the graduates - the real number was much larger.
The structure of this day was slightly different in that we did the home visits before having the shared lunch. This was due to the children still being in school, many of whom were sitting exams as it was the end of their school year. The children take their education very seriously so did NOT want to miss a single moment of it - and fair enough!
We divided ourselves once again into the three groups and hopped onto/into the tricycles to go to the homes. This time the home we were visiting wasn't sponsored by anyone from Windsor, but the child did have a sponsor - I believe an American couple. This home visit left all of us with some difficult feelings. The street and neighbourhood were fairly typical of what we had been seeing (although the main road was in much better condition than most) - hundreds of shack-style homes compacted into a small space.
Pic 1 was taken standing outside the house we visited. The other photos were taken nearby.
We had to duck to actually get into the one-room home. Out the front was a small section where the mother sold her home cooking to the neighbours throughout the day. I noticed a bit of discussion happening out the front which the child development worker who was accompanying us nipped out to try sort. I assumed at the time that it was neighbours coming to try buy food but due to the visit there was none available. Sadly, this was not the case. Once we had exited the home and were talking to the CDW while awaiting our tricycles to come she told us that the man who came was from the power company and was there to disconnect their power due to non-payment. The mother had told us during the visit that she was 2 months behind in the power bill but initially I thought she was saying they pay the bill two months after the applicable month (eg, receiving the January bill in March). The CDW had convinced the power man to wait until we left before disconnecting it... sure enough, the very moment we left he hurried up and was back at the house before we were out of sight.
We discussed this situation a lot over the coming days. We all felt for the family, power is such a vital and basic need (that said, many over there don't have it), and if you were to convert the bill into NZD it was likely to be peanuts. The CDW though was discussing it as though this were a fairly common thing to happen. She said the family would likely borrow money from a family member to pay the bill and have it reconnected, which isn't really a great solution long-term as she'd then owe her family money. We did ask if the bill was something we could help with but it's a pretty complex situation.
Anyway, back to the church we went! I think our sub-group were the first ones back so we had some time to wander and look at the pictures etc. Once everyone had got back there were some presentations and lunch. During this time I was pretty sure I saw my eldest sponsored child (Justine) lurking at the back of the room but I wasn't sure (my most recent photo was about a year old) and because we were doing activities it wasn't suitable for me to get up and go see him. I tried to ask Fredz if it was him, and said I saw him slip out a side door. Fredz went racing off to talk to the CDW's and try find him while we finished our lunch. Durian was supplied. I did not partake.
It did look pretty strange, but also didn't smell anywhere near as bad as the internet had led me to believe.
Fredz returned with news - Justine HAD been there, but he didn't see us so he went home. Someone had gone to summon him back again... and before long we were officially meeting!
He was a lovely boy, very shy though. A lot of the children are - I asked a CDW about it later and she said that in Western cultures, a child might say to their parents "I want to be an accountant" or "I want to be a doctor" and the parents will be overjoyed, and encourage their child to pursue their dreams. In the Philippines though if a child told their parent about such dreams, the parent will tell them they cannot do that job because there is not enough money for the education required, and that they need to go to work sooner and support the family - suggesting such work as driving tricycles. It diminishes the children, resulting in them becoming very withdrawn. It was so sad to see it, and further enforced how important it is to encourage them when you write to your sponsored child. They need someone to build them up and remind them that through Christ, their dreams ARE possible.
From there we lined up for the obligatory group photo before heading back down the driveway to the bus and back to the hotel. These days are taxing emotionally and physically, but are so worth it.
Member discussion: