Day eight was pretty uneventful. We had divided up the items for our sponsored children so worked out what we needed to purchase for the bags. The mission for the day was to get said items.
From the start (like I said in my previous post), this was a challenge because the first thing we encountered was Kirstine and Mark wanting to chat and have McDonald’s. We knew it was our last day in this hotel so decided that McDonald’s was a nice way to finish up. The “issue” though was the group of young girls (the oldest was 10) who were trying to sell us their microfibre cloths…. and then followed us into McDonald’s hoping we’d get some for them. By the time we’d got everything sorted, at least another hour had passed.
At the mall we started at Toys R Us, given that what we needed was primarily toys and games. The staff in stores are always very keen to help, but we did notice that once our basket had a certain number of items in it, a staff member began following us around. Not even subtly either - it was Bert, the staff member, and myself all standing there looking at playdoh. At home this would have bothered me, thinking they deemed me to be dodgy or untrustworthy. For some reason though in this scenario I felt more sad for them that they have reached a stage in the business where they feel it necessary to follow customers that intensely.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped and chatted again with Kirstine and Mark, and this time got a photo with them which we printed out copies with the instax printer so they could have one. They hadn’t come across instax before so weren’t sure what was happening but once the image started appearing Kirstine got really excited and wanted to take more photos.
Today (18th) the Tearfund part of our trip officially kicked off. We loaded ourselves into a Grab and headed to our new hotel! The drive here was about 40 minutes so we were able to see more of the city. Quite a few streets we had actually travelled on before so have become familiar. We actually found that a little disconcerting more than anything though because it almost felt like the things we were seeing were becoming normalised, and that’s definitely not what you want to happen when you are seeing so much poverty and hardship.
Once we had settled into our new room we headed out to another mall (again, to locate a specific item). While there we had some lunch at a Japanese restaurant - Bert had soufflé pancakes and I had a standard soufflé. It’s made from egg, and egg is protein, therefore we had a nice protein-based meal. Health is our passion. On the way back to the hotel we were stopped at some traffic lights and a man walked up to the car window, stared blankly in (the windows were tinted so he likely couldn’t see us), and played his guitar at us in hope of some coins. Our Grab driver eventually cracked the window a tiny bit, gave him a coin, and the guitar player immediately walked to the next car. Our driver said the man is homeless and comes to the intersection every day trying to earn money for his family.
We got back to the hotel for a short rest, then out on a walking tour with some of the Compassion (the partners for Tearfund) staff who are also alumni. Both of the staff had two sponsors each while in the Compassion program which I appreciated hearing about, as Bert and I have taken over the sponsorship of Mum’s child following her passing. She is such a young age so likely won’t remember of her first sponsor, but her mother used to write the letters to mum, so she’ll know that her daughter has had a change in sponsor and that can be a big thing for sponsored children.
The walking tour itself though, that was next level. The area we went through has a couple of sponsored children living there so was a bit of a preview as to what we might be seeing over the coming days - and that was a lot. The level of poverty there was extreme. The ground had old water which doesn’t drain away so there was what appeared to be a permanent step-stone path to walk across it. We must have looked quite a sight to them, a group of foreigners gingerly making their way across their pathway. We were then led into a narrow alleyway which was covered over with sheets of metal to make a roof. That alley turned into another, which turned into another… somehow each one was getting more and more narrow. There was one point where Bert and I both (separately) thought we wouldn’t be able to fit around the corner as there was a pole in the middle. I am pleased to say that yes, we fit. We did have to cut the tour short as it began raining, and rainwater here isn’t safe. It was about that time when we got back to the hotel that I realised the neighbourhood we just toured is essentially right outside our hotel window.. the concept of us looking down on this level of poverty from the comforts of our room is hard to fathom. I’ve included some photos from the walk, and honestly, these are from the more mild parts of the walk.
After this, we had about an hour break before gathering to have dinner and orientation. Tomorrow we will be meeting three of our sponsored children, including Ieiazel, mum’s sponsored child. I’ve asked, and apparently her mother has most likely been told of mum’s passing already and that Bert and I are sponsoring her now.
Bert and I are hoping to keep on track with the blog posts, but with the next few days being quite busy we’re not sure if we’ll be able to get them done on time!
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