A Heart-Strings Day - Part One

I was sitting at lunch on Wednesday when two women from the office came to sit with me. They asked me what I ate and when I told them I had a tuna sandwich, they said (Hanna had said the same thing) that to a Filipino it’s not a meal without rice. They asked me what my favorite food so far was – thankfully, I had the banana-cue answer prepared, and they told me I had to try balut. I asked what else I should try, keeping the conversation moving away from the balut. I then asked what I should wear when I go on a build, because I was scheduled to go on a build the next day!

Actually it wasn’t quite a day of building (so now I want to go on another – and I am all the more excited about going to one in a Katrina area when I get back – but first, I hope I can participate here once every couple of weeks or once a month), but it was a day to experience what the volunteers experience. There was a group of Japanese college students (and their American professor) who had just completed a Global Village building trip, and this was their last day. I went with the person in charge of Volunteer Programs (one of the other Sharons) to spend the day with them. First, we went to an orphanage.

There are many children at risk here in the Philippines. Per the brochure of the place we visited, there are 6.6 million malnourished, 3.7 million child laborers, 1.5 million substance-abused, 75,000 sexually abused, and 200,000-250,000 who live on the streets. This organization takes children off the streets and houses and educates them – one success story is that five are in college. Another is that the younger ones who live there are happy and secure. There’s no program of adoption in the Philippines, so most of the children have no chance. These are the lucky ones.

We disembarked from our “chartered jeepney” and some of the kids took our right hands and put them to their foreheads – a sign of respect for elders. They led us into the room and – well, there was some downtime. The professor was playing with the kids, but the Japanese students were more reserved, waiting for the program to begin. I wasn’t sure of my role either, so I waited as well, but I wish I had played more with the kids. Finally the program began – the kids sang a song, the Japanese students did a couple of dances and a couple of songs (one of which was the Carpenters’ “Top of the World;” I probably heard that ten times yesterday. Can I write on my monthly report that one of my cultural challenges is getting ‘70s music out of my head? This is after the video machine on the bus to work the day before played “We Are the World” – not ‘70s, but one that can stick with you – and Michael Jackson songs). Then the students had gifts for all of the kids – I definitely had to hang back there, because I didn’t have anything. I finally did get to talk to some and my heart went out, especially to a little girl who whispered, “thank you,” to me as I was leaving. And that was only the morning!

Then we went to the work site. The Japanese team had been there all week, and they had gotten to know the skilled workers and the homepartners (the families who put in “sweat equity” before they move in). They were finished building, but I had only just begun (Songs of the ‘70s for 400, Alex). I had bought work gloves, a plastic wrist bracelet and a t-shirt (and you too could have these and more! Let me know if you want something that says Habitat for Humanity Philippines) and was ready to work. I was put to work on a giant sieve. One of the workers shoveled sand into it, and I had to shake it back and forth, and then I had to fling the rocks onto a rock pile. It took me a few tries to get the flinging down, and sometimes the shovelfuls were quite heavy, but I got into a rhythm. And all too soon it was time to break for lunch!