Some of my thoughts...

In this blog post, I would like to share some of my thoughts and feelings of my encounter in Manila.

Religion
Firstly, Catholic is a total foreign religion to me. I don’t have any catholic friends or priest that I known. Eddy Hew is a Christian, and I am a Buddhist, and we stay in a Catholic Church. This is the first joke, what a wire combination. Of course, before that I were told that Catholic was very conservative. But for this 2 weeks, I have learnt that Catholic are not conservative as I was told. In fact they are very open minded, kind and nice people. Fr Tony is a very kind and humble person. He is very considerate as well. For he knew that I am a Buddhist, he prayed very short during the meal. Just a sentence and its done. And never did he try to convert me into Catholic. This really makes my stay very comfortable. Thanks again. And I have this wonderful experience to attend the first mass in my life, and it was in Tagalog.

The People in Philippines
Basically and generally they are very happy and positive people. You will definitely hear a joke everyday. At least I will hear a joke everyday, and I really enjoy the laughter and the fun with all my friends here. The Philippinos are very humor. They can joke about anything and anytime. Even during bad times, like flood. Carla said that people still can joke even the water was at their chest level! In addition, they are very nice towards the guest, they appreciate the friendship, and they are very people oriented. I feel like I am the least people oriented in the team… Thanks to Shernan again for reminding me to smile. Have not done that in quite a while.

The rich and the poor
I have been to the place where the people with less income lived. And I have visited Makati, Megamall and Mall of Asia. This I have witnesses the wealth disparity of the rich and the poor. The worse affected people by the flood are always the poor people and rich people always can recover very fast from their loss. What I can do for them is very limited and the impact is so minimal. The people in the urban area are continuing with their life, go to work as usual. While some of the poor people are still staying in the evacuation centers. Just hope that people lives can be improve one day and the wealth should be share more evenly.

The kind people
Firstly, I must commend on Ms Carla and all the volunteers for their persistence and untiring effort in packing the Hygiene Kits. They managed to pack all the 5000 Hygiene Kits in 3 days time! Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. I am quite tire on Saturday and Sunday, sitting there watching them packing. I can see that the volunteers had demonstrated the selfless effort when they were carrying the heavy stuff and their speed in packing the Hygiene Kits. I know that they are here really to help. They might have felt the impact of the flood and the impact to the people. I think that’s their motivation. Thanks again. You all have taught me a great lesson.



I also must commend Ms Cel and her staff for their help during the purchasing of all the Hygiene Kits items. Ms Cel had helped us so much. And when we thank her, she just said, ‘This is the least I can do.’ She is just so kind and humble. Thanks again.

For Fr. Tony, thanks for risking your life to go to the bank and withdraw such a big amount of cash. Thanks again for the shelter and food. Many thanks.

For Annalyn and Catherine, thanks for helping us in purchasing the stuffs at Divisoria. That’s real tiring. Thanks for your effort.

For all the kind people in Philippines, I know why Ninoy Aquino said, ‘Filipino is worth dying for.’
Kids
I have met some kids during this journey. Basically they like to pose in front of camera. Whenever I aim my camera at them, they will pose for me. During the flood, some of them had to swim for their lives, where they climb up the trees and roofs. They hope that the flood will never happen again. I share the same hope with them. Hope that it will never happen again.