Alright, Part Two of the Second Half, aka final thoughts
and reflections, and pictures.
ONE. If you didn’t
know or think it already, the Philippines is a GORGEOUS country. And that's my assessment based on the few
places I saw, following the worst disaster the country has ever
experienced, and in the middle of the rainy season. But you be the judge.
TWO. If you didn’t
know or think it already, the Filipino are a BEAUTIFUL people. Haha, before any of you twist that to mean
something I didn’t, let me add that ALL nations are beautiful people (good save
Wes, self high five!). But I’m constantly reminded
of the mental strength and character of the Filipinos I met, and there’s an undeniable
beauty there.
As I scroll through these pictures, the people are
smiling, in all of them. It’s a simple
gesture, but one that is sometimes hard to do when things aren’t going
well. Well, these people are come from areas
that suffered damage at the hands of Haiyan and definitely have due cause not
to smile, but they still do in spite of all that. Uplifting, no?
While we’re talking about great characteristics of the
Filipino people, the handwritten letter pictured next was given to me by a Filipino
lady that I didn’t recognize, and almost assuredly, that I hadn’t met
before. Yet, she proceeded to give a
copy to every team member in our office. I'm not sure if you can read it, but it's simply a letter of thanks, on behalf of herself and the Filipino
people.
She uses words like 'beloved, thanks, grateful, caring, inspiring' to describe those of us who came to help. Funny, because I think I’ve used those same words to
describe the Filipino people.
Next, we’ve got 90% of the WASH team in I think our one and only photo together. Missing are Tyrone, who I mentioned two blog posts ago, and Stephen, who’s standing in the middle right of the last
collage above.
In the picture, from left to right, we have Marc, Sylvan,
John, Julie, Raymond, Glaiza, myself, Angelica, Moises, Neah, Gary, Rina,
Chrischee, and Gavin. They’re all smiles
here, but this group
a) works tirelessly day in and day out;
b) doesn’t
complain or ask for much, regardless of the tasks we ask of them;
c) were all affected by
the storm to varying degrees themselves, though you’d never know by their
cheerful demeanours.
The four girls and Sylvan make up the hygiene team, while
the four boys and Rina make up the engineering team, and Moises and Tyrone are
our awesome (seriously not kidding) drivers!
Gary was the smarter half of Team eMi, and then Gavin and Stephen are with SP and should be
there for at least the next 3-6 months to help develop both the water and
hygiene programs as well as continue to train our young but talented team. I could write much much more about all these wonderful people, but I've already long passed my word limit.
We passed by the gate below with the nicely paved driveway; it's the back
entrance to a golf course, which is a beautifully designed and well-kept piece
of land. I naïvely asked our driver how
many Filipinos play golf to which he hesitated, then answered, “…maybe the rich
people?” He didn’t know who plays golf,
because this affluent sport is just a foreign concept to him, and probably many
of the Filipino population.
Driving past the gate, we continued probably less than
200m across a narrow bridge and up a beat up road to Caminishay, one of the
villages where we distributed hygiene kits.
The village is poor, which is why it was identified for distributions;
it doesn’t even have a communal space like some of the other poorer villages have. The stark contrast
between the upscale golf course and the poor village beside it, separated by a fancy
padlocked gate reminds me a lot of what is wrong in our world. Like Canada, the United States, and most everywhere in the world, there is also an immense gap in the Philippines between the upper
and lower classes that only continues to widen. Not to make a political statement here as my
Filipino history is next to none, but each of us has the responsibility to care
and support those living on the margins which, in developing nations, can
account for a significant portion of the population.
It's no easy task to stand against the tide of worldly ambitions and expectations, but would we be willing to open the gates in our lives? Whatever that could be: mentally, symbolically or even physically. Oh, that each of us would strive, as Micah famously wrote, 'to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly.'
