Navotas #20

Manila bay
has rolled into night.
Children run
along the planks,
candles provide light.
The sea breeze soothes
the warmth of day,
the dog Albert
says hello.
Children, chickens,
chatter and dogs.
The stars above,
as slippers flop,
joining the din
upon the boards,
of this
humanity
living on the banks
of Manila.
Navotas.

I've not really been able to share the way I had planned to on this blog. It's just that it is simply to hard to get to a computer or the internet. There is no internet access in the places that I go to, and even when I came back to Manila, the internet access was down (because a rat chewed through the fibre optic cable connecting the house with the school network), and the computers are frustratingly unusable.

It is also hard to reflect and share on the experience, although there are very many. I need to sit down properly and spend a whole day writing. I am beginning little reflection pieces on Gabaldon and Navotas, the place I just came back from, and
I will post them in time to come.

Navotas is a small city which is part of Metro Manila, and is situated along Manila bay, north of Manila itself. It is a poor area, home to shanty towns and dwellings such as the one I stayed in.

I was well taken care of, and the house was new and spacious, and had a toilet - rebuilt from donations after a fire that burned more than a thousand homes 2 years back. A better idea of what real slums are like was when I visited another part, where the sight and smell just made you want to throw up. Rubbish, more than you can imagine, wet filth, flies, dog shit, spit and pee, incessant noise and overpowering stench. It was really terrible.

The whole area of the poor provided me an immense feeling of despair. There was no where to go, and nothing to do. The picture and the image above are of the few moments of beauty I found in the place. Beyond that, the noise, dirt, and hopelessness got to me. The children played happily in the streets, but with nothing more than rubber bands. It was a school day and they won't doing anything. There were no jobs, and no opportunity to get out of poverty.

That's all I have to say for the time being. Appreciate the food and opportunities you have.