Manila, Part Two - The Slums

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I’ve been in Manila a few days now. I planned to write a blog each day I was here, and, well, how about I make that a New Year’s Resolution? Because I’ve clearly been failing. Moving on though!

To sum up my first few days here, I’d say that I’ve just been going with the flow, tagging along with people wherever I can – and there’s no shortage of people to tag along with, maybe that’s in part due to Filipino hospitality and me also just being lucky. Karaoke: check. Late night bars drinking multiple nights in a row: check. Various Filipino cuisines, most of which I’m trying for the first time: check. You’d be hard pressed believing that I actually came here for humanitarian purposes. I guess this was the holiday portion of my trip.

Yesterday was my first day in Baseco though. This is a “slum” of Manila right near the city and it’s where I’ll be volunteering for the next few days, with Christine Pedder from John 14:12 World Wide Ministry my contact (see http://markpedder.wordpress.com/ or the YouTube video below for more). It’s part one of two things I’ll be doing to help out the less fortunate while I’m in the Philippines until January. The other is with an outdoor recreation group who are going to the Visayas to assist people devastated by Typhoon Yolanda (I won’t call it Haiyan anymore – everyone calls it Yolanda here so that’s what I’ll run with). That’s on the 26^th of December so I have some time to play with between the two.

So how was it? Well I won’t lie, I was nervous. My Manila based friends warned me of Baseco’s unruly nature, advising me to watch my pockets. I mean this place isn't even documented on Googls Maps. Christine was quick to downplay this though, telling me of the amazing progress Baseco has made since the “bad old days” of the 1970’s. She points me to a new high school recently built, and an evacuation centre for people to convene when it floods, and water pipes recently installed to the less developed part of Baseco. She’s proud of the work God’s done and it’s heartwarming to see the improvements. As she walks through the slum every single person says hi to her, and the kids are particularly exuberant. They say hi to me too with their big happy smiles and I can’t but smile back and get taken in by their humble kindness and gratitude.

I meet some fellow volunteers and attend the Sunday night church service, run completely by local people. Their spirit is truly uplifting. I’m humbled to see such warmth in a place of such need. It feels like what I saw today has turned my Manila experience completely on its head – from fun, food and beer to, well, a different kind of fun.

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