Today began with a visit to the “Reception Action Center”, a government run programme which provides a temporary shelter for street children in Manila. After having a talk from the staff team about the project, we were asked to play games with some of the kids, which we were completely unprepared for! (Enter Bosco’s improvised action songs). We were also joined by a group of local students from the University of La Salle, one of the well known universities in the Philippines. We weren’t sure what to expect from this experience, but the kids were full of joy and it was a real encouragement to see projects such as this working in Manila to help street children. It was so heart warming to walk into a room full of smiling children, despite all the hardships they’ve faced.
After collapsing back at the Shalom Center and causing a scene involving hats (see photos), we set off for our visit to Smoky Mountain, the rubbish tip where about 5000 families live. Once we got there, the blazing heat and burning charcoal smoke immediately created an uncomfortable environment. It was touching to see kids’ faces when we handed out lollipops, although it was difficult for us to know we couldn’t do much else to help in the short time we were there. We were surprised with how healthy the children looked, considering there was glass everywhere, as well as constant overwhelming smoke from the burning charcoal, which must have been harmful to their lungs.
We then headed back to the Malate centre to attend the “30 minute graduation”, (which turned out to be an hour and a half.) The young leaders from the ODC made awards for the children which included prizes such as “Most active”, “Best dancer” etc. It also involved many, many action songs and an unexpected presentation from us. So yet again Bosco’s singing came in handy.
We were all set to go back to the hotel, little did we know that we had a feast of noodles awaiting and a visit to the Mall of Asia.
Busy day! We’re absolutely loving the trip so far and looking forward to tell you all about it in person.
Lots of love and God bless, Rach and Anna xxx
1 comment:
Great blog, team! The clinic sounded like compelte mayhem but the local community must be thinking you are complete saints. Hope tomorrow's clinic runs smoothly and calmly. Look forward to the next instalments.
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