Friday, 6 September 2013
Thursday, 8 August 2013
Street Children
Today I saw a baby girl no more than one year old crawling
in the street. I knew she was a baby girl because she was completely naked, her
hands and knees covered in black soot. That’s how she’ll start her life on
earth. I can’t stand seeing that and I can’t stand thinking about how
vulnerable she’ll be to abuse of all kinds as she grows older and tries to make
it on the streets. That’s a beautiful, innocent baby and they’ll have her down
there crawling around in the trash, where men take a piss. In the dusty,
polluted street with muddy puddles that make your feet itch. That’s the future
she has ahead of her and I can’t even wrap my brain around the idea because
there are so many of these kids living on the streets and it seems that they
have no more value than stray dogs.
This happened to me shortly after I received a card from a
relative back home celebrating the birth of a new baby boy. This baby is so
lucky. He has a family who adores him. He has probably received plenty of new
clothes and nice toys. He has a warm crib to sleep in, a mother and father who
work hard to put food on the table. Upon hearing about this new birth in my
family I felt a strong maternal instinct, wondering if and when I would ever
have children and how I would want to celebrate my child’s arrival into this
world. Yet it’s evident that there are already so many children who need help,
so isn't it with that little girl that my duty should lie?
In our everyday life it’s so easy for us to separate ourselves
from that level of poverty. We can rationalize the whole experience as being a
problem too big for us to handle, too widespread for our actions to make a
difference, but that’s just not good enough. No child deserves to grow up on
the street. That’s a human being, that’s somebody’s baby.
Monday, 5 August 2013
Peace Corps Guilt
Guilt. That’s the emotion I have constantly been plagued
with while living in Cebu City. Regardless of the situation… because
of my American privilege followed accordingly by American ignorance, guilt will surely follow. I have these negative reoccurring
thought patterns. I can feel them wearing me down, testing my patience and I’m
afraid of the person I am becoming. When I started this assignment I wanted to
be able to serve others with an open heart. Yet I can’t help but feel that my initial
idealism has left me feeling completely naïve and inadequate. I cannot seem to
rationalize away the guilt that follows every thought and action.
How can humanity allow for such extreme wealth and extreme poverty
to coexist? And at what point have we lost our humanity?
I feel a constant and persistent guilt while living in Cebu City, but I guess
that means I’m still human.
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
One Year Gone...
I've spent the last year living in a foreign country. The whole idea of it still seems bizarre on some level.
I've been attempting to adapt and understand the Philippines as best I can. I have met so many wonderful people, visited beautiful places and I have made unforgettable memories. I am reminded every day of how lucky I am to be an American, to have an education, and a family that loved me enough to support me this far. I have no doubt grown from this experience, I feel more competent everyday and I have not forgotten the privilege that serving as a Peace Corps volunteer has afforded me.
At the same time, being in the Philippines for one year hasn't been easy and to be honest I am still grappling with the idea of living here for another 14 months. There have been highs in which I have felt like the luckiest person on earth, and lows in which I have felt like the loneliest. I've been challenged by the reality of the environmental pollution, extreme poverty, systemic oppression, sexism, and misguided western influence.
Yet despite being here for one year, there are still many aspects of myself that I'd like to improve. Namely I could be more patient, understanding, and dedicated to my service, but without any baseline sometimes it's hard to know what impact you're actually having as a volunteer. The more measurable outcome I think, is how the experience impacts you in the way that you view the world, and make conscious decisions to care for other people.
In closing, I think I'll have to quote one of my earlier posts from May 1st 2012,
just after I accepted my invitation to serve in the Philippines.
"Not knowing where you will end up is what makes life so interesting
and the growth you experience is always more valuable than the end point."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Monday, 24 June 2013
Peace Corps Site Video
Here is the link to my Peace Corps site video which documents my life in the Philippines thus far.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B51za2LO3lZdNEJOLXUtc0l3bDg/edit
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B51za2LO3lZdNEJOLXUtc0l3bDg/edit
Friday, 31 May 2013
Night Outreach in Cebu City
I recently joined outreach in one of our target barangays.
Our objective was to track down clients and invite them to come to a free
medical check-up that was being offered by one of our partner agencies. I had
been in this area many times during the day to conduct human trafficking seminars,
but the night life in the community was still largely unexplored, and although
I knew that the living conditions were dire, I was still not prepared for what
we encountered.
I set out with two of the staff from the center, along with
one of our peer educators. We walked along an uneven cement path stepping
carefully over dirty brown puddles, discarded food and trash. The heavy air
held the stench of the city, sweaty bodies and pollution, with the additional odor
of a community without any proper waste management. The majority of the
buildings around us resembled sheds made of light materials, quickly thrown
together with little planning or thought in regards to safety. Televisions
blared from inside, but many people sat on the street where there was mild air
circulation, card games and drinking circles. The path was crowded. Men walked
around with their shirts off, women were chatting with friends or holding their
babies, children ran all over laughing and playing games. There were nameless bodies everywhere. People sleeping outside and curled up in filthy places where you wouldn't expect a living person to reside.
The women we talked to had holes in their arms from
injecting benzodiazepine and methamphetamine (I later found out that 51% of
the intravenous drug users in this barangay are HIV positive).We gave each
woman a small box that held three condoms and invited them to bring their
children to have a free check-up. The women complained first and foremost
asking for more condoms. One woman ran up to us in a dress that was soaking
wet. She had just taken a bath outside. Further up the path I could see three
women sitting in a line in front of a bucket rubbing water and soap hastily
over their bodies, bathing in the street where anyone could watch. I could not
even fathom living in such close quarters, with such limited privacy.
As we walked around, the darkness was filled with laughter,
whispers and cigarette smoke. There were old computers and televisions set up
in public spaces. Both had groups of people crowded around the screens. They were watching the NBA finals.
We turned a corner to see a group of kids, who upon seeing
me jumped out of their chairs and rushed over. I had three street children on
each side of me holding my arms, saying things like, “What’s your name? Will
you take me to Jollibee? You have beautiful eyes. Give me pesos.” The children’s
hands were wet and their clothes dirty, but I answered their questions and let
them hold on to me as long as they liked.
As we continued forward the kids eventually lost interest.
In the darkness it was hard to maneuver on the faulty paths, I followed my
coworkers, carefully stepping where they stepped. My counterpart began talking
to a female pimp, telling her about the medical services we were offering for
the girls. Then a taxi pulled up – a customer, and many pimps ran over to try
and make their best offer. I was told that before the raids began the street
walkers would surround the taxi and the customer could simply point at the girl
of their choice. Now the prostituted women remain hidden but are easily
contacted via text message.
I was grateful to have this deeper exposure in the work that
we do and plan to spend more time doing outreach so that I can have a better understanding
of what our client’s experience. Up until this point I have been able to focus
on mobilizing the community and working with girls in job training who had
already left this life behind. It’s clear to me now the importance of seeing and experiencing the reality of their previous lives in order to fully understand their background and help them maintain a successful reintegration back into the community.
Monday, 15 April 2013
IST/PDM
I spent last week reuniting with my original batch of 271 volunteers after being apart for almost seven months of service. We were gathered for a conference to update us on our responsibilities as PCV's and learn about how to document our service projects in our communities. It was really wonderful to see everyone and hear about all the great work going on in the Philippines. Everyone loved our advocacy materials. We were able to sell every single shirt, with lots of people still asking for more.
We were all joined by our counterparts from our respective agencies and I was reminded of how lucky I am to get to work everyday with one of my best friends. Our relationship may not always be rainbows and butterflies but we are open and honest with each other which makes an incredible difference. Arianne and I created a project proposal and learned about monitoring and evaluation techniques. We also discovered some funding opportunities that we may be able to access for Welcome House. Our project proposal went something like this...
We were all joined by our counterparts from our respective agencies and I was reminded of how lucky I am to get to work everyday with one of my best friends. Our relationship may not always be rainbows and butterflies but we are open and honest with each other which makes an incredible difference. Arianne and I created a project proposal and learned about monitoring and evaluation techniques. We also discovered some funding opportunities that we may be able to access for Welcome House. Our project proposal went something like this...
Vision
A community where men are actively involved in eliminating
sex trafficking and prostitution.
Goal
Establish a MAP - Men Against Prostitution group in the community that encompasses 80 male high school students and 25 male community members to serve as role models and peer educators on the issue of sex trafficking and prostitution by the end of June 2013.
This idea can easily be incorporated into the advocacy work that we are already doing with our core groups in the schools and barangays. We are hoping that we can also create a short film to utilize as an advocacy tool that will showcase men speaking about why they are against prostitution and how men can help end the exploitation and marginalization of women. We recognize that it's going to be difficult to get men involved on this issue but I think it's important that we do this campaign so that at the very least, we can shift some of the responsibility onto the men and recognize that this is not just a women's issue but a societal problem that we are all accountable for.
In the last few days of the conference Arianne was contacted by a previous client asking for help. She had been trafficked from Cebu to Luzon under the premise of a 'job in Manila' and was now stuck in a brothel in Cavite (an hour outside of Manila). Luckily she was able to meet up with us and in the space of 24 hours we were able to get her some identification then book her a seat on our flight back to Cebu. Everyone was relieved to arrive home in one piece and we are now looking forward to the implementation of our proposal in our advocacy program.
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