sparrows

june 09 - today outside of some cathedral i foolishly decided to eat a mango. I was surrounded by kids in an instant.

"peso ma'am. peso."

but one child noticed the food i had and the chant quickly changed.

"mango ma'am. mango"

i had five mangoes. i had already started eating one, the rest went to the littlest beggars but even after i ran out of mangoes one girl followed me for a block and a half.

sorry sweetheart i have no more mangoes. my bag is empty.

"mango, ma'am. mango."

i had some sweet pastries but she only wanted a mango.

"mango, ma'am. mango."

i showed her the empty bag.

"mango, ma'am. mango."

her older friend/sister jumped in and offered to trade me a bottle of water for a mango.

i only have the one i'm eating. you want the one i'm eating?
"yes ma'am."

what?!

i still can't believe it.
the hunger.
the desperation.
to ask someone for the half eaten mango hanging out of their mouth. to barter with your only means of income...my heart aches still.

i gave her the mango.

i lost 50 pesos. i lost my breakfast/lunch. but how could i not?
these children...i could've been in their position.
we all could have been in their position.

all i can say is don't take your privileged life for granted and thank God for His blessings daily.
Thank you God for this my life.

2nd impression: poverty.

poverty.

extreme, abject poverty.

continuous, thriving, all consuming poverty.

what is poverty? in manila you see it everywhere.
so many people are homeless, sleeping in the parks, on the sidewalks, in the gutters.
everywhere.

nationwide this poverty is a result of corruption, local dishonesty and foreign greed.
it is a product- a continuous cycle- of poverty, illness, desperation and hunger.

to look at it will break your heart.
so you don't.
don't look out the window.
don't make eye contact.
don't look at the streets.
don't look at the buildings.
don't look at yourself because you will disgust yourself.
sometimes hearts need breaking.

but still you harden it as much as you can while trying to retain your humanity.
you harden it to maintain your sanity.
you give a little here and there. to give to everyone will put you in a tough position financially. they're everywhere, it breaks your heart.
again.

you smile at the kids, the dirty little street urchins, praying that they don't ask you for money cause to them you are rich but today you too are hungry. you can't afford to feed yourself so your belly rumbles with theirs.

Day 1: The adventure begins.

in all honesty i should have spent far more time planning this trip and far less time packing and repacking my bags.

despite our incredible lack of preparation for this trip we were not completely unprepared. we had thought ahead enough to book a hostel however, the directions we had were proving to be difficult to follow.

take a jeepney to Sucat then a tricycle to green mango pension house.. a tricycle?

yes.

once you cross the candy-cane bridge transfer to unicycle then proceed on flying unicorn.

as exciting as this sounded we didn't know A) where to get a jeepney and B) what a jeepney or trike look like.

mission 1: find pension house without being robbed or conned.

a few wrong turns and a few swindles later we finally arrived at our hostel, the beautiful oasis that is the Green Mango.
the living quarters are cramped, not even a foot between the bunks and the bathroom facilities leave something to be desired, but this place is not completely without charm. tropical plants abound and the under-aged staff is completely awestruck by our outstanding beauty and charm1 , hopefully this will result in free things and more free things.

mission 2: find food

luck finally seems to be on our side, our room mates turn out to be two very nice brits with similar travel plans and hunger pains.
shall we adventure together? yes, let's.

after miles of walking in search of food we come to the realization that continuing this way we would either die of starvation or heat exhaustion.
after a brief jaunt on a trike and having succumbed to diesl fumes and hunger pangs we decide to try our luck with some roadside "meat" on a stick.

and by roadside i mean, a shantyesque resto on the side of the road, food in an unrefridgerated glass case, meat of intdeterminal species kept flyless by a man with a feather duster.

bbq pig ear on a stick. delicious.

mission 3: start the sightseeing.

SM mall of asia (the 3rd largest mall in the world) is our goal but sadly we are having terrible difficulty communicating with the British boys. The problem lies in the fact that the british don't speak english. perhaps in my spare time i can teach them...

sadly we end up at another SM, not the one we were looking for but a supermall nonetheless.

sadly we did not realize our err until we had spent 2 hours looking for the main attractins.

not so sadly some colourful wigs and fake poo made for a perfectly entertaining evening.







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1. at this point we had been going non stop for 28 hours, we were the poster girls for "outstanding beauty".

Day 1: Landing.

Hey Toac, do you realize where you are? the Philippines? yes.

first impressions: dang it's hot.
first thought: what am i doing here?
2nd and 3rd thoughts: seriously, what the hell am i doing here? what have i gotten myself into?

Within the first few minutes of landing i'm about ready to go back to korea.

we have no real plan, no real itinerary. i have a pocketful of pesos and a bag full of money.

i feel like a drug runner not a well seasoned traveller.

it's 'cause i'm not.

how on earth are we going to survive a month and a half of backpacking?

heaven only knows.

last words

i am constantly asked whether teaching english in korea is fun.

well that depends on how you measure fun. if it is solely based on how much my liver has deteriorated since coming here, i've been having excessive amounts of fun. if it's based on how many times i've had to got to the doctor/ clinic/ hospital/ witch docotor i've had far too much fun and if you base it on ...well anything else i've still been having an amazing time.

i've been up and down this country. here and there. round and about. i've made a lot of friends, eaten a lot of questionable things, many delicious things and many delicious questionable things. i've ridden the subway without pants. i've danced without dignity. one night i even found myself in eastern europe. i've laughed, i've cried. i've loved and lost. i've given up and had my hope restored. i have also found love again. i've done things i've always wanted to do, things i've never dreamed off and things i cannot mention in mixed company.

in short, my time spent in korea has been a blessing and a curse but most of all it's been a learning experience.

i can't say i've enjoyed every minute of it but i have grown and it remains to be seen whether i'll fit myself back into my old life. i hope not.

i hope to see you all again soon!

farewell to you all.

thanks for everything!

toac