Processing.

This morning, my goal was to observe within the Kindergarten classes at my center and get a feel for the teaching styles, the behavior of the children, and the overall atmosphere. I used to want to be a teacher, when I was younger. It was right up there with wanting to be the first woman in the NFL or a pilot for the Air Force. Then, I decided I could never be a teacher (I mean, I totally admire all of the amazing teachers in this world and I have some great friends who are teachers [shout out], but I just could not do it!). Then, I came to the decision that if I taught, it would have to be college…or Kindergarten. I mean, I have a lot of energy so Kindergarten would be perfect, right? After today, I take that back. Well, they are so darn cute that I would not actually get any teaching done…ever. And by cute I mean…hyper. Well, they’re cute at the same time. But put 35 of them in one room, and it’s pretty overwhelming. Anyways, I will be helping out in the program somewhat starting in the next few weeks and I’m not quite sure what my purpose or the final goal is, but we’ll figure it out. My job is pretty vague at the moment—so far, the majority of it includes taking naps, maginterneting, and attending meetings where I realize my lack of Cebuano knowledge.

This afternoon, I went with the social worker from our outreach program to attend some of the feedings that happen twice-weekly in seven different locations throughout the barangay. The goal of the program is to prevent the need to separate children from their parents, or basically to prevent abandonment by parents—to strengthen families. The program is about a year old, and it is only meant to be a temporary program. (Side note: basically all social work programs are intended to be temporary…the goal of a social worker is to basically work themselves out of a job). Well, since one of the main reasons of abandonment is simply being unable to feed and take care of the children, the two main activities right now are feedings and livelihood programs. While the livelihood programs are just getting started, the feedings are a regular occurrence now, and the mothers’ groups for the most part have regular meetings.

Well, anyways, for some reason this was really difficult emotionally today. We visited six different locations, and three of them are currently being affected by a new subdivision that is moving into the area. Almost all of the people that this program serves are squatters, and even since visiting these sites a little over a month ago, so much has changed. Areas where there were “houses” before (houses—picture bamboo and sugar cane walls with maybe a few pieces of plywood and a tin roof and dirt floor) are now completely leveled off. There was a volleyball court set up, but now it’s been overtaken by bulldozers. There are huge houses (large for American standards, even) standing right next to the squatters’ area. This area of the barangay was already built on a steep bank of the small, polluted river that runs through, and now they are sandwiched even further between a rock and a hard place. It is pretty steep to climb down into the small neighborhood, and the main entrance that we used last time is no longer passable due to the construction.

Moreover, each of these six sites that we visited are not far from each other (five are clumped together, and the other two are clumped together). By not far, I mean we walked about two minutes between each site. Even with how close the sites were, there are at least thirty children participating in each site (between the ages of 1 and 7). On average, these families have between five and seven children, and some have many more, as you can probably guess. I was talking to a woman who I assumed to be about my age (although with Filipinas, I can never tell…their skin is perfect!), and I asked her how many children she had. Well, she had five. Three of them were in the feeding program, which meant that they were between the ages of 1 and 7. At another site, I said hello to a young girl who I assumed was just an older sister of one of the children. When she started breast feeding, that assumption quickly changed. She might have been about 16. Granted, teen pregnancy happens in the US as well and although it’s definitely part of a cycle, I know that here that cycle will undoubtedly continue. Be born into poverty, grow up in poverty, spend childhood between school and house chores (less emphasis on school), get married around 18, if you’re a woman spend your time washing and cleaning and cooking and giving birth, if you’re a man spend your time between working and looking for steady work and creating babies…the cycle continues for the next five to seven children that are born into it, and for their children, and all the neighbors’ children, and the cousins’ children, etc. This sounds hopeless, and I’m sorry. I mean, there are plenty of solutions to these issues, but only the right combination will help. The obvious answer would be family planning, but what’s obvious to me isn’t quite so obvious to those actually living this life. And the rich people are going to continue to exploit the poor people no matter what. When it comes time for the subdivision to claim all of the land that it owns, where will they go? Who will take them? Where can they afford to go?

Of course, in the next two years my plan is to solve this issue of poverty and the increasing population. Wanna help?