I. TOUCHED IN BAGONG SILANG, December 7
I first noticed her as the attentive and still figure who eyes were trained on us as we sang, conversed and prayed with families in Bagong Silang, a slew of tiny zinc-roofed wooden "houses" that hugged the steep mountain side.
Then her face appeared again, and again as we went from home to home. We locked eyes, exchanged smiles from time to time, and finally at our last three homes, we made contact.
From behind, I gently cupped her face and turned her head from side to side in play. She immediately melted and clung to my side, refusing to let go of my arm. When we prayed and I had to let go of her hand, she would lean into my side, maintaining body contact as she prayed along with us. I fell in love then as I held her tiny, cold hand in mine again.
Here was a kindred spirit, a child who shared my love language of touch. I savoured this brief moment of pure, innocent trust. How did I get so lucky to deserve this unexpected expression of love?
During a moment of reflection later on, I felt that Jesus was assuring me that He loved me dearly and unconditionally through Riza. Even though I felt unloveable and unworthy of being loved (this always happens when I am thrust into a group of people I do not know very well and my old insecurities rear their heads), He thought otherwise.
Riza continued to follow us up the hillside to our van. She became my little assistant when I was trying to teach a child how to say thank you for the lollipop I gave him. She demanded that he say thank you in Tagalog, which he quickly did.
When it came time to leave, I sought her out and planted a kiss on her forehead. It was a benediction for her that immediately bounced back onto me. Jesus was telling her she was precious and loved, just as He was telling me the same thing.
It was a moment of pure grace. I encountered Christ in Riza, and she, in me.
II. BOHOL RETROSPECTIVE, December 12
P said something doing a debriefing in Bohol, that God was unfair for there was such a huge disparity between the poor and the rich. My immediate reaction was that it wasn't God who was unfair, but rather people who were greedy, and therefore unfair.
God created the world with enough to go around for everyone. However, humanity with a view to acquiring personal wealth, fight wars to gain territories in order to attain power, assets and monetary wealth. It is avarice that has caused this imbalance in the world, where the majority of the world goes without that a few may live in the lap of luxury.
I am back in Tagaytay for a day having spent three days in Bohol. In collaboration with the Bohol Chamber of Commerce*, we visited some 100 homes to sing and pray with the families and leave them with food hampers. We also threw a Christmas party for over 200 children in a school in Buenavista.
It is disconcerting and depressing to come face to face with such poverty and hardship. People who live in tiny, dark, nipa palm-roofed shacks, dressed in hand-me-down clothes, with not enough to eat.
Suffering is written in every line of their prematurely aged, tanned features, their eyes are dead and lifeless, blank expressions pasted on their visages. They are a people in darkest despair.
Some of the homes we visited in Batuan are so remote that the people we met seem socially maladjusted. They are unable to express any emotion and the children stare back, slack-jawed, with no reaction to friendly overtures. This, for me, was the saddest, for a smile has been a universal response to my own, until now. They were like zombies.
The incongruity of the beauty of the padi fields and the backbreaking work they represent to the farmers (who have no time to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings) hit me hard.
Worse, they do not reap the entire harvest for all their efforts, only a third which is barely sufficient. Two-thirds go to the landowners who don't even know their property exists except during harvest time.
When asked what they wish to pray for, the families we visited sought for enough food to eat and did not even desire riches. Mostly they asked for good health as well for sickness is a curse in such abject poverty.
Although we did not visit those who were directly affected by the quake in Bohol, we visited the very poor, some affected by the typhoon, and those who were living in such remote, difficult-to-access places that they had no contact with outsiders and received little assistance.
The CHARIS**-sponsored water filters, and the mosquito nets we gave out were received with such gratitude that I was ashamed of how much I took for granted potable water, electricity and decent plumbing.
These families I encountered during the two days of reverse carolling in Bohol shout to me in their despondence. What Jitka said during our orientation rang deafeningly, that the biggest sin against the poor was indifference.
As I made ready to leave her home after we sang the finale, Artemia said to me in Visayan, remember me, as she held my hand. Although I felt our efforts were ineffectual and too piecemeal a gesture to make a significant difference, I can remember and honour those I met by fulfilling my wants less and channelling more of my income towards alleviating the plight of the forgotten and the less fortunate.
Perhaps, then, the balance will shift in favour of people like Artemia who deserve much more than this meagre and grim existence and life will not seem so unfair.
* We were aided by Reyna Deloso and her amazing team of colleagues who showed us their caring hearts for their Boholano brethren, and we also met some lovely community leaders in the barangays we visited.
** CHARIS stands for Caritas Humanitarian Aid & Relief Initiatives, Singapore and is the umbrella body for overseas humanitarian aid by the Archdiocese of Singapore.
III. MONTALBAN NIGHTMARE, December 14
From the beauty of Tagaytay and Bohol, we entered the hell of the dumpsite in Montalban. As the mountains of trash formed a wasteland of post-Apocalyptic desolation, the stench assailed our nostrils, making my stomach turn.
Families lived in cramped rows of wooden huts on the fringe of the dumpsite. The ground was littered in waste and muck, flies covered anything remotely looking like food to them.
It is unthinkable and an outrage to think that people should call this severely polluted environment home. Young children ran around with huge sores and scars on their skinny limbs. Adults were emaciated and wizened, their eyes dulled in perpetual misery.
What broke my heart was when a young woman asked me if I would buy her toddler son whom she
clearly loved. She lived in equal parts of hope and anguish that I would say yes.
We threw a party for the children in the barangay, and Ate Noralyn persuaded two raggedy boys (one with a bulbous eye) who were scavenging for plastic to enter by grabbing their bags of trash into the hall. They could not have been more than 10 years old.
The activities did not interest them for they no longer knew how to play and soon, they snuck out. As Joan commented later in our debrief, they may be beaten by their parents if they did not bring home their usual quota of discarded plastic so they did not have time to loiter.
There were so many stories of tragedy as these families shared their lives with us, and yet, there are also stories of beauty and hope.
The women in the Balikatan Ministry who have been journeying for some years with Esther, Jitka and Joan (more recently with Gemma as well), ICPE Mission Philippines missionaries, were a joy to behold. These are women who live in Montalban and some of them work also as scavengers.
They were committed to reverse carolling and touching the lives of their neighbours in ways their own lives had been touched. To share the good news of the Christ child with others. Working together, they displayed a bond of sisterhood and demonstrated that despite the difficulties of life, they could still laugh and have fun. They exemplified Isaiah 9:2: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
CONCLUSION
There is still much for me to process as I end reverse carolling this year.
However, one thing stands out, I cannot go back to my old life. I can and must do much more to help the poor and I invite those of you who read this to do the same.
Thus, the world we live in can become as beautiful as it was created to be.
I first noticed her as the attentive and still figure who eyes were trained on us as we sang, conversed and prayed with families in Bagong Silang, a slew of tiny zinc-roofed wooden "houses" that hugged the steep mountain side.
Then her face appeared again, and again as we went from home to home. We locked eyes, exchanged smiles from time to time, and finally at our last three homes, we made contact.
From behind, I gently cupped her face and turned her head from side to side in play. She immediately melted and clung to my side, refusing to let go of my arm. When we prayed and I had to let go of her hand, she would lean into my side, maintaining body contact as she prayed along with us. I fell in love then as I held her tiny, cold hand in mine again.
Here was a kindred spirit, a child who shared my love language of touch. I savoured this brief moment of pure, innocent trust. How did I get so lucky to deserve this unexpected expression of love?
During a moment of reflection later on, I felt that Jesus was assuring me that He loved me dearly and unconditionally through Riza. Even though I felt unloveable and unworthy of being loved (this always happens when I am thrust into a group of people I do not know very well and my old insecurities rear their heads), He thought otherwise.
When it came time to leave, I sought her out and planted a kiss on her forehead. It was a benediction for her that immediately bounced back onto me. Jesus was telling her she was precious and loved, just as He was telling me the same thing.
It was a moment of pure grace. I encountered Christ in Riza, and she, in me.
II. BOHOL RETROSPECTIVE, December 12
P said something doing a debriefing in Bohol, that God was unfair for there was such a huge disparity between the poor and the rich. My immediate reaction was that it wasn't God who was unfair, but rather people who were greedy, and therefore unfair.
God created the world with enough to go around for everyone. However, humanity with a view to acquiring personal wealth, fight wars to gain territories in order to attain power, assets and monetary wealth. It is avarice that has caused this imbalance in the world, where the majority of the world goes without that a few may live in the lap of luxury.
I am back in Tagaytay for a day having spent three days in Bohol. In collaboration with the Bohol Chamber of Commerce*, we visited some 100 homes to sing and pray with the families and leave them with food hampers. We also threw a Christmas party for over 200 children in a school in Buenavista.
It is disconcerting and depressing to come face to face with such poverty and hardship. People who live in tiny, dark, nipa palm-roofed shacks, dressed in hand-me-down clothes, with not enough to eat.Suffering is written in every line of their prematurely aged, tanned features, their eyes are dead and lifeless, blank expressions pasted on their visages. They are a people in darkest despair.
Some of the homes we visited in Batuan are so remote that the people we met seem socially maladjusted. They are unable to express any emotion and the children stare back, slack-jawed, with no reaction to friendly overtures. This, for me, was the saddest, for a smile has been a universal response to my own, until now. They were like zombies.
The incongruity of the beauty of the padi fields and the backbreaking work they represent to the farmers (who have no time to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings) hit me hard.Worse, they do not reap the entire harvest for all their efforts, only a third which is barely sufficient. Two-thirds go to the landowners who don't even know their property exists except during harvest time.
When asked what they wish to pray for, the families we visited sought for enough food to eat and did not even desire riches. Mostly they asked for good health as well for sickness is a curse in such abject poverty.
Although we did not visit those who were directly affected by the quake in Bohol, we visited the very poor, some affected by the typhoon, and those who were living in such remote, difficult-to-access places that they had no contact with outsiders and received little assistance.
The CHARIS**-sponsored water filters, and the mosquito nets we gave out were received with such gratitude that I was ashamed of how much I took for granted potable water, electricity and decent plumbing.
These families I encountered during the two days of reverse carolling in Bohol shout to me in their despondence. What Jitka said during our orientation rang deafeningly, that the biggest sin against the poor was indifference.
As I made ready to leave her home after we sang the finale, Artemia said to me in Visayan, remember me, as she held my hand. Although I felt our efforts were ineffectual and too piecemeal a gesture to make a significant difference, I can remember and honour those I met by fulfilling my wants less and channelling more of my income towards alleviating the plight of the forgotten and the less fortunate.
Perhaps, then, the balance will shift in favour of people like Artemia who deserve much more than this meagre and grim existence and life will not seem so unfair.
* We were aided by Reyna Deloso and her amazing team of colleagues who showed us their caring hearts for their Boholano brethren, and we also met some lovely community leaders in the barangays we visited.
** CHARIS stands for Caritas Humanitarian Aid & Relief Initiatives, Singapore and is the umbrella body for overseas humanitarian aid by the Archdiocese of Singapore.
III. MONTALBAN NIGHTMARE, December 14
From the beauty of Tagaytay and Bohol, we entered the hell of the dumpsite in Montalban. As the mountains of trash formed a wasteland of post-Apocalyptic desolation, the stench assailed our nostrils, making my stomach turn.
Families lived in cramped rows of wooden huts on the fringe of the dumpsite. The ground was littered in waste and muck, flies covered anything remotely looking like food to them.
It is unthinkable and an outrage to think that people should call this severely polluted environment home. Young children ran around with huge sores and scars on their skinny limbs. Adults were emaciated and wizened, their eyes dulled in perpetual misery.
clearly loved. She lived in equal parts of hope and anguish that I would say yes.
We threw a party for the children in the barangay, and Ate Noralyn persuaded two raggedy boys (one with a bulbous eye) who were scavenging for plastic to enter by grabbing their bags of trash into the hall. They could not have been more than 10 years old.
The activities did not interest them for they no longer knew how to play and soon, they snuck out. As Joan commented later in our debrief, they may be beaten by their parents if they did not bring home their usual quota of discarded plastic so they did not have time to loiter.
There were so many stories of tragedy as these families shared their lives with us, and yet, there are also stories of beauty and hope.
The women in the Balikatan Ministry who have been journeying for some years with Esther, Jitka and Joan (more recently with Gemma as well), ICPE Mission Philippines missionaries, were a joy to behold. These are women who live in Montalban and some of them work also as scavengers.They were committed to reverse carolling and touching the lives of their neighbours in ways their own lives had been touched. To share the good news of the Christ child with others. Working together, they displayed a bond of sisterhood and demonstrated that despite the difficulties of life, they could still laugh and have fun. They exemplified Isaiah 9:2: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
CONCLUSION
There is still much for me to process as I end reverse carolling this year.
However, one thing stands out, I cannot go back to my old life. I can and must do much more to help the poor and I invite those of you who read this to do the same.
Thus, the world we live in can become as beautiful as it was created to be.
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