Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Duct tapes and Astro shoes
Walking around the city can be tiring. But if I were the shoes people used to walk around the city, I’d be exhausted, beaten-up, and maybe even mutilated. That is exactly why duct tapes were invented!
On May 2nd and 3rd,2011, we had our Social Discovery Walk which was like The Amazing Race spiced with Cebuano culture and poverty plus unlimited water supply. Travelling was on foot but jeepney rides were twice mandatory.
For the first day, there were seven checkpoints namely Casa Gorodo, Colon, Freedom Park, Tabo-an, Pagtambayayong Foundation, the Pari-an Drop-in Center, and Estero Pari-an. Each had different challenge tasks which were to be completed in an hour. By finishing the challenge well, the team gains points. The number of points the team has by the end of the first day determines their supper and what they sleep on.
Our first stop was Casa Gorordo where we transformed our net bags to “net-backpacks” and had a tour around the house. We were then off to Colon, diligently looking for heritage markers and copying what was written on them. I never knew Colon was so glorious before.
Next was Freedom Park. Key words were Nanay Mary, flowers, interview, and grocery. Freedom Park is the only station where we didn’t run out of time. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for lunch, so we ate our cheese bread on the last four minutes of our stay in Freedom Park.
I bet by now you’re wondering why the title is about duct tapes and astro shoes. When we were on our way to Taboan from Freedom Park, the sole of my left shoe fell off - more like detached itself. Either way, I was walking the rest of the journey with a sole-less shoe. We repacked charcoal in Taboan and got our hands dirty. Like literally.
After Taboan, we were on our way to Pagtambayayong. While we were on the right track, we asked for directions and got the wrong information. We were lost. Trying to think clearly, we sat on the gutters outside Cebu City Medical Center. Ate Venus (my buddy) finally told Silver Cloud (our facilitator) about my shoe and how tired I was so he called “The Van”. I got in, and that was when Mista showed me his duct tape. A huge roll of duct tape. Silver Cloud helped me fix my shoe and since the duct tape was silver, my shoe looked like it was from outer space. So Silver Cloud coined the word “astro shoes”. Since then, my teammates and I started calling my shoe “astro shoes” even if only my left shoe was fixed.
I rode “The Van” going to Pagtambayayong while my teammates walked another, say, 800 meters sweltering. Thankfully, our Pagtambayayong challenge was to listen to a lecture (about Pagtambayayong and their housing programs) and ask questions in an air-conditioned room. It was such a relief. After languidly listening to the lecture and asking questions, we were to depart for the Pari-an Drop-in Center. That was the first time we rode a jeepney.
Pari-an Drop-in Center housed children and it was there when we were educated about the statistics of children who are abused, abandoned, and the like. We asked the kids what their names were and how old they were. Some actually look small for their age due to malnutrition. After that, we played a game. It wasn’t long until time was up, so we started to make our way to CTU.
The volunteers met us at the Estero Pari-an Bridge so we didn’t really need to walk all the way to CTU. Interview. We asked residents in the area stuff about the estero. Whether they could remember a time the estero was clean, why it became dirty, etcetera. What we found startling is that some actually said it was once clean and it started to become dirty during the construction of Gaisano Main (I hope I don’t get sued for honesty.). Also, some residents throw in garbage to the estero. We traced the estero back to Gaisano Main and spot mapped some important places we passed by. The estero mysteriously vanishes under the mall…
We rode a jeepney to the Redemptorist Church which was our pit stop. We added the points we gathered the entire day and decided the quantity of food we were eating and what we were going to sleep on. Our team agreed on having 3 ngohiongs per buddy instead of longanisa or chicken back. But my buddy and I requested to get longanisa instead. We didn’t know they were small. Luckily, the longanisa they got lacked one. So we traded with our teammate one longanisa for a ngohiong. Mmm.. Also, we preferred sleeping on cartons instead of newspapers or tarpaulin. After supper, our team had a heavy discussion on the RH Bill. We were all pro believe it or not.
Silver Cloud told us it was time to go so we started walking to our sleeping area. While we were on our way, we saw prostitution, homelessness, and the severity of poverty…
The other teams slept inside the Fuente Circle, one outside Bo’s Coffee (near Cebu Doctor’s Hospital), and us, just below the Department of Health signage, across Crown Regency. We were lulled to sleep by the beautifully orchestrated lights of Crown Regency. It wasn’t bad at all. We slept so well that none of us woke up when SPEED personnel tried to evict us from our sleeping area. Only those on sentry duty knew about it and told us the following morning. If you’re wondering where we peed and pooped, well, where else? No, not on the sidewalk, but on McDonald’s.
Morning came and we had walked to Carreta cemetery. We had our reflection and ate breakfast. One question I couldn’t answer was: how would I describe the urban community to a tourist? The question still haunts me today. After breakfast, the team started to walk to EADSC while I rode again because of the pain. It broke my heart that my teammates trudged under the heavy rain taking note of everything they passed by that could help alleviate poverty…
Upon reaching EADSC, Silver Cloud told us to go to Casa Gorordo instead of immediately going to the Plenary Hall. I laugh every time I remember Sir Mel’s remark, “Silver Cloud will cloud you pa”. I was apprehensive because Silver Cloud wasn’t there. Still, I sat with my teammates on the prickly Bermuda grass and waited patiently. After about 20 seconds, Silver Cloud arrived carrying a case of cola. Yay! He opened them and gave each one of us. We proceeded with taking turns to give people toasts and affirmation. It didn’t take long actually. After everyone had given toasts, we placed the bottles back in the case and the boys returned them to a nearby store. We then went to the 6th floor. We changed, talked with our team about poverty and how we feel about what we saw the previous day, ate lunch, answered the evaluation forms, and headed home.
It was the best thing that ever happened to me so far. I learned a whole lot about poverty, challenged to live simply, and be the best that I can to be able to effectively help others. I brought home valuable lessons, some persistent insect bites, and my asto shoes. My astro shoes live on, safely kept in a box under my bed. I will never throw them away. The lessons I learned, kept it my heart forever.
P.s. Never belittle the power of the duct tape.
1 Comments:
Unknown said...
Thank you for writing it down. i hope this can be published/distributed both as is, and in cebuano dialect. This is a good eye opener to a lot of people, not just for the youth, but for all ages.