Here One Day, Gone the Next

A while back I posted some photos I took from a visit to a shanty town in Antipolo City, Philippines. The shacks were set up in what was essentially a swamp next to some high-priced luxury homes. I learned that when it rained in the area, the neighborhood was usually flooded up to the knees, even in light rain – the buildup of garbage in the alleys and under homes made drainage a problem.

With the recent flash flooding and the impending tropical storm expected to hit the region within the week, I can’t help but be reminded of this town and its people. This place is under water now. Already poor, many of them were just starting to get on their feet pull themselves out of poverty. I met one woman who had plans to bring her family to Canada. She was going to meet up with her husband, who had left the Philippines in search of better work. Chances are that dream is gone.

I looked at the photos from that day last night, and all I can see are the faces of destroyed lives. I have a strong feeling many of the inhabitants are dead or missing. I don’t know how to feel about this.

A lot of my family members have suffered property damage and emotional turmoil, along with the rest of the population in Metro Manila. If you can, I encourage you to donate some money to the relief fund. $10 goes a long way in the Philippines. You can send money to the Philippine National Red Cross (make sure to put it under “Typhoon Ondoy” in the project/activity.

Random Pictures From Not So Random Times

Things are looking up (but not for the kid below). I’ve finally gone through all of my photos from the Philippines, which was a pain in the ass to say the least. Changed the blog to allow for bigger pictures. A lot of projects in the pipeline. Some I’m working on now, others, maybe later. Here are a few photos from some of the projects and the past few weeks:

Pure badassery.

More after the jump.

How I Got Around (Or Almost Died)

Traveling around the Philippines is an adventure in itself. Depending on your mode of transportation, your chances of getting into an accident/dying increases exponentially. While I was there, I took all sorts of vehicles – rickety cars to rickety planes. For example, I took these a lot:

Tricycle

This is a tricycle, which is basically a motorcycle with a sidecab. Tricycle designs are unique depending on the region of the Philippines you’re in.  I could put up photos of all the different designs, but that’ll get boring fast. Instead:

The view from inside.

The inside of the tricycle cab has “In God We Trust” inscribed on about half of the tricycles you ride in and drivers tend to pack five or six people in these small vehicles. Needless to say, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for the word “safety.” But they are the fastest way to get around towns, even though they don’t follow traffic rules, ever. Rating: 7/10.

Then there’s the jeepney.

Jeepney

Constructed out of old Jeeps left over after World War II, they’re colorful, crafty, and very very hot. Basically the public bus (but privately run) of the Philippines. You could probably cram about 30 people inside, and four or five people hanging on the back. They’re pretty safe, but thats probably because they’re weighed down by people, luggage, and farm animals strapped to the roof. Rating: 5/10.

And then there’s the not so safe forms of transportation. More after the jump.

Making the Best of It

So for the past few days, I was supposed to go to Palawan, another island in the Philippines. Go figure that when I was scheduled to go, a monsoon swept through the country, and my flight was cancelled – two days in a row (more on this in a future post). So instead, I spent the day in a flooded shanty town doing some exploring. Getting there was no easy task. But the trek was definitely worth it. All of the residents, despite their poverty, were very welcoming and kept offering me the little food they had.

What is ironic (and saddening) is that the shanty town is located a stone’s throw away from a very luxurious neighborhood. In the photo above, those houses are maybe 20 feet from the wall. Yet these people are all very very happy. It’s like their situation no longer fazes them, at least on the surface.

I’ll stop writing now and let you mull over the photos. Visiting this neighborhood made me think about how fortunate we are here in America and how petty some of our squabbles are. A lot more photos after the jump.

Drinking at 11AM (or trying to anyway)

One of the things I’ve noticed in the Philippines is that people drink. A LOT. It’s crazy thinking about how much alcohol Filipinos can consume. One of my uncles told me he once consumed 24 beers in one sitting – and that was the first time he had drank beer. Maybe it’s genetic?

I think we were somewhere in our second case of beer.

What was startling wasn’t necessarily the amount, but when people started drinking. 5PM? No. 3PM? No.

11AM? YES.

These guys were drunk when I arrived at 11AM.

In the photo above, those four guys were drinking some cheap gin mixed in with some Mountain Dew, giving it the color of some household cleaning product (chances are it could probably do the job too). These men are pottery makers, creating pottery that not too many people buy. So when the sales are low (which is all the time), they drink to make the day go faster. Which, after a while, becomes a serious problem. Now multiply that by half the population of the Philippines, and that’s a booze pandemic. More after the jump.