Diaries
Last Thursday Gamze and I took two habal-habals and a taxi to meet Father Heinz at the University of San Carlos. He had agreed to take two of us on his daily rounds to visit the people who live at the dumpsite, the street children, and one of the rehousing projects in the area.
Father Heinz left Germany almost 30 years ago. He's a tall thin man, still remarkably white for living in a country where the sun shines hot every day. He wears clean blue jeans and a t-shirt, white sneakers or sometimes Birkenstocks with gray socks. He's a Catholic priest by coincidence, he says. Had he be been born and raised in India, he would have been a Buddhist.
Heinz took us to the Cebu City dumpsite in his clean white jeep, loaded with medicine and snacks in the back cab. More than 200 families live on the dumpsite and at least 100 people, most of them children, were lined up waiting for the white jeep when we got there. Heinz gives out small packs of cookies when he comes. Each month, his organization, JPIC-IDC, spends more than 40,000 PHP, or 1000 USD on snacks for children and adults living on the dumpsite. The cookies are bribe - I'll help you if you respect me. It makes the people loyal to Heinz, and they know they can count on him. For many of the children, those cookies are the only food they'll eat all day. They also listen to him when he says he's done for the day, that he can't give out any more medicine, that he'll be back next week.
Heinz coordinates with a group of German doctors who also help in dumpsite and street communities around Cebu. Each week, a team of German doctors comes to the dumpsite and doles out aspirin, antibiotics, and advice. It's all for free, and there's never enough to go around. One woman with a fever will report that her three children are also back at home with the same symptoms. The numbers only multiply as the line in front of the truck gets longer. The people rely on the German doctors' weekly visit, as much as they rely on Heinz's visits in between. Heinz knows that some people can't, or shouldn't wait seven days for the next visit from the German doctors. Because of this, he also visits once a week, a few days after the German doctors come, to treat infections in between.
Heinz isn't a doctor, but with a stethoscope around his neck, he looks like one. He probes at glands and looks down throats and speaks in hushed Cebuano to the patients standing in front of him. Most are in respiratory distress from the constant fires and fumes on the dumpsite. Some have cysts or growths on their bodies, others have open wounds, turned black from being untreated. He hands out small plastic bags filled with 10 or 20 pills of various colors and sizes, calculating the dosage based on the patient's estimated body weight and age.
When he finally shuts the door to the jeep, people are still pulling at the sleeve of his t-shirt. Wait until Saturday, says Heinz, when the German doctors come. He has to draw the line somewhere, he is only one man.
After he locks the truck, we take a quick walk through the dumpsite so Heinz can check on families he hasn't seen, or babies who have just been born. There are puppies and chickens and children swarming his feet and he walks on broken glass, sewage, and decomposing plastic. We are standing on more than 10 meters of garbage. We find a baby born four days before, surprisingly pink and clean in her mother's arms. A shack nearby has collapsed like a house of cards, all walls leaning to one side. The family crawls in and out of what's left of the house through a window. Despite the obvious difficulties that come with living in a house which has collapsed, the family refuses to leave although Heinz has tried to persuade them to move to a nearby rehousing project. They want to be the first ones to the dump truck when it comes daily. It is the only livelihood they know.
We leave the dumpsite as it's getting dark, and Heinz drives us a few kilometers down the road to a nearby rehousing project for some of the families from the Cebu City dumspite.
The air here is considerably cleaner - there's no smoke from fires and the stench of garbage is absent. Only 40 families have decided to come and live in this rehousing project. It's incredibly difficult to convince scavengers to leave their livelihood. They're convinced that if they leave the dumpsite, they won't be able to feed their families and in many cases, this is true. Without the proper training or livelihood options, families are destined to struggle if they leave the dump. However, as the sun sets quickly behind the rehousing project, Heinz points out 9 huge mango trees which provide more than 20,000 PHP of income each per year. These fruit trees belong to the housing project and everyone who lives there helps to take care of them and reaps the benefits from the work. Each family gets around 80 USD a year from the trees, not a lot, but enough to significantly supplement their other income.
We don't stay long at the rehousing project, it's peaceful here and Heinz has just stopped by to check in. The mosquitoes have come out and we rub rubbing alcohol on our skin before last stop is Carbon market, the biggest market in Cebu. All the produce and supplies in the city are delivered here and smaller markets their get stock from this market. It smells of fish and raw meat, barbecue smoke and sewage. It's dark as we park the jeep on a narrow crowded street. We hide our valuables under the seat and Heinz locks the door.
We're hear to find a group of street children who live in the market. We find them in a narrow corridor flanked by small eat shops and fish stalls. Rats as big as kittens run in the shadows of the walls and hands grope at my pockets and pant legs. They are mostly boys with thick muscular arms and wiry, styled hair. They greet Heinz with enthusiasm, shaking his hand, hugging his waist, pressing the back of his hand to their foreheads in a gesture of respect. He messed up their hair and jokes around with them in Cebuano.
Most of these boys under 18 have been in prison. Almost all of them are addicted to sniffing rugby glue. None of them have parents and they all live together on the streets of this market, stealing from the pockets of foreigners, the stalls of eateries, and each other.
Heinz has come tonight to buy them a meal, something he does three or four times a week as part of another program JPIC-IDC runs. He takes attendance on a pad of paper in shaky handwriting, scrawling down the names of the boys who are there, turning away some who he knows have parents. He hands the list to a woman in a nearby food stall who starts to dole out small portions of food to the crowd of kids. Each kid is given 25 pesos for a meal, about 50 cents, plenty when it comes to street food here. As they eat, more arrive and Heinz adds them to the list, handing over more pesos to the hand of the woman doing the cooking.
Heinz has made an agreement with some of the food vendors in the Carbon market. When he comes, they must provide the boys with food, and not refund the money. For the vendors, it's guaranteed income. For the children, it's a meal and not drugs.
Father Heinz sneaks away as the kids are eating, he says he'll come back later in the week when there's less chaos and we're not there to distract the boys. As we approach the van to head home, there's already a crowd of people waiting at the door, hoping for medicine. Heinz indulges the most serious cases - a woman who's tooth is infected, a man with a serious fever. He turns the rest away - the German doctors also visit Carbon market once a week and their visit is only a few days away.
It's 8:30 PM as we pull back into San Carlos university. Heinz has been up since 5 AM and the weariness shows on his face. We wash our hands with soap and water in the kitchen on the eighth floor - an incredible luxury after seeing such poverty. Heinz lives here with a number of other clergymen and dinner is still set out on the table.
After we have a small meal, Heinz takes us to a final destination - the rooftop of San Carlos. The moon is full and the sky is clear. We stay long enough only to take a few pictures. We're all exhausted - especially Heinz - and unlike us, he has to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.
The power of purpose.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
How many of us live truly purposeful lives and how many just drift along, always trying to fit in with the trends, living life on others terms?
True power comes with purpose. It brings an inner awareness, an inner state of being in control, knowing that we can achieve our goals. It brings a calm conviction about our true identity. It makes us believe that we can achieve all that we set out to achieve in life. It gives us quiet confidence in our abilities. It helps us set a direction for our life. It makes us distinguish among circumstances over those we have some control and over those we have no control. This power makes us define ourselves from inside out. It makes us always moving towards self-confidence. We constantly keep affirming, I am a capable person. I can handle all life challenges. I am creative. I learn from all my mistakes. etc the power which can move mountains and achieve miracles.
How can we cultivate this power in our lives? This comes with a vision for our future. It comes when we open up to new possibilities. It comes when we nurture our inherent strengths. Yes, each one of us has been granted numerous gifts by nature/ God / the universe/ spirit/ energy/ intelligence; whatever name you may call it. Ask yourself, what are the blessing/ gifts/ powers that I have been blessed with so far? Make a list of these blessings. Your list could include a safe and secure home, a loving family, fresh drinking water, plenty of food, good health, a sound mind, education, employment, friends, freedom from life threats, talents, abilities etc.
Once you have made this list, you are ready to ask the next question: Why have I been given all these gifts? What is the purpose ? This is a very important question, so let the answer come from deep inside of yourself. For some, the purpose could be to experience love, beauty, and aliveness. For some others, it could be sharing the gifts and supporting others in living joyful, authentic lives. Some may be inclined to create conditions where everyone can live with inner security and peace. Some may wish to understand more about the human nature and human experience. There can be as many purposes as people existing, since each one of us is unique of gifts and talents.
Once you have identified your most compelling purpose you are ready for the final question. Ask yourself, What actions do I need to take today in the direction of my life purpose? How can I align my gifts with the purpose I have identified? Whichever way you frame this question, the answer to this question will give you the power of purpose. This answer will make you look at each moment as an opportunity to march forward on your chosen path.
So, ask these questions, honesty answer them and your power of purpose. This power will propel you towards success in any chosen field because this will be aligned with who you are.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Recently I was taking a walk when suddenly my eyes focused on a woman standing on the top of a fence. Before I figured out what she was trying to do I was fascinated at what I saw next. This lady jumped over a wall of two meters high. I buried my check in my palm as I watched in both shock and admiration-admiring her courage, but shocked by her decision until I discovered the reason why she had taken the risk. Someone was after her life, so she had to creatively devise means of escape without hurting herself. This incident made me realized that God deposited in to each of us the power of creativity. Only that most times we are unaware of it until problems show up. This is the power that helps us find to our daily problems. People will always find a way of creativity solving their problems. If they locked you in a house for a day, you'd generate ideas of how to break out. Power. During school days, I used to enter the exam room wondering whether I knew anything only to get surprised by how the mind would retrieve whatever I had read just at the sight of the questions! The thought process was always boosted by the problem (exam). But do you have to first wait for problems before you can tap in to your creativity? For a moment forget about the problems and look at positive motivators. Focus on your life-long dreams. If there was a $100m prize for walking from one end of the country to another end (east to west, north to south), many of us would mobilize energy and walk. On one reality local fm radio program in my country, a man died in the studio for drinking too much hot water during a computation in which they wanted to see who would drink the highest amount of hot water. If you take steps to discover the hidden power of creativity in you and use it, you can be sure you are on your way to a place called success.
This past Saturday, I had the chance to witness the infamous “Dancing Inmates” at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre for a live performance.
The prisoners in this maximum security jail located way up in the mountains became well-known around the world following the 2007 release of a YouTube video of the inmates performing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.
Since then, they’ve been making public performances once a month, coming out with new dance routines regularly, and were even taught material from ‘This is It’ by Michael Jackson’s choreographer, Travis Payne, when he visited Cebu.
The dance “rehabilitation” program was spearheaded by Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia, whose photo was paraded out on a giant posterboard during the performance finale. It seems to be a successful tourism ploy – the bus ride and entrance were free, but I suppose the idea is once the tourists are in Cebu, they will spend money elsewhere.
The famous dance troupe has had its share of controversy. Some say glorifying the work of prisoners – many of them violent criminals and murderers – is not a proper form of punishment. I imagine a victim or victim’s family member might not appreciate tourists flocking to see the inmates dance and then praising their work when they greet them after the show.
There have also been reports of abuse when inmates say they don’t want to participate, and that the best dancers are given special privileges within the jail. Upon entering, a large table was laden with dancing inmates souvenirs, some of which were made by the inmates themselves. When you get up to the viewing area, other inmates can be seen in a row of jail cells stringing beads to make souvenirs while the dancers put on their show.
But other than that, my experience was quite positive. The women next to me knew a couple of the prisoners and told me their friends love the dance program. Seeing the enthusiasm of the prisoners and speaking to them after, I really got the impression they wanted to participate.
As for punishment, it seems the isolation of being behind bars is the real punishment for someone in jail. Dancing four hours a day is certainly an incredible workout for the inmates and likely an effective channel for aggression and anger. Not to mention they will leave jail with a new talent and hopefully a sense of worth in society.
One of my biggest qualms was the lack of security at this “maximum security” jail. They didn’t bother to take our names, check IDs, or even look in our bags. There was so much commotion at the end with visitors moving in and out to meet the dancers, it seems all too possible that someone could escape. Not to mention, I could have brought anything in my bag.
It’s definitely a grey area, and I still have mixed feelings about the whole concept, but one thing is for certain: those inmates put on an incredible performance. It was complete with 12 numbers, including an emotional tribute to the King of Pop with a Filipino MJ dancing in his place, moonwalk and all. I was beyond impressed. In fact, I would love to go back and see the show again before I leave.
We tour, we conquer, and then return home. I am not describing the trade bazaar in campuses or the wildest ladies night in Magellan's pub. But what usually happens over the weekends, when ladies and gents take their time to hangout with the intention to relax themselves. Even if I was describing what happened in Magellan's pub I would not be far from the point.
Saturday, the 21st of September 2010 was a little bit different from other days of the week, in the morning between the hours of 10am to 11am we received a team of experts (DreamPlan) from different parts of the Cebu province, these included the DEDON team, Grace (accounting director), Rose (accounting manager), Rosemell (Cebu design library), David Overton (Glory Reborn org.) and Tony (Ashoka representative in the Philippines) from Manila. The consultation meeting was over by lunch time and at 1pm we received words of inspiration from Tony of Ashoka before he took his way back. Our faces were full of smiles, talking to each other about the DreamPlan meeting we had with the experts, every one of us had some thing interesting to share with friends. The most common and similar characteristics from these experts was that they gave constructive criticism. As soon as the evening stepped on the stairs of our the door way another common dream was calling ten Fellows, these didn't matter what name one calls God or the biological characteristic. We all took one way, one jippney and went straight to Magellan's pub, it's a popular tourist sport in Lapu-Lapu city and what makes it unique from other pubs in Cebu province is that it offers free drinks for ladies every saturday night from the hour of 9:00pm till dawn and they named it as ladies night. From inside we walked straight to the counter and looking a bit stranded because all sits were already occupied, but because we were foreigners avery big table was quickly arranged with ten chairs around it, as my co-Fellows were walking to occupy their sits, I was offered a seat right at the counter were I was surrounded by sets of video games. On my left hand side, an english premiership was going on, Tottenham Hotspur vs Stoke City, I couldn't wait to jump in and support Tottenham Hotspur simply because of Peter Crouch who transferred from Liverpool two seasons ago to my favorite club in the premier league. Their game ended 2 to 1 in favor of Tottenham, exactly following my bet. At my back from the counter a giant screen was playing rugby for which I am not a fan. As bottles were opened one after another, the ladies night tales that sounded so much fun, excitement, much like what I thought it would be started to be real. On stage a live band was performing, dancing and the moon walk was not charged (part of customer care). Besides there creativity, the music sound was very beautiful to my ears. Fashion and style, jeans ruled for both guys and ladies. The ladies. I must say, had a thing for skinny jeans. About 88% of the ladies walked in to the pub floor dressed in their skinny jeans, leaving only about 5% in dresses and 7% in mini skirts.
Almost one week since we have come back to Dedon. For some Fellows today is their first day, because last week we did things separately, some went to Compostela and the others weaved at Dedon. The circumstances are quite different when it comes working only with half of us, and when we work together in the same thing and same place. Last week we did our own panel, one person took care of one panel, let me tell you, these panels are around 2 meters high, so it’s such a huge thing to do it by yourself. Not impossible, but still tiring and kind of boring to do it alone. But it’s changing today, almost all of the Fellows do the panels in a pair. And after I tried it myself it’s nice and so much better to have someone to chat with than listening to music all the time when do weaving. So far the progress run quite smoothly, although we still have to finish a half of the total panel, but I think we still do have enough time. Personally, I really do like weaving, compared to Compostela in the last 3 weeks. Because I think I didn’t help much with carrying things or cutting the wire. Especially when I only could carry 1 and a half shovel of sand or gravels while others could carry 4 till 5 shovels in one trip. Even the Umapad people (the people that will move to the future-village and now joining us together to build their community center) could carry 10 shovels in their shoulders! For me that is really something and I believe that most of you will agree with me when you know the way that they have to pass in every trip from road to the construction site.
But here in Dedon doing the panels, I feel that I did something, I have the feeling that I really do help by making something that’s gonna be used since we are creating the real walls for the building. The feeling is way better than the past weeks. Even though sometimes it makes our shoulders and back pretty stiff after having weaved for some time in so many positions. Actually we can cope with it by stretching or laying down on the floor or take a short walk. But who’s complaining anyway?=P
It was the first time weaving panels in Dedon. WHERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY.
When a person really wants to do something, he will find a way of doing it.
A goof beginning makes a good ending.
To succeed in life one must have the courage to say what he wants
Dedon is a company which is well organized. The company was founded by the former professional Bayern munich footballer, Bobby Dekeyser . He came up with the idea of starting a company when he was still young. Dedon is a company which makes indoor and outdoor furniture. Dedon has several branches in different countries like USA, Germany, France, and China. Dedon produces a good quality of furniture and every one wants to buy the Dedon furniture because it is a durable and weather resistant fiber. All employees in Dedon work with love because they love the work they are doing . All workers in Dedon have access to the basic needs like medical care is free in Dedon to all workers, the company provides also transport to the workers.
Introduction and briefing of weaving panels for the first time in Dedon.
The topic was clearly defined and the training objectives was also clearly stated. The trainers were experts in the topic. The Fellows were generally very satisfied with all the aspects of the training. It gave the Fellows some practical information that was useful to the Fellows and right now the Fellows have started using the previous training knowledge to weave wall panels. There were sufficient opportunities to practice what was taught during the training and it helped the Fellows to identify areas that the Fellows needed to further develop. The training motivated the Fellows and every Fellow was satisfied because of the motivation during the training.
Time is money.
This afternoon we had a very insightful talk with Tony La Viña, Country Representative for Ashoka in the Philippines. It was an unconventional seminar/talk instead of a power point presentation he chose to speak to a group of 17 young people from all around the world through the medium of narrative. The stories he told were filled with life lessons for people looking to affect change through novel ideas for social innovation.
Lesson one: Deep-seated and historical social problems might be overwhelming in their enormity so it is important for someone looking to change it to find an effective (however small) role to play for himself.
For Tony the seeds of social development activism and entrepreneurship were planted in 1976 in Mindanao (where he is originally from) when he was 16. 1974-1976 he saw immense violence due to the rebellion by the Moro National Liberation Front during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos with 10s of 1000s of people killed in the area. The rest filtered into his home town of Cagayan de Oro which was spared and in the middle of the war became a refugee center. At the time he was in the 4th year of high school and one of the things they tried to do at school was to deliver relief goods to the refuges. For a young person faced with war the experience was one of being overwhelmed and frustrated by the hunger, suffering and helplessness he saw. The big question was what one person could do within such an immense problem. By looking around he noticed in the refugee camps that a lot of young people were dying because of problematic health care problems (basic primary health care was not available in the camps). The fact that there were babies dying made the role that he and his high school students could play in fact very simple. He and the other students began to look for coffins for the young people that were dying and started getting the funeral parlors to donate small coffins so that they could be given proper burials.
The lesson he learned from this experience was that when you are faced with a huge social issue needing to be addressed it is good to understand how big they are to try to find a solution but it is also equally important to find an effective role in the problem for yourself. Even today when he travels to Mindanao he meets people who come up to him and say things like you provided a coffin for my sister, daughter etc. He is as happy about this role he played as with his current one in global problems. As he put it: “whatever the problem, you can find a role to play and have a specific piece of the problem that you can be responsible for”.
Lesson two: Not alone because collaboration is easily found
When Tony went to collage he studied philosophy and then became a philosophy teacher. After graduation he decided that he didn’t want to go looking for a cooperate job. At the time typically the best students found that the best thing to do is to “sell soap” referring to careers with Procter and gamble, Unilever etc. He confesses that for a young Pinoy in his teens in 1980s who was concerned about the country it is normal to at least once think about revolutionary action. But the more he thought about it the more unwise it seemed to him. In order to find a practical social and political role he became a human rights lawyer. And in 1987 he cofounded Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Friends of the Earth Philippine with 3 other people who were all his classmates in the college to provide legal help to indigenous people who lived in the mountains of Mindanao.
As students they wrote the Ford foundation asking for help and promised that in a year they could demonstrate genuine change. The foundation replied and granted them 20 000 dollars. When the Ford foundation left the Philippines their organization was given 3 million dollars as an endowment to keep aiding their work.
The lesson learnt was that “what is good for you is good for others as well. The one thing you should always tell yourself is that you are not alone. You can appeal to other people to be part of your dream. You cannot give your dream to others, they are not transferable but you can invite people to have the same journey as you. Good social enterprises for that matter are about finding partners that will walk with you in realizing the dream, everyone from investors to people who work with you.”
Lesson three: Find a niche for yourself and your own uniqueness
As young people (2 had just graduated and 2 were still students when the money came in) the organization offered something older, more experienced lawyers could not. The community they intended to help lived in remote mountainous areas. Hence they were able to, and did climb “a lot of mountains to get to their client communities”. So Tony advices to always “find a niche for yourself... as young lawyers we could climb mountains … we could promise the foundation that we could reach our clients”.
Lesson four: It is ok to learn as long as you need in order to make a change
In his case because of the work with indigenous peoples he ended up being an environmental lawyer and needed to study for it. So it “is ok to study as long as you want to” as for him full time work began when he was 31.
Lesson five: Collaboration not conflict causes real change
Out of all the roads he has taken towards change (he has been in the Non-profit area, the government as an Environment Undersecretary of the Philippines and is now in social entrepreneurship with Ashoka) the most valuable has been the social entrepreneurship approach. This is because he looks for ways to solve a problem through collaboration and working with people. Tony believes that “when you think entrepreneurially you don’t see the world as a world of enemies (unlike law for example where the starting point is animosity). That is not liberating. But when you approach things as a social business then the goal is to win the other over. You actually see everyone in front of you as people to persuade, enlist and inspire with a cause”.
This is a great lesson to learn personally as one of the universal principles of partnering for development is that mutual benefit leads to sustainability (according to The Partnering Initiative).
Lesson six: Forced change is not permanent change
In his role in climate change Tony has found out that an "incentive based approach" rather than a “blame and shame approach" is responsible for a more sustainable change. This is because an approach that forces countries and people to do what they really don’t want to do will not end in successful behavior change. Taking the example of law he claims that “as a lawyer the worst thing you can do is to force someone to do what they don’t want to do. They will find a way not to do what they are meant to do”. In climate change he tries to find incentives for companies, governments and NGOs etc to act decisively but convinced that it is good for them to do that.
This point really spoke to me as it has been postulated that the use of undue influence and sustainability of results is an inverse relationship in that the more influence used to get results the less likely they are to be lasting ones.
Thanks Tony for sharing and I hope that I am able to apply some of the lessons you talked about in my future career and my life choices...
There is one very essential thing to understand here in the Philippines. Even tough people might not have a lot, every Filipino has an extremely high pride. So, one of the most important accessories is a mirror and a comb. As Father Heinz put it, come what may, but I will be damned if I had to be rescued from a car accident with a destroyed hair do. The Umapad community dressed up in their cleanest clothes to welcome us – and clean in this case means the brightest white.
Around here, pink also seems to be the new black. It is not at all a faux-pas for a man to be wearing a pink hair band or pink shirts. Quite on the contrary, it highlights your taste and makes you look on top of every fashion trend. – So, yes, I have seriously considered getting a pink hair band for myself – haven’t gotten around to buying it yet though ☺
It might seem weird, but this is how the world turns over at this side of our globe. Looks are very important, because that is something everyone can be in control of.
The obvious thing – most of us foreigners being taller by a head than the standard Filipino – is striking and was noticed by all of us within the first few days. However, there are some funny aspects to this difference in size one only realizes over time. For example that toilet seats (if there are any) are a lot further down, than we are used to. Steps seem to have a different measurement – tiny to be more specific. Even in the bathroom, tiles don’t go up as far as they use to back home. (Yes, I’m sorry, I do splash water on the wall...) In Negros, the dividing curtains between showers were way to short (on the top end), Jeepneys are in general designed in order to drive foreigners around blind-folded (because the top bar is exactly in front of your eyes). But still, the national sport is basketball. You might ask why. I did the same. Doesn’t it seem a little peculiar for a people measuring an average of 1.52 to 1.64 m in height to be competing in a sport, privileging tall players? The answer I got, was simply the fact, that a basketball court doesn’t need anything more than a hoop. And this can be put up literally anywhere – by the street, in the forest, on an unoccupied rice field ...
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