WARNING: POST IS IMAGE HEAVY.
Recently, I was able to visit a slum area with my friends, and other leaders from our church. Since we had a car and were part of a rather large group, I had no qualms about bringing a DSLR (my dad’s since his is smaller and lighter than my DSLR). I also brought my rangefinder camera because shooting with film is fun.
The area is located in Junction, Cainta. It lies at a very close proximity to Metrobank and UCPB at Imelda Avenue.
The people there have very sad living conditions. The kids obviously don’t get enough attention and were excited by the prospect of having other people visiting their community. They were all very friendly and all vying for the visitors’ attention.
Adults in the area usually start drinking at noon, if not earlier than that. They show no signs of stopping even as 6:00PM comes rolling in. The sack that the man is holding up in the photo contains one of the most morbid things ever: the remains of a dog they butchered so they would have something to eat along with their rum. A friend of mine who arrived at the place before I did witnessed the actual slaying of the poor dog and was mortified by it.
The kids were really sweet and it was heartbreaking to see them living that way, when they could have so much more. Some of these kids go to school at out church where volunteers teach them elementary to high school education. Everything is free and provided for by the church and a few sponsors from overseas. They only have to take an exam from the Department of Education to get their high school diploma. Unfortunately, majority of the kids in the community are still prevented from going to school by their own parents and are instead sent out on the streets to beg for food or money. They can’t even go for Vegas vacations.
I was impressed, though, by the amount of energy displayed by the children. Stuck in a situation which seemed to have no hope, some of them still manage to find things to laugh and smile about. It somehow made me think of my own life. I realized that I have so much to smile and laugh about, yet I don’t take the time to appreciate those aspects of my life.
It was a very short and rather chaotic visit. I do hope to be back soon – maybe in a few months. I didn’t know that offering to snap a picture or simply giving a child a couple of minutes’ attention could make such a difference, no matter how small the gesture.
For more photos, view the Flickr set.