National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

This post is about my first day in Angeles City, the #1 city in the Philippines for prostitution. The next couple weeks of posts are going to be filled with things that happened and things that I'd seen. Ironically, this day that I was exposed to this whole new world was also "National Human Trafficking Awareness Day". It was so very appropriate. I don't know how much you want to read. Feel free to skip parts if you must. I will try to say it all gently but I feel like I shouldn't. I just want to give a clear image of the world here where I spent 2 weeks of my life that taught me so much and I hope you learn something too.

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Wow. What a day. So much to process. First I had the MOST FRUSTRATING conversation with the driver about poverty and he believed that people are only poor because they are lazy. As this conversation progressed I became more frustrated as he blatantly insulted my career choice and telling me that I was wasting my time and literally laughed at me the whole 3 hour ride. I later discovered that many MANY people think this way! It was most enraging and I couldn't believe it as he stood his ground. If you want to open this conversation up feel free... I have a whole soap box rant about it now :) I arrived in Angeles city mid-afternoon with my food from Jollibee and got introduced to the staff. They happened to be eating from the same famous fast food chain as well. They all seemed great and I became more excited to be there. I spent the rest of the day talking to Paulo about his organization and it was so interesting. They help women escape from the bars and help educate them in getting an education and a real job afterwards. I learned so much today that it's difficult to recall it all now. I'd need to write a 10 page paper to fully explain everything... Oh heey! Good thing I am! :)

My first impressions of Angeles was basically shock. I had sat down and talked to Paulo for hours about the city and everything about it and what I should expect. But seeing it in real life was a little overwhelming. To see how plainly, unhidden, and open prostitution was in this city was truly a whole new world. I can continue to explain it in words but it just doesn't do it justice. It just feels like I'm repeating what everyone already knows, and what I knew before I went. I knew it all yet it was still shocking to me. I rode down the street on the back of a motorbike and we didn't even pass half of the 300 bars lining the roads, prompting people to go in. There were white, caucasean males everywhere and here for one reason only. "There are no beaches here" Paulo said, "why else would they come here?" It was disgusting. And it wasn't even 3 o'clock, and yet the bars were busling with unattractive, large, and older men. One man was still zipping up his pants as he walked out of a bar. We stopped to get a fruit drink (4 seasons became my choice drink) at one of the 5 star hotels (that they have EVERYWHERE for all the rich folk that come here...) and sat out by the pool. There were countless men hanging out by the pool, laughing with their friends, some with 1 or 2 women that they just bought for the evening. Just sitting out there in front of everyone else, unashamed and unembarrassed. You think they'd care a little more but it's so accepted here... and this is all in a city that claims that prostitution is illegal. It's just so sad.

I became more frustrated as I let it all sink in. What kind of men would come here?? There's a whole retirement home for retired American soldiers right down the street. Do they really have nothing better to do with their lives? If I had a pension like that I'd use it to retire where its pretty, like the beach...

This world is going to take some getting used to. I had the night to process as I prepared to actually go inside of the bars of Angeles City the next day.

Chill Day #2

I was suppose to leave for RENEW, the agency that rescues women from prostitution, today but due to a few unforsceen issues I wont be leaving till tomorrow, creating another day mostly for myself. It's a Monday so all of the social workers are at work and I got to catch up on journaling and email T'was sweet. I had the day to process and get mentally prepared for the next 4 days of my life. I know it might be intense, but I don't know how much. I dont know how much I can help due to my lack of experience, but I am going to learn a lot this week.

After lunch I went to hang out at the childrens home with the other social workers after they got home. I was hoping my buddy Paulo would remember me and I was overjoyed when he did.

He didn't leave my side all day, and when I walked away for a minute I came back to a confused boy scanning all the faces in the yard until he saw me and ran toward me with arms wide open :D And the most precious moment of the day occured when my very chapped lips started to bleed. My little 4 year old friend ran and got me a tissue and held it on my lip until it stopped. The concern on his face was my favortie as his "big-little" heart shown through. When it had stopped he asked, "better?". Yea buddy... much better :)

Waterfalls

Just a fantastic day! We gained a further appreciation of the beauty of the Philippines today when we went to a waterfall called Daranak Falls in Tanay, Rizal. The water was a bright blue and looked gorgeous as itflowed down the rocks into the lake. Some adventerous folkd decided to scale the rocks surrounding the falls and jump in from about 15 feet. It didnt look lik the easiest climb, but Hannah, Christy, and I were feeling brave and gave it a try. After the first slightly hesitant climb, we lost all sense of fear and spent the rest of the day leaping from the rocks and trying out new ones to scale. We met some Filipinos ding the same thing that encouraged us in our adventurous nature. Afterwards we sat down to talk to them and it was so cool to hear about their life in the Philippines. They grew up in Mindenow, the most dangerous area in the Philippines. There is a lot of fighting there between the Musslims and Christians. So as Christians themselves,the felt very persecuted. They now live on an island east of Manila. They told me about the best places to go in the Philippines and it sounds like a fantastic place to spend more time. My new goal will be to take my family back for a vacation someday! Maybe for Eric's graduation... :)

It took 2 whole Jeepney's plus a truck to carry us all there.

Chill day #1

My practicum with RENEW felt like it was going to fall through. I had to decide if I still wanted to go on the trip to the rescue house for sex trafficking. It is a 4 day long trip that I'd spend at a city 4 hours north of Manila so I would not be spending as much time with my group. 3 girls from "The World Race" that are living with us, who would have been so much fun to go with, can no longer come. And so I have to decide if I want to still go by myself. It not the safety that I'm worried about, but my competency to dothis alone. I have very little knowledge as to what I will be seeing and experiencing. I wont want to pass this opportunity up if they will allow me to go alone because I know it will be an experience unlike any other.

Since Christy and were the only 2 without assignment for the day we went to the children's home orphanage which is not more then 50 steps from where we live. The kids were more active then they were yesterday, and were a joy... what's new? And I got to hang out with one caretaker, Rona, whose main job is to run the nursery and other job is to entertain us :) I got to talk to her more and she ended up telling me her story of how she came to the children's home and how beinghere has changed her life and impacted her and her son. She used to be Muslim but became a Christian after seeing how much God has done for these children. She questions sometimes why God doesn't help more then he does. "There is so much bad things happening in my county" she said "why doesn't God do more". This is actually something that I've been thinking about for awhile now. "Sometimes God doesn't act directly from heaven but uses people like us to help". It is up to all of us to do our part and her prayer should be for other people to be changed and moved to help the needy. Tom Davis' book "scared" gives a very vivid image of this.

The rest of the day was Rona day and we accompanied her to yet another homeless feeding. I even tried the sloshy type stuff we were

serving and it wasn't that bad! The group of us after dinner went went back to play with the babies again and WOW (Rona's fav word :) the kids were OUT-RAGEOUS!! They were in these giggle fits that we could not snap them out of! I dont think I really wanted to either... My little friend, Paulo, who I met earlier was the source of it all. He and another boy, KenKen would start singing the Justin Bieber song "Baby", and would sometimes instead would sing "chicken" sending all the toddlers into a hysterical fit! I had to video it b/c it was worth remembering :)

A day of firsts

We didn't have any plans for the morning so some of us went to the children's home (orphanage) to spend time with the kids. And as I expected I loved it :). They all called us "Tita" which is an endearing term for "big sister". They grabbed us by the hand and showed us around and spent the day having fun with us. I found the nursery and the babies just melted my heart! They have the biggest eyes and are so playful. I was talking to the director about how adoptions are done in the Philippines and as it turns out, it is very difficult for Americans to adopt. The younger kids are given to Filipino families while only special needs and older kids are allowed for adoption to America. And even then, a lot of family's aren't approved due to strict regulations. It's very sad but the nannies here love them and only want them to be happy.We still had time on our hands so we decided to make our way to the market. It was exciting as I got to take a trike for the 1st time. It is essentially a motorbike with a side cart to the right where they put some of the passengers. We were told by several people that it's make to seat 6 so we will all fit in one. "Oh yea" one girl said, "we've done this before. We can do it.". Looking at the thing I thought "there is no possible way!". 2 people sat sidesaddle very cosily on the back of the bike and 4 squeezed into the cart. It couldn't be wider then 2 1/2 feet and we were supposed to fit 2 in the back and 2 in the front? I just laughed and repeated over and over again, "you've GOT to be kidding me!". I'm pretty sure they didn't account for the fact that us Americans are about double their size! The ride probably wasn't more then 15 minutes long but it feels longer when your leg is going numb... :P. As we got out we POURED out of the cart like soda from a can that had just been shaken. It was good to get out and experience more of the Philippines. And although I didn't buy more then a few snacks to hold me over during the day it was a nice time.

Then there's the Jeepney. That's another experience worth mentioning. These colorful buses were modeled after vehicles used in World War 2 and were modified to be a little more hospitable to the traveling public. Each vehicle is unique in it's coloring and each driver takes pride in their designs. They add an exciting look to the streets of Manila as we point out the fun images we see painted on the sides of them. They remind me so much of what "The Magic School Bus" looks like

that I half expect Ms. Frizzle to be driving. Instead we found a smoking man asking for money. There's 2 benches each facing inward on either side of the car. And you climb in and scour for a space on one of the benches that you feel you can actually fit into, and then, what feels like the theme for today is, we squish! I immediately felt like Alice in Wonderland as I had to tilt my head to the side to be able to fit. This particular Jeepney had Filipino music blasting and although I could tell that it was annoying many of the passengers I was LOVING it! It was fun to look out the window, that was at my shoulder height, and notice many of the other beautifully painted cars. They were so detailed and colorful! My favorite so far has to be the Superman one, and although I didn't snap a picture of it I'll keep my eye out for it again :).

There was more to this trip however then just experience the most common form of travel in the Philippines. The Destination for this particular trip was Samaritana. This other "first experience" for me was a safe house for female prostitutes. The organization is similar to the one that I will be working with so it was really cool to hear about. The women don't sleep at the house, which surprised us to hear, but come at 8 am and stay until 5 to work and learn trades that they can use to get real jobs. They learn how to sew, clean, cook, make paper and pottery, and give massages. They are all great skills and they are able to make money while learning them at the same time. But one of the rules for most jobs in the Philipines is to have a hight school diploma. Even to flip burgers at McDonalds you have to be a high school graduate. So every Thursday at Samaritana is a school day to eventually get the equivalent of a GED in America. They work a lot with helping the girls heal and improve their feeling of self worth because many of them feel that this life of shame and poverty is what they deserve. By spending so much time with the other 19 girls at the home they find healing through seeing what other girls have been through. While working at this place the girls are prohibited from working at the bars. They are usually dismissed if they are, but they try to show as much grace as they can b/c they really should be in an environment of healing. There is so much more that I can write, we talked about so much there, so feel free to ask me more! The ministry that I will be working with is very similar to Samaritana.

Afterwards we Jeepney-ed over to a shelter where we would meet the rest of the group fro another feeding for the homeless at a different location then the last. The kids were so awesome and so much fun and from the pictures we took you would never guess that they slept on the side of the road every night. But when you notice their tattered clothes and dirty, calaced feet it's hard to even imagine what kind of life they've had or what they've been through. When the day was done and everyone had their bellies full, we felt pretty happy with the work we had done and pretty good about ourselves... Until we walked down the street afterward... passing the beautiful children we had just met curling up into balls on the side of the road where they would spend the night, looking forward to when we'd be coming back the next week.

First Impressions

The Philippines. A place like no where I've never been; yet it feels so familiar. The 1 am drive from the airport to the guest house felt like a small taste of everywhere I've been. The airport's craziness reminded me of what it felt like to try to find our ride, just off the plane in Guatemala. And as we packed about 21 of us in a 15 passenger van I remembered the crowded bus we took tothe volcano in El Salvador. But soon we were off! After a 20 hour journey and the longest, and most uncomfortable flight most of us have been on, we were thrilled to finally be there. We drove through the streets of what felt like Addis Ababa, Ethiopia... without the goats and cows darting in front of us around every turn :). It was the middle of the night, yet the streets were busier then many of our cities in the middle of the day. I had been warned about the crazy traffic in Manila and truly believe that it is the most denselypopulated city after this drive. After we passed through the dusty area city, all of a sudden we were driving through Caracas Venezuela!! The once dirty, bustling, and small sized buildings were quickly replaced by tall buildings, and a cleaner, well kept version of the city. It felt somuch like driving through the city that I once called home, that for a second I was sure that I saw the apartment buildings where we lived. We were thrilled to finally get the "Kids International Ministries" location where we will be staying and were warmly welcomed by our friends that had come about 10 days eariler to help in the orphanage over Christmas. And after barely sleeping for the past day, all I needed was a shower and I was off to bed!

Later that morning we woke up and had breakfast :) The meal of eggs and toast was perfectly delightful and a great way to start the day. The 9 of us social workers went out for the day while the elementary education group spent the day in their class rooms as they will over most of the trip. We met up with several other girls staying at our guest house that were with an organization called "The World Race". They spend 11 months in 11 countries and will be here with us must of the time that we will be too. Their group sounds really cool and I'll keep it in mind if I still dont know what I want to do after graduation.

We spent most of the day between 2 locations handing out food and water (or as they say in Tagalog, Toobig. Some girls at one of the locations, tent village, taught me this word for water along with several others that were too difficult for me to pronounce, so my chances of recalling them are slim. As we learned about how this village it became emotional to hear. There was a flood about a year ago that stripped hundreds of families of their home, belongings, and their farmland for their source of food. The government stepped in and set up tents for them to live in, and eventually built them very small boxes, barely able to be called houses, and not nearly enough room for some of their large families. One girl, about 10 years old wanted to take me to her house so Christy and I went up the hill past rows and rows of the same small house duplicated across the fields as far as we could see. When we got there her family of 7 was living in a small space the size of most living rooms. It's great that they at least have a place to live, but after they were settled the government has not provided any source of food for them! So they are stuck there, without any land to farm or clean water, and many are getting sick and dying. Kids International Ministries came to the rescue and

gotten the funds to feed the people several times a week. It's enough to keep them alive. It was so fun to see all the kids come running out of their "houses" with their little bowls and spoons ready to eat, but heartbreaking to have to turn some away after not having enough to feed them all...

The second place we went to was a small elementary school. The drive there brought back more flashbacks. The tropical feel and mountains in the background reminded me of the roads in rural Guatemala. Around every turn I held my breath as we squeezed past another truck. I remembered the drive I took with my family on the narrow roads, clinging to the sides of mountains, making our way to the waterfalls at "Semuc Champey" and the school "Rosa de Amor". And the kids here only solidified this Guatemalan memory with their slightly Mayan Indian look and their joyful smiles and cute personalities. Sarah and I were TRYING to make conversation with a small group of the kids, but after "What is your name" and "how old are you", we could no longer really communicate. They were giggling as we tried to pronounce their names and we laughed as we noticed a 3 year old boy rocking a rat tail! We were all having fun, not really knowing why kids were whispering and so tickled by whatever they were saying. We were too able to join in the laughter when the orphanage director told us that the kids thought our noses were "so long and pointy"! Haha, Through all the places I've been I've never heard that one before! Haha, It's really hard not to compare my past experiences to this one but I hope to be expose to more new experiences such as this one!

Haha... long point nose... So precious!

I'm off again!!

I leave tomorrow morning for the Philippines! I'll be there for the entire month of January with a group of social work majors from my class at Taylor University. Our internship will involve working with orphans, prenatal care, and other options that we wont find out about until we arrive. We will choose a social worker who's job sounds interesting to job shadow and spend the month learning about how their work is done.

I'm really excited about this trip and to be able to have this amazing opportunity. Through this trip I could potentially uncover a new passion of mine that I would not have discovered otherwise. It's hard to know what to expect from this trip or to wrap my mind around what my life will be like for the next month but all I know is that I'm pumped to find out!

I'll be there from Jan 3rd to the 26th and I hope to share my experiences when I come back!

Julie