Well the typhoon has gone by, we just got the edge of it, lots of
rain and wind. School was closed for two days as most don't venture out
into the rain for fear of diseases in the water and lack of medicine to
fix them. Unfortunately due to the rain we were not able to go to our
regular Tuesday feeding.
One of the things that we are doing, apart from volunteering in the school, is helping with "feedings". What that means for us mostly is that we just show up. The local volunteers bring food, vitamins and medicine, if we have it, to groups around the island and neighbouring islands. The people needing the food cook what is brought to them and we entertain the children, speak to the adults, serve the food, hand out the vitamins and administer the medicine.
The supplies of course have been funded by donations to the Christian mission that we are working with, so we tell Bible stories and sing with the adults and children. I am reminded of something that one of my students said last year, it was something to the effect of "I don't really like Christian organizations because they deliver Bibles to starving people, how can they eat Bibles?" I have no personal experience with what he was talking about, but what I can say is that I am working with many self-sacrificing Christians and they are feeding, clothing, doctoring (is that a word? :-)) as well as talking about Jesus. Often the meal that is provided is the best meal the children have had all week, I wish we could feed them daily. The pastor that I was with last week told me that the meal we provided was "a late lunch/early dinner and possibly the only meal they had that day."
I know that Ontario is entering into an election next week, this is the time when I (normally) start hearing the sound bites and water cooler discussions that always surround an election. The different sides draw their lines in the sand and "debate" the issues, but it isn't really a debate. Each side manipulates the "facts" to convince us that we would be better off if they were in charge. It is generally the time when you start hearing about the "needs" of the "taxpayers", when the parties all try to entice us to vote for them by offering sweet sounding deals to enhance our own lives. "Vote for us, we will give you this" "Vote for us, the other guy is worse than we are"
I would like us to take a moment and think about the truth of what is being said, and consider whether when we vote if we are choosing a representative or party for the betterment of our citizenry, or for some carrot that is being dangled before us personally. Are our "needs" truly "needs"? Look down the road at the society we are creating for our children to live in. Are we inwardly focussed or outwardly focussed when we vote. Are we being fair, are we being kind, are we being loving?
I would like to explain a little bit about the people, mostly children, I have been meeting recently and the situation they find themselves in. The group I met this week are a tribe called the Ati. They live up on a mountain on the island beside ours, called Panay. I met a few mothers, mostly malnourished, many children and no men. The reason that there were no men was that all of the men were working on the coast, manually carrying building supplies onto ships for construction on this island, (there is constant construction here as resorts are being built). The men earn 200 pesos per day, no organized labour. To understand what that means, $1 Canadian = about 40 pesos, which won't mean much to anyone, so another way to look at it is this: here 200 pesos will buy about 8 mangoes, or it will buy one hamburger. It will not feed a family, it will not feed a single person nutritiously even for a single day. I had a conversation when we arrived and was discussing curriculum to be taught and a woman said to me "yes teaching nutrition is important, however, we cannot afford to eat nutritiously." That is a sad truth here when the wages are as they are. There is wealth here, but only for the very very few. The gap between the few rich and the excessive majority poor is huge.
The women of the Ati also work, in the rice fields owned by someone else, planting for one short part of the year, harvesting for another short part of the year, when they are not planting or harvesting, they have no income. The people I have met work very hard but lack what we take for granted. They cannot afford medicine when they are sick, they have little opportunity to go to school and the companies that they work for do not pay a living wage. They are aware of the inequities, but since they are focussed mostly on getting daily food they have no means to overcome their situation. Education, a key to overcoming poverty, is not well funded. Class sizes run between 70-100 students in the publicly funded system. The private schools are too expensive for the poor to attend. Hence one of the reasons we are here, the school we work in is mostly volunteer run therefore accessible. But the Agape school is just a drop of water in an ocean.
When the opportunity comes for us to exercise our right to vote next week, I encourage us all to take a global perspective. We must ask ourselves what the long-term effect of our decisions will be. Are we heading down a road where, as here, the average class has upto 100 students and the average income will not feed a family? Are our leaders focussing on improving the lives of our citizens or simply playing to the taxpayers? It would be so great if during this election people discussed citizens and community and not how to line our own pockets at the expense of others. I am fearful of the disparity in Canada moving towards the disparity here. Our greatest defense is to be intelligent and informed, compassionate and caring, visionary and vigilant when we vote. We owe Canada, our community and our children that much.
Ok, I'm off my soapbox :-) Be good to one another!
Malcolm :-)
One of the things that we are doing, apart from volunteering in the school, is helping with "feedings". What that means for us mostly is that we just show up. The local volunteers bring food, vitamins and medicine, if we have it, to groups around the island and neighbouring islands. The people needing the food cook what is brought to them and we entertain the children, speak to the adults, serve the food, hand out the vitamins and administer the medicine.
The supplies of course have been funded by donations to the Christian mission that we are working with, so we tell Bible stories and sing with the adults and children. I am reminded of something that one of my students said last year, it was something to the effect of "I don't really like Christian organizations because they deliver Bibles to starving people, how can they eat Bibles?" I have no personal experience with what he was talking about, but what I can say is that I am working with many self-sacrificing Christians and they are feeding, clothing, doctoring (is that a word? :-)) as well as talking about Jesus. Often the meal that is provided is the best meal the children have had all week, I wish we could feed them daily. The pastor that I was with last week told me that the meal we provided was "a late lunch/early dinner and possibly the only meal they had that day."
I know that Ontario is entering into an election next week, this is the time when I (normally) start hearing the sound bites and water cooler discussions that always surround an election. The different sides draw their lines in the sand and "debate" the issues, but it isn't really a debate. Each side manipulates the "facts" to convince us that we would be better off if they were in charge. It is generally the time when you start hearing about the "needs" of the "taxpayers", when the parties all try to entice us to vote for them by offering sweet sounding deals to enhance our own lives. "Vote for us, we will give you this" "Vote for us, the other guy is worse than we are"
I would like us to take a moment and think about the truth of what is being said, and consider whether when we vote if we are choosing a representative or party for the betterment of our citizenry, or for some carrot that is being dangled before us personally. Are our "needs" truly "needs"? Look down the road at the society we are creating for our children to live in. Are we inwardly focussed or outwardly focussed when we vote. Are we being fair, are we being kind, are we being loving?
I would like to explain a little bit about the people, mostly children, I have been meeting recently and the situation they find themselves in. The group I met this week are a tribe called the Ati. They live up on a mountain on the island beside ours, called Panay. I met a few mothers, mostly malnourished, many children and no men. The reason that there were no men was that all of the men were working on the coast, manually carrying building supplies onto ships for construction on this island, (there is constant construction here as resorts are being built). The men earn 200 pesos per day, no organized labour. To understand what that means, $1 Canadian = about 40 pesos, which won't mean much to anyone, so another way to look at it is this: here 200 pesos will buy about 8 mangoes, or it will buy one hamburger. It will not feed a family, it will not feed a single person nutritiously even for a single day. I had a conversation when we arrived and was discussing curriculum to be taught and a woman said to me "yes teaching nutrition is important, however, we cannot afford to eat nutritiously." That is a sad truth here when the wages are as they are. There is wealth here, but only for the very very few. The gap between the few rich and the excessive majority poor is huge.
The women of the Ati also work, in the rice fields owned by someone else, planting for one short part of the year, harvesting for another short part of the year, when they are not planting or harvesting, they have no income. The people I have met work very hard but lack what we take for granted. They cannot afford medicine when they are sick, they have little opportunity to go to school and the companies that they work for do not pay a living wage. They are aware of the inequities, but since they are focussed mostly on getting daily food they have no means to overcome their situation. Education, a key to overcoming poverty, is not well funded. Class sizes run between 70-100 students in the publicly funded system. The private schools are too expensive for the poor to attend. Hence one of the reasons we are here, the school we work in is mostly volunteer run therefore accessible. But the Agape school is just a drop of water in an ocean.
When the opportunity comes for us to exercise our right to vote next week, I encourage us all to take a global perspective. We must ask ourselves what the long-term effect of our decisions will be. Are we heading down a road where, as here, the average class has upto 100 students and the average income will not feed a family? Are our leaders focussing on improving the lives of our citizens or simply playing to the taxpayers? It would be so great if during this election people discussed citizens and community and not how to line our own pockets at the expense of others. I am fearful of the disparity in Canada moving towards the disparity here. Our greatest defense is to be intelligent and informed, compassionate and caring, visionary and vigilant when we vote. We owe Canada, our community and our children that much.
Ok, I'm off my soapbox :-) Be good to one another!
Malcolm :-)
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