We live on the K.I.M. compound here in Manila. It’s a really nice set up and we are very lucky to spend our month here. However, when you step out of the gate a whole different world awaits and even more so if you go five minutes down the road. The people who live around us do not have as nice a set up as us. Last week, I went with Dexter and Pastor Rolli and four other M squanders to one of the two daily feedings and I saw a whole new world.
We drove for about five minutes and pulled into a local slum. We hopped out of the van and Pastor Rolli asked for a table to set the huge tubs of food on to serve. Once we had what we needed Michelle prayed for the people who were lined up with their bowls and cups in hand and we began to serve. We piled rice and beans into their bowls and they walked away. Around us there were the homes the people lived in, but not homes like you may imagine them. There were kids hanging around, because they no longer go to school, either because they decided to drop out, or their parents can’t afford to send them there. There seemed to be a line that kept stretching out ahead of us. Small, children with younger siblings, mothers with babies, fathers with a young child, an older woman. All of them hungry for the food we had. Just behind us was a mother dog with puppies that started barking and growling when someone got to close. There were dogs walking around that didn’t look very healthy. This is the world that these people live in day in and day out.
By contrast we spent our night last night heading to the mall to watch a movie. We can g t the mall and shop and get things we need, or want and when we are there it seems like home. There are fast food places and nice restraints, electronics, and all the rest that goes with the western world.
I’m not sure how to compute all of this. How can there be such poverty and richness right beside one another? How can the rich see the poor and ignore it? It is no better in the States. Maybe the slums aren’t as bad looking as here, maybe it’s not as alarming to us, but there are people all around back home too who need what we have. We spend money on things we think we need, but are we dong any good? If I have a new iPod but the kids down the street have empty bellies because they have no money what good is that?
I have no answers to this really. This is just me processing in this blog. I think a good things to reminder ourselves of is this,
