Meet some of the kids that I
interact with every day!
*All names have
been changed to protect privacy
Every Thursday
night, a group of us Racers heads to Santa Lucia, one of the numerous districts
in Manila. Behind a Burger King, down a dark alley lit from one or two orange
streetlights and the glow of nearby traffic, we find the street kids and
prostitutes. Meet Sam*. He’s 12. He has five brothers and sisters. His family
can’t afford food so he runs the street. When he spots me jumping off the back
of the truck, he runs up to me. Grabbing my arms, he spins and wraps them
around himself so that I’m holding him. As we wander up and down the street, he
keeps a tight hold, making sure I’m still there. Sometimes, we fake spar and
teach each other different moves. Other times I’ll hold him upside down and
he’ll practice sit-ups. He runs off to play soccer or toss a football or play
tag but always comes back to check on me. At the end of the night, we always
end up sitting on the curb, my legs propped up and him sitting between them
with my arms wrapped around him. Last time, he was tired so he laid down on the
sidewalk and pulled his ragged, too-big Spice Girls t-shirt over his face to
block the light. As he fell asleep with his head in my lap, I felt my heart
swell with… Love? Sympathy? Perhaps regret and longing? I wished I could
whisk him away out of this world where he lives in garbage, begging for food
from day to day, having little hope for the future. But all I can do for now is be there for him, hold him and show him that I love him. And maybe get him
shoes and a new t-shirt. I think that Spice Girls one has about had it!
One of my teammates
and I walk out the front gate and up the street past the row of tiny shops. By
the way, Filipino fast food is amazing. The mango popsicles for 1 peso, the
coconut pastries for 2 pesos, the sweet fried bananas in crispy rice paper for
3 pesos are the best! Just past one of the fried banana shops, right before you
get to the air hockey/pool table (it literally is pool played with air hockey
pucks), we turn down into the maze of cinderblock-and-corrugated-tin houses. It
only takes a few minutes to reach the tiny one-room home of Arjay* and his family. He lives with
one of his aunts, his older brother, and his older brother’s live-in girlfriend
and their new baby. Next door, his mother and more siblings live; I’m not sure
if his dad is still around. Arjay has two older brothers and a younger sister
and brother. He doesn’t like to study and his family can’t afford school so he
doesn’t go. Instead, Arjay spends his days looking for work doing construction
so that he can earn money to send his younger sister to school and buy food for
his family. Last week, they had no money to even buy milk for his brother’s
baby so Arjay was practically begging for work. One of our ministries here in
Manila is to move a huge dirt mound between a school and a new building for
housing so that a foundation can be laid for a new wing where pregnant mothers
can give birth. So, I hired him to help us dig. He used some of the money to
buy rice for his family. Arjay is very intelligent and hard-working; he rarely
took breaks when working. Through watching how he works, how he cares for his
family and looks after his baby brother, how he jokes around with me and makes
sure I’m ok and taken care of whenever I’m outside of our compound, I’ve been hugely
challenged to live a more meaningful life. Have I mentioned he has a great
sense of humor? We joke around and tease each other all the time, especially on
the dig site and I’ve come to see him as a brother. Oh yeah, one other thing.
He’s only 15. And he has cataracts in both eyes. Surgery to remove them, plus
the resulting medicine and treatment, costs around 20,000 pesos ($500). So he deals with them.
His birthday is December 25. Christmas Day. How would you like to help
give him the awesome gift of sight?
I walk into the
gate of one of the buildings used to house orphans and take care of kids from
destitute families, camera in hand. Immediately, my waist is wrapped in the
biggest, most enthusiastic hug that little 7-year-old Maria* can manage. She
grins up at me and squeezes tighter as I hug her back, then relaxes against me,
seeming to revel in the fact that I’m actually there. Man, I love Filipino
kids! I’ve never felt so loved. Maria has to be the prettiest little girl I’ve ever
seen. She grabs my hand as her baby sister Grace* runs over and grabs my other
hand. “Ati Ruth, let’s go to the swings!� they yell and I laugh as we run
across the grass to the small playground. I pass my camera off to Maria. That
girl is a natural photographer! I have so many awesome photos from letting her
play with my camera (my profile picture is one of them). She’s also a natural
model. I watch as she looks after Grace and helps her onto the swings. “Masaka,
Ati Ruth, masaka!� “Higher, big sister, higher!� Their cries fill my ears and I
obligingly push them. Paulo* runs over and joins in; he is Maria’s younger
brother. Later, I watch as Paulo’s ball gets taken by one of the other boys and
Maria goes chasing after him with Paulo, helping get it back. While she is very
independent and loves doing her own thing – climbing the slide and doing
acrobatics on the monkey bars – she always keeps an eye out on her younger
siblings. She’s such an awesome big sister! Her mother works at the home,
helping serve and take care of the kids. Her father works construction and has
been helping with the new housing by the school. Once the structure is
completed, his family will move in there. They don’t have much, but they’re
doing the best they can to provide for their kids.
These are just three of the many kids who have captured my heart here in Manila. God has really been changing my heart in a crazy way over the past three and a half months. I went from not wanting any kids to thinking about foster care to pondering adoption and now I’m seriously considering having a children’s home of my own. I never, EVER thought I’d say this but I think it would be awesome to buy a big house and adopt kids from all over the world and have one big happy international family. We’ll see what God says and lays on my heart about that. PLEASE pray for these kids!
