My team along with Team PLJ are living in Manila in a quaint little hostel overlooking the city. During the day we work with Ron and Joanna at PCF (Philippine Christian Foundation) in the middle of the city dump site. A city of “temporary” housing and shantis have built up but the city continues to dump here. Everyone has to wear rubber boots to wade through the garbage, dead things, and human waste that is flooding the streets.
For the last couple of days we have been trying to clean up the schools playground that has been flooded and overgrown with weeds. Unfortunately, every time we try to drain the water out we are reminded that we are still in the rainy season.
So today we were given a new task. The sludge that floods the streets tends to build up in front of the gutted warehouse that is the PCF church/school and every two weeks it has to be shoveled, bagged, and hauled away. You know where this is going… we were given the priviledge of removing this toxic sludge.
Although it was easily the most disgusting thing I’ve ever done, it turned out to be such a blessing. For four hours, I watched 13 other people joyfully shovel poo, trying not to laugh too much in the splash zone. And it was a blessing to watch the community accept us as more than a bunch of visiting white kids. They bought us sodas and made us fried bananas, they blasted music for us to dance to, and some of the kids even joined in the shoveling. It was so amazing to see a community come together, with huge smiles, to do the dirtiest chores.
