Dalahican Is A Humbling Experience

Lalao

What I should be doing right now is not blogging.

After slacking off last week and partying last Saturday, 

I should be working my ass off today. 

But no, I had to write something about yesterday before the

routine eats me up and become jaded again.

Guni-Guri Kolektib's work was never about skills, technique and ego.

We were determined that our pieces will make people think and question everything 

but most of us were young and too confined by their jobs to see the reality. 

When GuGu was asked by Gabriela to help out on a giving away

some school supplies for children of Purok 7 in Dalahican Lucena City, 

I was... eh.

Weighing out things, needless to say that I did the right thing to do.

This time, it's not about me or some groups. It's about doing the right thing.

And so, with almost no sleep and buzzing sound in my ears, 

we headed to Purok 7.

Purok 7 is a secluded part of Tayabas Bay that was filled with soil so that the squatters

from Dalahican Road could relocate. It was part of the sea before it was a 

relocation site so obviously, it floods there whenever there's a high tide.

It was crowded and the air was floating of odor that my nostrils had never sniffed before.

After giving out the school supplies, a social worker took us to this place called "lalao"

and told us tragic stories about it. When lalao was not yet filled with soil, 

children used to swim there and monthly, children get killed there from 

drowning because of sudden high tides. 

At the other side of lalao, there is a small pond where people catch fishes. 

But to get there, they will have to risk their lives passing by a quicksand or "kumonoy."

To be able to have a safe drinking water, they have to fetch it and pay 10 pesos each day.

Their houses doesn't have a decent toilets and so the government 

gave them 2 public toilets which none of them are working. 

This could go on and on with depressing facts about this place 

but I will end it by saying that this experience is nothing but humbling.

It made my problems and life complains rather microscopic. 

While I spend my 5 pesos mindlessly, there are children who will 

pedal their hearts off for 2 kilometers just to earn it.

While I complain about working for 6 straight hours and earn something, 

 there are families in that area that will have to earn that same 

amount for more than month. 

I thought, there is nothing that I didn't know about reality before this. 

But knowing is not the same as seeing and seeing is not the same as experiencing. 

At the end of the day, it is ambivalent. Light and heavy.

This experience has broaden my tolerance to life's bullshit

and that alone, is something to be grateful for.