Back in the Land of Smiles

For the first time ever I was looking for signs for slums as our plane descended on Cebu City while the sun was setting. It escaped me why I never paid attention in the past, but this time we could see clearly that they dotted the circumference of the islands. You can tell it’s a slum by the tin roofs, usually silvery in colour, but sometimes they’re of rusty red or yellow. The odd thing was, maybe because they were so many, they seemed to blend in with the rest of the islands.
We walked off the plane and into the luggage hall, and whilst waiting for our bags I was slightly amused at the sight of people holding big bags of boxes of KrispyKreme – we had flown in from Manila – perhaps this is the latest fashion in the capital. One woman had three gigantic boxes of 12.

Outside the airport, To To, one of the workers in Nehemiah House and a former street kid himself, was there to pick us up. It has been just over two years since I was last here, when I was taking a career break after the City. I joked about his longer and curlier hair, and we were happy to see each other again.

It felt rather surreal being back on the streets of Cebu again. There seemed to be more lights, more billboards promoting mobile phones, and there are still the endless rows of stalls selling aromatic barbequed meat, and the random long queue of people outside a bank for cash machines. As we crossed the big bridge connecting the airport to the rest of Cebu, we could see a sprawling city lit up in parts by orange lights. Then, suddenly, as we neared the busier streets, we were bombarded by different smells – the exhaust from the hundreds of jeepneys cruising in and out of the undefined lanes, the enticing BBQ aroma, and the occasional open sewage.

Crossing a big intersection with huge blinking billboards just like in Piccadilly Circus, I was suddenly struck by a sense of apathy. The voice inside my head was literally saying – why bother to get involved with anything? The world will go on and the problems will be resolved slowly but ultimately. One can tell that there is a lot of wealth in this country – not least from the billboards, the Krispykremes, the big SUVs with black-out windows, so maybe the prosperity will ultimately save the rest of the country.

What can we, small potatoes as we are, actually do? What difference can we make?

Then, I was reminded of a serious saying – when I think of what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think that there are no little things (Bruce Barton - extracted from Rob’s motivational talk!), and a lighter one which I found on the fridge of some good friends – if you think you’re too small to make a difference, try being in bed with a mosquito!

I have a feeling it’s going to a real battle of ideologies as we volunteer on the street children project for the next three months.