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My Turnby Maileen Hamto |
 |
From The Asian Reporter, V18, #21 (May 27, 2008), page 6.
Homecoming
Everywhere in the developing world, life is one crisis after another. People work really hard for so little money. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. There are no safety nets.
I haven’t been to Manila in 16 years. When my family made the decision to move to the United States, we jumped headlong into the process of transplanting our roots.
Becoming acculturated to our new home consumed all our energies for a number of years. My parents struggled to keep the balance between spending quality time with my little brother and me and working hard to maintain a house, cars, and other accoutrements that came with our new status as part of the American middle class. Between jobs, finishing school, and a host of other life events, there was little time to step back and plan a trip "home."
When we heard news that my grandmother is in the hospital again, we knew it was time to go back, even for just a short while. She has been sick for a long time, and I often told my mother that it would be a shame to fly halfway around the world to attend a funeral.
Between spending time with my grandmother (she is doing better, responding well to dialysis treatments), my aunts took turns showing us around. I had fully expected to see many changes, but was completely unprepared for the gravity of poverty and hopelessness that has a chokehold on my hometown.
Many parts of Manila don’t cater to tourists or foreign money. These are places with no pretenses. People don’t try to emulate an MTV lifestyle they can barely afford. Visiting neighborhoods that are home to generations of families, decay is apparent. It’s easy to spot the homes with at least one family member working overseas. Their houses look less rundown. Most have cars parked in their drive- way.
Not every family has benefitted from the influx of remittances from relatives working abroad. Most people still live in homes without indoor plumbing. It is a common sight to see young children carrying buckets of water from communal faucets.
I was advised not to drink the water.
It was an eye-opening experience to see how people are able to live on so few resources. There appear to be more "squatters," homeless people living in absolute squalor. They raise their children in makeshift houses built on sidewalks, out of plywood and other materials gathered from scavenging trips to the city dump. These people sleep on dirt floors and somehow eke out an existence on less than $1 a day.
I met a woman who works at a clothing stand in Divisoria, the wholesale capital of Metro Manila. The business she works for is owned by a Chinese Filipino. She sells CD cases worth 60 to 100 pesos (roughly $1.40 to $2.50). Her job is to grab the attention of customers who already are deluged with choices from stands that offer virtually the same merchandise. She’s on her feet all day, talking customers into buying the merchandise. She sells about 15 to 20 CD cases, and gets paid $2.14 for the day’s work.
An old friend has been working as a high school teacher for about five years. He lives at home with his parents because he cannot afford to live on his own on a $100 monthly salary.
Busy Manila is a city of 14 million people — the most densely populated city in the world. There are a slew of transportation choices. People who can afford cars often hire drivers to get them around. People walk or ride bicycles. Jeepneys are among the most popular choices, covering all routes, short and long. Tricycles work best when covering only a few blocks. Horse-driven carriages, known as calesas, have their share of the thoroughfares as well. I talked to a pedicab driver, a man of slight build, who offered to take our party of three to our destination, Binondo Church.
It’s backbreaking work, pedalling three average- size adults up several city blocks. The fare he requested? The equivalent of 95 cents.
Poverty is rampant the world over, but there’s nothing like being poor in a developing country. Someone once said adversity builds character. For many Filipinos, opportunities for advancement mainly exist in far-flung places — exactly the reason why the 80-million-strong Filipino diaspora is spread out across 100 countries.
Looking at my hometown with a fresh pair of eyes has elevated my awareness of the many privileges we enjoy as Americans. Reconnecting with my roots has made me realize the importance not only of gratitude and appreciation for the hand I was dealt in life, but also of giving back.