Cebu Part 2 : 'it's not right or wrong, it's just different'

Day #2
I cannot stress how similar the Teen Challenge way of life is very SAF-style, and that it is effective! We were up at about 7am (ok, so that isn't very SAF) to the sound of PT (yes, PT) by the kids. Apparently, it's supposed to include a run down and up the hill where Teen Challenge is situated, one which Aaron and I were supposed to try but didn't in the end.

Euvin did devotions in the morning, on consequences, which i thought was rather excellent, if not slightly too long! But it was really good i thought :) It was our second time meeting the kids, the first being the previous night when we had a tour of TC. It's really amazing/embarrassing to see them worship! And you can hardly tell that these kids are from the streets - abused and what not. A testament of the changing power of love!

Then was breakfast (LOVE the omelette) and brief for the next orientation "City as a classroom". Basically we were split into groups headed by a TC staff each and walked/public transported to the city for immersion and a learning experience. My group (Rachel, Lao Ban) was headed by Lida, who happened to be one of the older and more educated staff. We started walking down the hill, directly into the backyard of some people. Amazing how much a hi-5 can break the ice for the kids! We had a small group of 5 or so kids follow us - just because of 1 hi-5. Lester has the photo to prove it! Next was exposure to the Cebu public transport system. Gypnee, motorised and cycled bikes, horse pulled carriage (not those grand fairytale ones). We had to interview each driver. While they all were sort of barely scraping, one had to keep in mind what kuya said - the people are content with what they have, it's just a different culture. To us the conditions may seem appalling, but they are used to it! Anyway to throw in some maths, think anything from 100-300 pesos profit a day for the driver. Around 6 pesos buys you rice, 80 pesos fish.

We visited some of the "attractions" - the Santa Nino church, the cemetery (as Kuya affectionately called the "souvenir shop"), the slums (which we passed on the highway, also called TC's "bible school"), and ended up at Sunburst restaurant for lunch. The cemetery was expecially interesting - there were people living there! They have no cash so they stay there, and work for some of the cemetery's richer "inhabitants", cleaning the graves and selling candles and such. It was weird to see kids running and playing around and on top of the graves, and Daryl pointed out the sign which said "no running/playing/living". As Choon Hiang put it, it felt almost more of a tourist attraction than a cemetery. The handling of corpses wasn't pretty either, they wait for bodies to decompose before placing the bones into the cavities in walls. You could tell how rich the families were by the decorations (one cavity i saw had about 8 names scrawled in the cement). Apparently, if the families cannot pay up the bones are excavated and placed in unnamed bags. Should the family be able to pay up later, any bag is taken. We also saw some of the graves of the really rich. One was almost a small house (i think costing 80 million pesos), with 2 storeys and with electricity - for the family to come and stay over.
The slums were also an eye-opener. I am told that in past years the kids would come running to you, but this year was very quiet - mostly due to the relocation. Unlike Aaron and Wen Jie's group, we did not visit the kids under the highway, due to time constraints.

After lunch was a visit to the church, where Lida payed a lady to pray for us with candles (for the experience of course). Then we queued to see the Santa Nino (baby Jesus) statue, and also saw the Magellan's Cross. Apparently when the ladies pray they have to dance to keep baby Jesus' attention. Which was pretty amusing i thought.

After that was return to TC for dinner on motorbike, and, to steal from Aaron, another night drive, where we got to try balut. i didn't think it was anything really special, just that the juice reminded me of crabs. Hmm...

Night was fun, we had musical mafia. In the first game I accused Lester on gut instinct, which led to me being killed in the end, and in the end who won? Lester and Dwayne, the mafia. Lol. In another, me and Ryan (with everyone's help) managed to trick everyone into killing each other.

It was fun.