Perspectives

I met with five high school students this afternoon. They are all from Payatas. They pointed out that they are not from the dump site. Noeme, for example, said, "Look up at me! I 'm so beautiful." It was true. Shirley, who is sixteen, said, "I am a simple person." I asked her what she meant by this, and she said that she was content with what she has. I have heard the phrase "a simple Filipino many times" and now I know what it means. Danmark was too shy to say anything, but the girls said that he was gay. People who are gay here are accepted much more than I find in the United States. Kathy, according to her friends, is smart. In school she does well, and she wants to be a stewardess. Loujesa admits to being a funny person. She would like to be a television reporter, but she also would like to be an artist. Noeme said she has a crush on my former student Elliot, but she also says that everyone else here does too. She thinks Elliot is "so handsome". Poor Elliot, I told them, is so shy. Ha ha.

I asked the students to tell me something about themselves. Loujeso remembers when she was in grade three she badly cut her arm while flying a kite. Everyone here agrees that they do not go to the hospital because it is too expensive. Shirley said that when she was in 2nd year high school she got a medal for being an outstanding student in Filipino and biology. Her friends said that she should also get a medal for being cute. Kathy told us that when she was in grade 1 she had to go to the doctor because she had hepatitis A. She was in the hospital for two months. Her parents asked someone to help pay for it.

All the girls agreed that the Philippines has corrupt politics. They said that an example of this was that when people wanted to get rice from the government that had to get in a line and wait for hours. Rice is really expensive now, and the government is selling a cheaper kind called NFA. They think that tax money is used for unnecessary things.

Each of the four girls works. Loujesa sells suman which is a kind of sticky rice. The other three girls make doormats. The work is hard when you start. Each girl realizes that they need money for further study after high school, and they are trying to figure out ways to make it. In a further blog I will describe my experience at Dalaguete where I met with some students after class. We talked about ways of gettting sponsorship through schools and possible ways of financing their later education.