PEOPLE aged and children are always a pleasure.

PEOPLE aged and children are always a pleasure.

To just be as an observer and one who moves around a bit within the same area in a small town or village area in the Philippines
meets some interesting people. About a year and a half ago when my now wife and
I were looking for a lot with owner financing we came across this old woman
sitting on a rock with a small ball peen hammer picking up a small rock from a
pile and holding it in her hand as she hit it hard over and over until it
broke; and then the same to the smaller pieces until they were yet smaller
while then putting them in a strong material sack until it was full to be sold
for 25 peso or about 50 cents. With a hard days work of sitting and busting
rocks into stones and filling bags she could earn about one dollar per day.
What so interesting about the woman is that she is blind and cannot see at all,
yet never misses her hard strokes of hitting the rocks held in her hand and has
been doing it for years as her income.

Yesterday in the little town an old woman said hello and we talked just a bit because I especially enjoy the company of the elderly. She said that she has been around
a long time and asked me if I had any spare peso, so I gave her my coin worth
about ten cents and said goodbye as I walked into a store to buy some Buko
which is fresh coconut juice. When I came out and had the change of a 20 peso
paper money I gave it to her and she really smiled big time and said; “I will
remember you.” Today I saw her again and with her strange eyes as semi crossed
or one looking distant from the other she said hello with a big smile as she
walked slowly away with her cane and got into a motorized tricycle for a ride
to her bali. She is a very interesting woman that can walk, talk, be friendly
and think at 106 years of age.

There was Bebing who was in her 80’s and still in a corn field with a heavy steel pipe about 5ft long with a cutting edge for stabbing into the ground as a root cutter to make
plowing with a cow easier without roots to snag the forks. Her home was but a
little bamboo hut and her 63 year old son still lived there and helped her to
plow.

I met a woman in the mountains who lived in a very small single room bamboo shanty and was always on her knees because she can’t walk. Just to see someone like that can really hurt
because they have absolutely nothing for life. Just on your knees day after day
in your home with no TV, radio, games, company or anything at all to do, and
that alone breaks my heart. My heart and mind always wants to do something
special for people like that; something special as maybe just an etch a sketch
to give them at least something to do. If I had a thousand of those I could
have a thousand great days of just going to visit individuals with a gift of
something different that for the most part they have never even seen or heard
of.

I have a grandmother that will be 103 this month and miss talking with her because our last conversation was in July of 2006. I just have a very great respect for those
who have been around for over a century and seen such a great change since the
horse and buggy were still around.

Still in the same mountain area I meet three children, and just as old folks, children have a special place in my heart because they are so pure and innocent while coming
into a world not by choice or by answering an invitation only to deal with
whatever their lives may be. . . . which for most all children is nothing good.
. . .as they either have nothing, go hungry, witness terrors in their own homes
and families, have no genuine up bringing and just to many hardships to list;
yet children are very different than anybody while still being very young
because all they know is what they have; therefore can be very beautiful with
their smiles and laughs and words because they never complain even though two
little boys with their sister and dad live in a one room mountain hut with no
mom, dad has no work, so they have nothing and eat roots and rice; yet they are
only children that just accept life as it is and never complain.

I have also come across many other children because my wife is a first grade school teacher with 68 pupils that she loves very much and is very dedicated to as their teacher;
but with that she also has no choice to see their extreme hardships as when
they bring their lunches there is nothing but only rice. Or a book bag that is
but a sack rather than the book backpacks that most use, and the ones my wife
Mylene sees are in very poor condition along with the clothes they have to
wear. Yet when ever I go to her school I am very much loved by all of the
children with just total amazement are their ways in school and around people
that I have never before seen as in workers that keep their own classroom
clean, and the outside around their classroom, and they are very respectful and
all very kind children, and only in the first grade. Every time I see them all
including other grades because the whole elementary school like me, it just
eats away at my heart because I can’t do anything special for any of them other
than just words and smiles that make them very happy. The worst part is to have
to see and smell the odor of their out building with no water even run to it,
seat less commodes, no doors, filth so bad that all the kids just use the field
area that I learned the hard way by walking right in some pooh piles from kids
because the c/f comfort room is just to nasty to use. Yet kids are just kids
with no complaints because what is, just is. Plus some of their desks are bad
from termites, ceilings poor, lighting poor, only one little ceiling fan for a
small hot room of 68 kids and a teacher, window glass missing, walls need
paint; but school is just school and all of the kids are happy.

Mylene and I only wish that we could do things to help them all, but barely get by our own selves. We have thought about adopting a boy and a girl, but when one has
nothing they don’t feel secure in expanding. We have also though about starting
a private school or just a tutorial center because my wife is so talented and
good with children that they all love her as a teacher and me just because I am
JOE which is a name for an American.

People are just people; good, bad, indifferent, unique, special, disabled, loving and caring.

There is also a little boy who just sits with his mother and seems a bit different and watchful just as most children. So whenever I am in one of the little open markets that just sell
small miscellaneous items I will always buy some candies just to give children
because they get so excited. Well this little boy in particular had a joy and
happiness come across him like I had never before seen when I gave him some
tootsie pops, and then it became an every day thing when ever him and his
mother were sitting in front of the tiny market. And any time I would just ride
by on a little 70cc Rust scoter he would yell smile and wave. The boy is
autistic and I put some happiness into his life; and that alone made me happy only to wish there was
more that I could do.

I have now been in the Philippines since December of 2006 and have met and seen many people of all ages in all types of situations that for the most part have been more sad for
me than them because where they are at is just what their lives are and they
have no gripes or complaints which has been a great help for me to see because
at one time in my life I was quite well off financially.

I was finished but just have one more experience gnawing at me that I want to share because it brought tears when I was apart of it.

In January 2009 Mylene and I took a ferry from Dumaguete to Cebu city; and as it came into the port there were many very small canoe style boats with women and children after
only whatever coins the passengers were willing to throw over the side from up
high for them to either catch or dive into the water to get. And to see the
young and the old and just so many children with the only income they have
being what is thrown their way; and there are many little boats with many in
need for just a small ferry with many poor people that have little to share.
With the little that Mylene and I have we still gave away about 200 peso which
is a lot, but to many that don’t understand being poor, four dollars is very
little. But I assure you it was a sight seen that has been seen three tomes now
and will always be remembered.

All and all with factors of reality, the good news is in route and guaranteed as the kingdom of God with only good and no more of the bad for anybody. But what so many fail to
understand is that as it is written the bad news must come first to prepare for
the good news of the first kingdom of the world that shall never fall.
Amen

There are some photos in my profile.

http://www.experienceproject.com/profile.php?m=-827050253&v=pub