racheltjongsays

CURRENTLY BLOGGING IN TAGAYTAY!

ITS UP IN THE MOUNTAINS. WELL, ACTUALLY, VOLCANOES...

spent christmas in Manila. for those of you who don't who where it is, its where all your maids come from. the philippines.haha. its my third time here and i just love coming here, just to get out of singapore/melbourne and look at how the people live in a not so developed country, the last time i was here, it was... 12 i think, and i didn't really see much of the people cause i was busy enjoying myself eating and playing. but now that i'm older, i'm just SHOCKED at how the squatters live here. its seriously BAD. kids are begging on the ROADS. literally ON THE ROADS.. they come up to your CARS and start knocking them. then when the traffic light is green, they go back to the sides to wait for the next red light. blind people, old people, mothers with newborns... all sorts. but the most tragic was the part when i walked out of a restaurant one night and a whole bunch of toddlers who were very dirty, and one with a small blanket on his head, begging for money. we gave them all, but there was this girl whom i think we didn't give, and we were going back to the car already. she was sooo persistant. she kept saying it in tagalog( philipppine native language) for money. she opened the door for us and then closed it for us. and when the car was reversing, she was at the back, still knocking..........

SO SAD. it was really really really really x10,00000 SAD.

my whole perspective of good standard of living has changed. just having shelter,food and water is sufficient for these kids. i really really treasure my life now. and i'm sooo glad for my parents and family. i thank the lord for all he has blessed us with.

one thing i learnt from this trip:

ITS BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECIEVE.

this trip not only opened my eyes to poverty but it also showed me so many FAT KIDS here are CHINESE! THEY ARE SERIOSULY OBESE. ITS SCARY. i think all those rich chinese families feed their childern so much here. and btw, they're food here is SUPER OILY. but really yummy. but yeah, so shocked at the fat kids here.

oh, and besides that,
filipino people are super good singers and they're customer service is 100 times better than anywhere in asia. they really serve you with all they're heart, which is really good to see. they're polite!:)

shopping not as great. despite entering over 10 malls... yes, there's sooo many malls here. SHOEMART, MEGAMALL, MALL OF ASIA... so many. and they malls need like... 2 days to cover them. the NIKE stuff here is cheap, bought quite abit from there. and OH MY GOSH, THE WRANGLER JEANS HERE are SO DAMN CHEAPPPP. 30 bucks each. i bought 3 :) so happy with them. they are sooo comfyy! 100% cotton and stretchy. so that's good. and the haviannas were cheap too. ryan got 3 pairs..hahah. he's becoming a heavy shopper.

so christmas was pretty much a time of giving for me. and i feel so good after.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS GUYS! AND PLEASE CHERISH WHAT YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW and PLEASE TARY TO GIVE BACK, cause with the amount of stuff that we have at home, it can provide alot of utilities for the people here, who are suffering from this man made problem, poverty.