Tikhtak

Manila day 4

We started the day off by going into the central business district of Manila hunting for a film equipment hire shop. Believe it or not we found one and with state of the art equipment. The city could have been any western city in the world but even more had the feel of an American city with massive advertising billboards everywhere.

So, the reason we're here is to make a DVD resource for children in the UK to explore  the rights of the child, and to do that by comparing their lives with those of young people who have lived on the streets in Manila

Today, we started filming. It struck me that we weren't here to film some street kids anymore - but to meet some young people whose lives have met more challenges than mine probably ever will, and to hear how they find hope and meaning.

These boys are all connected to the project we're here with - Jigsaw.  They are being sponsored to go to school and learn skills that will give them opportunities and possibilities in the future.  Hearing their stories today into camera was both heart-moving and amazing.  When asked the question, "Where was God while you were living on the streets and your family were so ill?" - Raymond replied, through tears, that God was with him the whole time.  And you knew it was more than words.

One after another, the stories came out about how they found hope in a project that believed in them.  Where family members have died through ill health, where homelessness had forced them to beg on the streets and dig through rubbish on the sides of roads.  One of the guys told us that he only thinks of today and tomorrow - because yesterday might be too hard to take in.

Tim Lee helped us greatly in framing the questions to ask them and it was really touching to see the affection he has for the children and that they have for him. He too was hearing them talk openly about their past for the first time. Once we had finished everyone was in high spirits and it really felt that we had bonded closer together through hearing their stories. Afterwards we headed into the downtown area and had food at the hard rock cafe. The contrast couldn't have been greater with lots of young brightly dressed Filipinos chilling out in Mega malls and listening to asian rock and reggae bands.Tomorrow we will continue our filming with a group of girls. It's funny that if I was given the choice between the bright lights of the city or hanging out with the children at Jigsaw, the city wouldn't stand a chance. Check out all our latest pics on Dave's Flickr and to get Mikes go to the CMS flickr.

Manila day 3

Having seen Manila yesterday from a far, today we had the chance to get up close to areas we would almost certainly avoid .The privilege of working here with Jigsaw means we not only get to travel to these areas but we are welcomed by the local people and join in with their lives. We started by visiting one project in a squatter dwelling (Shanty town area). The building was bustling with 50 or 60 toddlers playing with toys scattered everywhere. I imagined Zara my daughter being there, she would have loved it. The group was run by a team of about 6 Jigsaw workers, themselves from the squatter area. After open play the children played in  circle games and sang Christian songs with actions. Everyone was then seated on the floor and a white sheet appeared held by two helpers across the room. We were suddenly the audience of a puppet show. The children absolutely loved it and so did Mike and I. After all the children had gone we prayed with the staff for the children and then visited their homes. Everybody knows everybody here so we were welcomed by all we came into contact with. After lunch back at he Jigsaw offices we joined a street children's group and relaxed with them. Mike and I played table football with some of the children there while Anita and Tim met with a few boys we will be interviewing and asking to film for us. They had a very special time together and the boys shared some of their stories in an informal way. Late afternoon we planned our timetable for the rest of our stay. We have slotted in time for interviews with Children and staff and have had to allocate time to get shots of some of the things they are talking about. Each day we will also need to look at all our footage for the same reason. So tomorrow we begin our interviews and this is the real reason for our visit. Everyone is excited at the prospect of the dvd, but perhaps God will surprise us in other ways too? Check out the most recent photo's on flickr

Manila day 2

Today we have spent getting to know the city. This morning we were taken to the Bam Bam bridge to catch a ferry that took us up the river Pasig all the way into the city. It was a great way to get to know Manila, not just because we were seeing the contrast of business offices and shanty towns but by the welcome we were getting from everybody waving to us from the river bank and the river. It was also good to visit the Spanish quartre, which is the old walled part of the city. Lendl our guide and jigsaw worker explained all the history to us. We also had time to see the bay of Manila where our camera attracted a lot of attention! Mind you Tim Dendy did look magnificent as he filmed out to sea .This is a quick fire entry but to see more of what we got up to today have a look at our flickr pics. Tomorrow we will spend the day at Jigsaw.

Arrival in Manila

We have arrived in a wet and humid Manila after a 16 hour flight. Tim Lee, CMS mission partner and Jigsaw staff worker met us off the plane, Tim Dendy our freelance film maker and the youth and children's team from CMS. On our journey to the Mission guest house, Tim gave us a brief glimpse into a culture where mobiles are so common that Nokia uses Manila as a testing ground but where many of the children that Jigsaw work with are invisible and voiceless in the urban culture. Having quickly unpacked our things we had an evening meal with both Tim and Kate Lee and their 3 children, who created this banner for us all (In pic) as a welcome gift. In spite of our tiredness we began a discussion about how we will shoot the Dvd, Tim shared with us that when they first started to work with Jigsaw their aim was to put shoes on every child. However the children would keep coming back to the project in bare feet. They quickly learnt to focus on their real needs rather than on what they thought they needed. I think as we meet the children and learn about jigsaw's work we will need to apply the same observational skills to see what the children's stories really are about rather than what we think they should be. I think these 10 days will be a big learning curve for us all.

World To Rights Project for 2009

After our CMS Youth and Children's team meeting last week we agreed the final look of our flyer to promote our project on child rights for 2009 called World To Rights. It will again tour around Cathedrals in the UK in the form of educational workshops with a performance at the end of the day much like Free For All. But we are also hoping to break new ground and take it to more unconventional youth venues such as Pupil referral units, Youth clubs and centres for youth offenders.  A new web page is up and running and will be the place where the project will be documented and educational resources will be available.