Untitled

Kapintig 2011 - LernEinsatz
of two, with two persons from a
Philippine partner organization of
IDPI exploring the different faces of
Manila.
in English, so that also our friends
in the Philippines can read it, some
of it is German – if so, you’ll find a
small summary in English.
The second leg lead us to the
island of Marinduque, where we
experienced the daily lives of fisher
families as well as the role of the
“Church of the poor” and basic ecclesial communities in pastoral as
well as developmental contexts.
The third leg centred on urban poverty. One day we spent with street
workers and a group of street
children in Manila, followed by a
stay at host families in Valenzuela,
a materially “poor” region in the
North of Manila.
In the end of our LernEinsatz, we
stayed a couple of days with the
LAKAS-community, an indigenous
group in Zambales, living with
them, working with them and experiencing their Bayanihan, their spirit
of communal effort and work.
We would like to thank IPDI for
all their care, input and company,
Karin and Ute from DKA for the
preparation and organization and
IPSUM for their inspiring insights
into the topic “photography”, as
well as all the wonderful people we
met on our journey!
Maraming salamat, pagpalain kayo
ng dyos!
(Thank you very much, God bless
u all!)
The following report is supposed to
give you insights into our main experiences, these four legs. Some
of the parts are written from a personal view, some focus on what we
experienced, others are written like
a conversation – and so does the
report itself represent the diversity,
the different faces we saw in the
Philippines. Most of the following is
Berto, Bibing, Coring, Gorio, Ina,
Mensio, Miring and Nena,
Kapintig 2011
Who we are...
Renate Mittermayr, alias Nena
Manila, 9:30 morgens: Alle LernEinsätzler/innen stehen gerade auf und
machen sich ans Frühstück. Alle? Nein, denn Renate war zu diesem
Zeitpunkt schon drei Besorgungen machen, die Gegend erkunden und
trinkt nun schon den zweiten Kaffee. Die Soziologie- und Sozialwirtschaft-Studentin aus Linz war stets voller Tatendrang und hätte am liebsten noch viele weitere Stationen auf unserer Reise besucht. Einzig wenn
es darum ging, unsere Gruppe vorzustellen und irgendein Liedchen o.ä.
zum Besten zu geben, war von dem eben beschriebenen Tatendrang
nichts mehr zu merken. Da ließ sie lieber den anderen den Vortritt und
hielt sich dezent im Hintergrund.
Auch bei Gastfamilien, bei denen man nur mit Händen und Füßen
kommunizieren konnte hat sie sich wohl gefühlt und diese meist um
einen Kopf überragt. Besonders das Thema Landrechte waren ihr ein
Anliegen, in dessen Richtung sie auf der Uni auch gerne weiterarbeiten
möchte.
Renate, ingat!
Georg Stütz, alias Gorio
Der Georg ist sehr groß, hat blaue Augen und arbeitet als gelernter
Tischlermeister in einem sozialökonomischen Betrieb im Mühlviertel.
Seine Freizeit verbringt er gerne in der Pfarre von Sandl, worin er auch
schon öfters eine Jungschargruppe als Leiter begleitete. Weiters lässt
sich der Georg als einen sehr gemütlichen, lustigen und geselligen Reisepartner beschreiben, den so schnell nichts aus der Bahn wirft. Er war
auch jederzeit für ein Bier zu begeistern und zählte innerhalb der Gruppe als sehr guter Kartenspieler.
Robert Jolly, alias Berto
● 26 Jahre
● gebürtiger Grazer wohnt in Wien
● Papa – 1 Sohn
● studiert Internationale Entwicklung und arbeitet als Liftführer im Donauturm
● ohne Kaffee ist Berto´s Körper nicht überlebensfähig
● sehr mutiger Balut Vorkoster und Feuerspucker
● hat gleich in der ersten Woche beim nächtlichen Schachspielen mit
Straßenkindern ein paar Pesos verloren
● kam auf der Reise mit wenig Gepäck aus von dem dann manchmal
trotzdem was irgendwo liegengeblieben ist
● guter Rauchpartner der auch am Abend bei „trink ma nu a gute Nacht
Seiterl“ schnell zu überreden war obwohl er lieber Wein trinkt
● ist fast so als ob er schon einige male in Manila gewesen wäre und
fährt auch alleine mit der Metro und sonstigen Verkehrsmitteln nach
Makkati
Miriam Mock, alias Miring
• ist 22 Jahre alt
• Kommt aus Bozen/ Südtirol
• Studiert Internationale Entwicklung und Soziologie in Wien
• Arbeitet als Tutorin am Institut für Internationale Entwicklung an der Uni
Wien
• Vehemente Facebookverweigerin
• Weigert sich ob der garantierten Unzulänglichkeit italienisches Essen
außerhalb Italiens zu kosten
• Brachte beständig italienisches Temperament, südtiroler Charme und
viel Hintergrundwissen in (entwicklungspolitische) Diskussionen ein.
Conny Selch, alias Coring
Coring war der Sonnenschein auf unserer Reise - nicht, dass wir nciht
genug Sonne gehabt hätten, aber Connys Fröhlichkeit, ihr Lachen und
ihre angenehme Art haben auch die verregnetesten Taifun-Tage erhellt.
Sie war auch unsere Tagalog-Meisterin, die uns schon vor Reiseantritt
die wichtigsten Wörter in Filippino/Tagalog beigebracht hat.
Selbst lang erfahren im Sternsingen wollte sie nun hinter die Kulissen
blicken und war von den Lebensrealitäten der Menschen vor Ort gleichermaßen berührt wie inspiriert: Die Theater-/Film- und Medienwissenschaften-Studentin aus Wien, war nämlich auch diejenige, die es am
schnellsten wieder zurück auf die Philippinen gezogen hat - nämlich um
im Zuge ihrer Diplomarbeit einen Kurzdokumentarfilm über das Leben
zweier ihrer Gastfamilien zu drehen.
Coring, es war eine Freude mit dir zu reisen, keep on shining!
Clemens Huber, alias Mensio
Clemens Huber, Mensio („Menscho“), hat sich sehr schnell an seinen
neuen philippinischen Namen gewöhnt. Ein munterer, lebensfroher, heiterer Geselle der Kapintig so richtig ausgekostet hat (ich sag nur: BALUT!!!) Ja - heikel ist er nicht!. Seit 27 Jahren ist er nun auf der Welt und
liebt den 2. Bezirk in Wien so sehr wie jeher. Studieren tut er Internationale Entwicklung und arbeitet auch noch dazu im Jungscharbüro. Seine
Reise auf die Philippinen war die 2. in seinem Leben, denn 2007 durfte
er schon einmal am Lerneinsatz teilnehmen. Leicht ist ihm die Rolle als
Reisebegleiter gefallen, er hat sie gut gemeistert!
Clemens Huber, also called Mensio got used to his new philippine name
quite easily. He is a happy and cheerful compagnion full of life, who
really wanted to taste the Philippines (I just say: BALUT!!!) Yes, he isn’t
picky at all! For 27 years now he is part of the world and he still loves the
2nd district as much as ever. He studies International Development and
even works at the “Jungschar”! This was his second trip to the Philippines, he was a member of Kapintig 20?? Already. His duty as group
leader wasn’t hard for him at all, he managed it easily and did very well!
Brigitte Lutz, alias Biggi
Nein, das ist kein Werbefoto für
grüne Mode, sondern unsere
kreative Bibing, die sich allemal
zu helfen wusste und ihre durch
eine Allergie hervorgerufenen
Hautreizungen sehr gekonnt behandelte! Allergisch reagierte sie
jedoch nicht nur auf die sehr starke
Sonne, sondern manchmal auch
auf „unlogische“ Situationen: etwa
wenn sich John von IPDI in den
Kopf gesetzt hatte unbedingt noch
Erdnüsse kaufen zu gehen, obwohl
wir schon 2 Stunden zu spät waren. Obwohl es niemand von uns
verstand, nahmen wir es alle resigniert hin, außer Bibing, die mit extremer Insistenz beharrte „WHY do
we have to buy Peanuts? WHY?“
Aber man darf ja nicht vergessen –
sie ist technische Mathematikerin,
da muss schon alles einer gewissen Logik folgen.
Sie interessiert sich jedoch nicht
nur für Peanuts ;-), sondern für
grundsätzlich alles und löcherte diverse Filipin@s auch noch mit Fragen, wenn wir durch die Hitze viel
zu geschafft dazu. Ihre Neugierde
und extreme Offenheit schlagen
Bibing auch immer wieder mal in
fernste Gebiete unserer Erde und
sie kommt so ganz schön herum,
auch wenn ihr Leben eigentlich
sonst recht monostädtisch ausgerichtet wäre: „I was born in Vienna,
I have studied in Vienna, I live in
Vienna and I work in Vienna“ stellte
sie sich oft vor! Neben Sonne und
Unlogik reagiert Bibing auch sehr
schnell auf Stimmungsschwankungen und war unentbehrlich, um
kleine Spannungen in der Gruppe
auszubalancieren –
Salamat dafür und für deine Fröhlichkeit und dein ansteckendes
Lachen, das uns die ganze Reise
begleitete!!
Katharina Schmidt, alias Ina
Ina’s real name is Katharina
Schmid. When our group was introducing ourselves to the people
in the Philipines, Ina was always
collecting “Aah’s” and “ooh’s”, because of her smart studies – Ina
wants to become a math teacher
one time. As she was one of our
two best maths-travellers during
our trip she was also managing
our “goodbye”-gift for the Solidarity-night, the very last night with
the people from all the NGO’s.
In a group of four people she was
the “boss of the baking”, when
they were doing several “Marillenkuchen”, “Apple Strudel” and
even the famous Viennese “Sacher Torte”! She was counting all
the kilograms of butter, sugar and
flour and was the master of the
recipes. Mhm…how delicious the
bakery was!!
When Ina was not cooking she
was always the one, who was
really up for participating in every
exciting moment and situation, not
being stressed by the heat or by
the rain.
It was great travelling with Ina during the KAPINTIG, I would go on
many more with her.
In our first days in the Philippines,
everything was about “orientation”,
in other words, IPDI tried to give
us some introduction into Philippine culture and society, as well as
provide us with some “tools” that
might be helpful on our journey.
After our warm welcome at the
airport (in every way – IPDI-staff
was caring from the very first moment and it was freakingly hot!) we
headed to PGX Trimona, a guesthouse/restaurant/fair-trade-shop,
were we stayed during all our days
in Manila and that became kind of
our “homebase” during our month
in this beautiful country.
Close to PGX, was the office of
IPDI, another central point of our
“learning experience”, because
that’s where we regularly came
together and got useful inputs on
Philippine culture, society and
politics as well as developmental
issues. Especially the first days
focused on getting to know each
other and preparing for our upcoming encounters, by learning basic
facts. And getting to know some
games, like “Maria and Juan are
going to the market”, which you
can see on the pictures, were also
part of that.
But IPDI didn’t not simply teach us
by giving lectures and showing us
amazing powerpoint-presentations
(thumbs-up, Vio!), no, shortly after
our arrival we got to know plenty
of people from IPDI- and also DKA
partner-organizations, who spent
two days with us. On the first,
we tried to collect our knowledge
about each other countries: The
Austrians made a collage on things
we associate with the Philippines
and the Philippin@s vice versa.
It was pretty clear, that on both
sides there was a lot of potential
to broaden the knowledge and
maybe “correct” some stereotypes. We also – and this proofed to
be incredible valuable throughout
our entire journey – learned basic
words in tagalog. Whereever we
went we had to introduce ourselves and that fact that we could do
that in Tagalog quite often resulted
in cheering and applause. On the
other hand, for us it was also a
symbol of respect: Getting to know
a new country and “culture” inclu-
des puttingsome effort in learning
at least some basic words an phrases. In pairs of two, one Austrian,
one Philippin@, we taught each
other a couple of useful phrases in
german/tagalog, which was both
very funny and quite challenging.
As you can see, mutual learning
and exchange was a fundamental
part of Kapintig, from the very first
moment.
At this point, I must not forget to
mention our welcome-night: On
our second evening, we were
“officially welcomed” by our friends
and hosts in the Philippines. We
had a huge dinner together, on the
top of a building near IPDI office,
and a welcome party with laughter, games and songs (in fact the
singing was more challenging than
learning Tagalog for some of us
and didn’t improve on our journey,
unlike our Tagalog). We were offered great food (with this, everyone
contributed), also an important
part of experiencing new things. :-)
People from different parts of Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, and also from Marinduque,
an island South of Luzon, came to
Manila to welcome us and showing
us how much effort there was put
into making us feel at home.
On the second they, we went on
a Manila-Contrast tour. In order to
get to know Manila, we split up in
groups of four (two Austrians, two
Philippin@s) and went on exploring the city on our own. Robert is
giving you insights into his first day
in the big city of Manila:
(Summary: Robert & Nena were
accompanied by Joe and Dumbe, from ASI. They tried different
means of transportation (Tricycle,
Jeepney, MRT,…). They passed
Shopping walls, highly protected
by armes security, inner-city slums
(like the one near Recto), were
Joe recommended not to go into),
and the church of Quiapo. In front
of that people were selling herbal
abortifacients, in spite the fact that
abortion is illegal and especially
condemned by the Catholic Church.
After lunch at ASI, the went to
Rizal-park, where as a effect of the
urbanization, so many people were
found with all their belongings, who
are struggling for a better life in the
cities. After that another real contrast was found in “Mall of Asia”, a
luxury shopping mall, where Robert and Renate experienced once
again the positive discrimination of
white people – their bags were not
checked, unlike anyone else’s. In
the evening they decided to take
the bus back to Quezon City and
the concert at “Conspiracy’s”, but
due to heavy traffic an EDSA, it
took them almost two hours).
Nach beinahe drei Tagen der
klimatischen Eingewöhnung, der
Welcome Fiesta und zahlreichen
Workshops mit Basisinformation
war es endlich soweit: In kleinen
Gruppen führten uns unsere Projektpartner/innen, das waren in
meinem Fall Joe und Dumbe vom
Asian Social Institute (ASI), im
Rahmen der Manila Contrast Tour
einen Tag lang quer durch den
Verkehr von Metro Manila.
Aufgabe war es wenn möglichst so
viel Transportmittel wie nur möglich
zu verwenden. Da es in Manila bis
auf die Schnellbahn kaum öffentliche Verkehrsmittel gibt, ist es
für die Einwohner manchmal ganz
schön kostspielig, falls nicht gar
unleistbar, von Punkt A nach B zu
kommen .
Statt öffentlichen Linienbussen fahren private Jeepney-Unternehmen
jeweils bestimmte Strecken ab,
und halten an bestimmten Kreuzungspunkten. Wer einsteigen will,
muss schnell sein, denn die Jeepneys haben lediglich eine Kapazität von ca. 20 Personen weshalb
es manchmal ganz schön eng
werden kann, da die meisten Leute
auch noch „begrenzte“ Mengen an
Gepäck dabei haben.
Bezahlt wird im Bus selbst, dabei
wird der entsprechende Betrag, jeweils abhängig von der gewünschten Dauer der Fahrt, von einem
Passagier zum nächsten bis hin
nachvor zum Fahrer gereicht. Wer
aussteigen möchte klopft einfach
von innen ans Dach des Jeeps und
ruft „Para!“ .
Innerhalb der Barangays [entspricht in etwa unseren Bezirken.
Das Wort bedeutet ursprünglich
Hausboot da sich früher Dörfer
aus einem Zusammenschluss von
Familienbooten bildeten], fahren
ebenfalls private Unternehmen
mit Motorrädern samt Sozius den
so genannten Tricycles oder kurz
Trikes genannt die unmittelbare
Umgebung ab. Kostenpunkt je
nach Anzahl der Fahrgäste und
Dauer der Fahrt zwischen 15 und
35 Pesos.
So fuhren Renate, Joe Dumbe
und ich zunächst mit dem Trike
zur Jeepney Station und mit dem
Jeepney zur MRT (Schnellbahn).
Wer mit der MRT fahren will muss
sich, wie zur Prävention terroristischer Anschläge in ganz Manila
üblich, etlichen Security Checks
unterziehen. Dabei wird meist mittels Stock und Taschenlampe das
Gepäck durchwühlt, um nach Waffen, Sprengmitteln etc. zu suchen.
Weiße werden bei diesen Checks
meist bevorzugt behandelt. Man
fühlt sich dann ob der verkürzten
Wartezeit privilegiert und diskriminiert zugleich.
Mit der MRT gings dann zur Station Recto ins Stadtzentrum Manilas. Direkt neben der Station tun
sich die ersten großen Siedlungen
aus mehrstöckigen Wellblechhütten auf. “Zu gefährlich! „ meint
Joe auf meine Frage ob wir da
hineingehen könnten. Als weißer
Europäer gilt man automatisch als
reich, Taschendiebstähle seien da
noch die harmlosesten Übergriffe.
Tatsächlich kommt einem die Stadt
wie eine riesige Festung vor, denn
vor jedem noch so kleinen Ge-
schäft sind bis an die Zehen bewaffnete Sicherheitsbeamte postiert. Wer den Überfall wagt wird
erschossen. Legal: Die Notwehr
der Kapitalvermehrung, in einem
Land dessen Bevölkerung durchschnittlich von weniger als drei
USD pro Tag lebt. Von den Slums
in Recto und den „ShoppingMalls
of the poor“ wie Joe die Betonklötze mit allerlei dicht aneinander
gedrängten, chinesische Waren
anbietenden Shops nennt, geht
es einige hundert Meter vorbei an
bunten Fisch-, Fleisch- und Gemüsemärkten zur Kirche von Quiapo.
Die Basilika erinnert mehr an eine
schön eingerichtete Fabrikhalle
als an eine Kirche im europäischen Sinn. Auch weil sich hier
jeden Freitag Tausende Gläubige
zur Verehrung einer Schwarzen
Marienskulptur versammeln. Vor
den Toren werden Devotionalien,
Blumenkränze aus Jasmin sowie
allerlei Kräuter zur Kindesabtreibung verkauft, auch wenn diese
gesetzlich strikt verboten ist und
insbesondere von der Kirche
verteufelt wird. Legale Alternativen
gibt es nicht.
Von Quiapo aus geht‘s mit dem
Jeepney zum Asian Social Institute, wo Joe und Dumbe arbeiten.
Das ASI ist nicht nur eine Bildungseinrichtung sondern betreibt
auch Monitoring für verschiedene
urbane Sozialprojekte. Joe stellt
uns dem Direktorium vor, wobei wir
eben in deren allwöchentliches Assesment Meeting reinplatzen. Das
scheint aber niemanden zu stören.
Auch offizielle Meetings in den Philippinen scheinen relativ locker von
statten zu gehen, und beginnen
nicht nur in diesem Fall mit einer
sogenannten Working Merienda:
Jausnen & Arbeiten in einem.
Da auch wir mittlerweile Hunger
bekommen haben gehen wir in
die Mensa im gleichen Gebäude.
Zum Reis gibt es eine Auswahl
an gebratenem Fisch, Huhn und
Gemüse. Bevor wir zum zweiten
Teil der Contrasttour aufbrechen
beschließen wir kurzerhand den
José Rizal Park samt der 10 Meter
hohen Bronzeskulptur des Freiheitskämpfers und Nationalhelden
zu besuchen. Was im Park nach
einem riesigen Familienpicknick
aussieht ist in Wahrheit Resultat
der Landflucht. Mit dem Wunsch
nach einem besseren Leben in der
Stadt ziehen Bauern mit ihrem Hab
& Gut vom Land nach Manila, und
nächtigen auf der Straße oder in
den Slums. Mit dabei Hühner und
Schweine. Man lebt von Tagelöhnerjobs und Kleinkriminalität.
Unweit des Rizalparks steigen wir
in einen der vielen Shoppingcen-
ter Shuttlebusse ein. Nach einer
guten halben stunde Fahrzeit
scheint mir wir wären bei Harrods
in London oder auch den Ringstraßengalerien in Wien gelandet.
Neben einer gut ausgebauten
Strandpromenade ragt ein riesiger
Shoppingtempel, mit allen europäischen, amerikanischen Modelabels & Elektromärkten die man
sich nur denken kann, Parfümerieläden neben Fastfoodketten und
Indoor-Eislaufplatz zur Abkühlung
mit einem Megaplexx-großen Bild
der schneebedeckten Alpen als
Hintergrund: Mall of Asia.Preise
wie in Europa. Ein Erlebnis für die
oberen Zehntausend oder jene
die sich mal so fühlen wollen. Joe
und Dumbe müssen beim betreten
ihre Taschen durchsuchen lassen,
Renate und ich werden einfach
durchgewunken. Ein gewisses
Unbehagen setzt ein. Apartheid?
Wir setzten uns kurz in eines der
lokalen Fastfood Restaurants und
schlürfen Hallo-Hallo, ein aromatisiertes Kaltgetränk mit AgarAgar
Stücken.
Wir flanieren entlang der Strandmeile und überlegen uns was fürs
Abendprogramm. Shé von IPDI
steht in dauerndem sms Kontakt
mit Joe und schlägt vor zu einem
LifeKonzert eines bekannten
Singer&Songwriters zu gehen.
Nach kurzer Diskussion machen
wir uns auf den Rückweg nach
Quezon City, jenem Teil von Metro
Manila in dem wir einquartiert sind
und auch das Konzert stattfindet.
Mit der Begründung das wir für die
MRT während der Stoßzeit eine
halbe Stunde Schlange stehen
müssten, schlägt Joe vor mit dem
Bus zu fahren. Joe hält die Hand
raus und tatsächlich bleibt nach
10 minütiger Wartezeit ein klimatisierter Reisebus mit Vollbremsung
stehen. Doch die Rush Hour wird
schlimmer. Letztendlich wären wir
mit der MRT schneller gewesen
denn die Busfahrt dauerte beinahe
zwei Stunden auf dieser am stärksten befahrenen Straße Manilas:
Der Epifanio de los Santos Avenue
(EDSA), die Straße der philippinischen Revolution.
The Marinduque-Leg basically was
composed of three different parts:
After our arrival at the “heart of the
Philippines” we stayed for two days
at the Pastoral Center, where we
had some lectures about the Church of the Poor and the History of
Marinduque and visited some sites
like a Greenhouse Project. After
that we split up in three groups and
went in different “Barangays” (it’s
a small regional unit, like “district”)
to host families, where we stayed
for four days. At the end we met all
together again at the Pastoral Center, where we did some processing
of our experiences and visited
some more places (abandoned mining site, evacuation center…). But
let’s have a look, what we really
experienced at Marinduque!
Miring: Magandang hapon, Conny!
Kumusta?
Coring: Mabuti! Ikaw?
M: Mabuti, salamat! If you think
about our trip to Boac in Marinduque – what do you remember first?
C: Jesus, of course. You couldn’t
miss the big statue standing in
front of the huge Pastoral Center in
Boac :-)
M: Right, the Pastoral Center was
really an impressive building, but
I felt very much at home there,
because of the warm welcome
from the people from the organizations BCC and MACEC. Do you
remember the “Putong”? I think I
never experienced such a special
welcome ceremony ever!!
C: Yes, me neither! I couldn’t believe my eyes, when I saw those 20
elderly women, who were dancing
and singing the lyrics of the “Putong” for us. I felt like a queen, especially when they crowned us with
wodden crowns and overwhelmed
us with flowers and lucky coins.
M: I think they sang for at least
20minutes and wouldn’t stop. I was
really impressed and touched…
and I was already nervous regarding our cultural presentation
(singing and dancing too!), which
should follow the “Butong”!
C: I was always having fun in dan-
cing the “Pippi Langstrumpf” and
singing “Once an Austrian went
jodeling,…”! Maybe our group was
not the best in performances, but
that is the way, how you present
your culture in the “Kapintig-Program”…and it’s fun!
Do you remember Father Allan and
his lecture about “The church of
the Poor”?
M: Of course I do, he is a person,
you won’t forget…his passion
about not just doing, but living his
profession and his faith. I really
liked the element of involving
Communites in the Church and not
just regarding people as visitors. In
Marinduque, we saw that the aim
of the Church was to meet peoples
needs and supporting them in their
daily life and struggles by forming
community organizations. I would
like to see an active Church like
that in Austria.
C: When I think of Church in Austria, I think of getting tired during
the priest’s sermon. I think it is
impressive to see how passionate
the people in Marinduque were
with their faith.
Hey, do you remember our stay in
Kalangkan?
M: Yes, of course…already the trip
there was quite an experience:
About two hours with the Jeepney
in the middle of nowhere, we didn’t
know, where we will land. The
streets became narrower and narrower and we didn’t see too many
people passing.
C: And then there were around 40
people expecting us and welcoming us with a poster “Welcome
Visitors”!! First we had to eat in
front all of them – delicious fish
and crabs and of course RICE! –
…
M: For me I felt not so confortable
eating in front of so many people,
also because sometimes I didn’t
have a clue, how to eat this crab
or fish with only my hands. Another interesting thing was that we
always ate before the others – as
this is the way how Filipinos treat
their visitors – after two days we
had one lunch together with the
family at the same time, which we
really enjoyed, didn’t we?
C: Yes, this was good, but I think,
it is also just the Filipino way of
showing their hospitality to their
guests. I also really liked getting
to know the work of the fishermen
like going fishing in the morning or
preparing the fish for getting dried.
I can remember the moment, where I was cutting a fish through it’s
head – I almost managed to do it!
I am also glad that I just started to
eat fish 1 year ago, because there was not much else than fish in
Kalangkan!
M: That’s true, fish was the food
Nr.1! But remember the exotic
fruits from their “garden”! We
directly ate the Papaya and the
Coconut from the trees, and don’t
forget the sweet sagins (bananas)
and the pineapples! Mhm…I loved
it!
C: It’s amazing how delicious they
prepared the food, although the
kitchen was very simple – one
small room inside of a wooden hut,
cooking with fire, which makes the
room very smoky, especially when
there is around 40°C and a humidity of 95%!!
M: But the food was so tasty and
really healthy because of the fresh-
ness. The “oldest fish” was maybe
dead for only two hours. :-) This
meant real quality of life for me, not
forget to mention the low production of waste!
C: But unfortunately there was
some waste in the backyard –
plastic wrappings from different
products - waste, which is not
organized by any local garbage
collection. It’s a pity, because the
whole area is so beautiful and the
nature should keep this beauty.
M: Yes, the nature was really fantastic! All this fresh green plants
and beautiful flowers like these
wild orchids in the “garden” before
our hut! Or do you remember those
hundreds of starfishes we saw
when we went planting mangroves
with the people from the community? It was so fascinating! And do
you remember eating the mussels
directly from the stones in the sea?
That was an experience – a salty
one!
C: By the way…showering was
also a bit of an adventure, right?
We were showering in a little room,
outside of the hut, where we were
living, with no top – when I was
showering at night, I could even
see the stars. It was very exciting!
M: I can also remember washing
clothes in a bigger tray – because
of the high humidity they got wet
very easily, so I had to wash them
every once in a while. Especially
when we were dancing at the little
“fiesta” – at night it still felt like
35°C! But I didn’t care at that time,
because I was having so much fun
in dancing with the kids and singing some well-known songs like
“Knocking on heaven’s door” or
“Wonderwall”.
C: Or we sang “I like the mountains, I like the fishermen” – the
song, that we were singing together with the kids, when we were
playing with them after school.
First there were only a few, who
wanted to play with us – then after
a while, there were more and more
kids coming – we almost ran out of
games…and energy :-)
M: The Fiesta and the games with
the kids were absolutely two of my
highlights! Especially when I think
back to the Fiesta, where the whole community met at some point at
the street where they had put just
some tables, a bench and a light
and everyone brought something
to eat, I think that you can have
really good times and make life
beautiful with really few things!
C: That’s true! When people at
home organize a “Fiesta” usually
they spend
really a lot of money for renting a
room, maybe a catering service
and so on – and I’m sure often the
Fiesta in the end won’t be half the
fun we had in Kalangkan!
M: Right, just because there are
many things you just can’t buy with
money – like fun or also a strong
community! Also at the occasion
of the Fiesta you could see this
strong community very clearly: the
people shared the things, some
were organizing the music, some
preparing the food, the children
could play and the old people
enjoyed the evening because they
could see so much life and so on!
C: But you could constantly notice
this strong sense of community.
Do you remember that we weren’t
sure until the last day of our stay
who actually belongs to our host
family, because there were always
so many people going in and out
in our house and also sleeping
sometimes there! :-) It was really a
house of open doors!
M: Oh yes! In some way the lines
between community and family
really became indistinct and people identify themselves much more
about the community as we are
used it and I liked that!
I think I could never stop talking
and thinking about our stay in Kalangkan – it was really one of the
most amazing places I have been
to – I will never forget it!
C: Me neither! Salamatpo Marinduque!
Valenzuela Experience
It took a Jeepney, an overload
bus and a Tricyle to get to Valenzuela, a district of Manila. After
we arrived, the at first shy women
of AKKMA, an NGO supporting
education and the development of
their community founded by Diding
Ibanez, gave us a warm welcome.
One of their projects is the production of “Basahan” which is a
small round piece of cloth used
for example as an oven cloth or
a cleaning cloth. It is made by left
over fabric of the T-shirt factory
next to the community and sold for
1 peso. AKKMA also enforces the
collection of biodegradable waste in order to produce compost.
This compost is an ideal organic
fertilizer due to his high nutritive
value. They use coconut fibers to
produce door mats and sell them
themselves at the market. After a
short presentation concerning the
projects which are being supported we took another tricycle to the
“squatter areas”.
A narrow piece of land located
directly underneath an electric
high-voltage power line, which is
owned by the state. The streets
are narrow and gloomy, the houses
made of corrugated iron sheets,
cardboard and bricks and look
ramshackle. Surprisingly they
always find enough spare room for
the “mandatory” Basketball field!
The “Barangay” is surrounded by
factories: Steel, T-shirts, Umbrella, … Because all the signs and
advertisements are missing, from
the outside those factories look
like huge halls and you don’t know
what happens behind their doors.
It is kept secret which companies
produce their goods there. A host
mother told us, that some roofs
even glow in the nights. You can
very well imagine the considerable bad working conditions. The
majority of those factories belong
to Chinese or Taiwanese people.
Officially they are supposed to
be owned by a Philippino, but it
seems like the government doesn’t
pay too much attention. They also
miss out on helping the working
men concerning the 5 months
contracts. Because only after 6
months employment the protective
laws become effective. Since all
factories only have 5 months contracts many blue-collared workers
regularly are made redundant after
that period. That happened to one
of our host dads. Now he hopes
that the economic situation becomes better again, only then he gets
a chance to find work. Until that
time he is sitting at home, waiting,
without any salary. One earns
about 50 Peso an hour, which is
less than 1 Euro. Shift-work is a
daily occurrence. Each working
day is divided into 3 shifts.
Bibing:
Compared to the other families
my host family is better situated.
I have a 23 year old Sister, called
Paulin. She still lives at her parents’ house with her silent, nosepierced boyfriend and their daughter Metmet. She works at the local
kindergarden of AKKMA, he at a
gas station. Metmet was born in a
maternity clinic. My host brothers
were Mark 19 and Paulo 25 years old. Paulo lives at his parents’
home as well as his pregnant wife.
My host dad is Tricycle driver. Additionally he breeds fighting cocks,
which he feeds special food and
gives a bath once a month. After a
successful fight he can sell them
for over 1500 Pesos each! Thelma my host mother is in charge of
the house hold chores and takes
care of her grandchild. Additionally
she cooks for the kindergarden.
My host family owns one of the
few single-storey houses of this
“Baranguay”. They use the roof
as herb garden and storage of the
big water tank. They cook at the
terrace, using wood. One bag of
small pieces of wood costs about
10 Peso. The option of buying a
gas bottle for 700 pesos is far too
expensive. As in all the other host
families I have to take the bed,
while my host family sleeps on the
floor and as all the other families
they also have a TV which is on
almost all the time. My host mom
takes care of me and cooks for
me like I was a king! Together we
make an excursion to the market
and buy fish and vegetables.
Ina:
I am living with Christopher and
Maribel Pelegria. Both are about
30 years old and have been married for 8 years. Since their wedding
they try to get a baby, but so far
without success. Maribel is very
sad about that. Having children
has a very high value on the Philippines. When I met my host mother
all the other women laughed, but
I didn’t understand why. Later on
Maribel told me, that they laugh at
her because she still doesn’t have
any children. As a present I gave
her a cherry pit pillow. As I tried to
explain her how to use it (heat it
up and place it on your belly) she
immediately asked me if it helps
her to get pregnant.
I sleep in the only separate room
on the floor. At the evening I don’t
take a shower nor wash myself,
which is hard for me. I don’t want
to waste their valuable water, since
they have to carry to their house.
Hiding away in bed I use a wet
tissue which helps me not to feel
that dirty.
In the evaluation meeting all the
women are shocked by my reason
not to wash. That was extremely
embarrassing.
We spend the next morning with
the children at the Day Care Center. This is one of the projects of
AKKMA. There are no kindergarten
teachers, but women take turns in
watching the children. This shows
that AKKMA really is a grass root
organization.
Street children:
After a short presentation about
street children at the office of IPDI
we travelled all through Manila
to meet the partner organization. Couples of street worker and
teachers work together in a region
in order to built confidence. From
Tuesday to Saturday 2pm to 8 pm
they spend time with the children
and teach them the rights of child-
ren, the alphabet, health and other
subjects that are taught in school.
When a child achieves a state of
knowledge they can take an examination acknowledged by the
state in order to be able to go to
school. They also have the possibility to make a health examination.
And they can always share their
problems with the street worker
and discuss their options for their
future. At the end of this “classes”
all the children get a hot meal. For
most of the kids this is the only
(hot) meal a day.
I was especially impressed by the
idea of helping the children safe
money. The street workers keep
a list of the money each child has
on its “account”. This money can
be used for emergencies or bigger
investments.
During our stay we played and
sang together. Every single child
wanted to join in, even the pregnant 15 year old teenage girl with
her slightly shy smile. We then
met a street family, who owns a
tiny table where they sell food,
washing powder, fried skin of a pig.
Everything is in minimalistic portions. After that we had to “work”:
we „helped“ selling candy for one
peso each, “candy! Masarap candy! One peso!” (masarap= yummy) One place even sold Balut (a
fertilized duck egg!!)! Quite quick
I have a feeling for who will give
me money and develop my own
strategies! But all in all it’s a quite
frustrating job. Another job that
street children often do, is announ-
cing the bus stops. The NGO is
allowed to bring the children to a
church where its quiet enough to
have their lessons. I was especially
impressed by the motivation of the
children. They are so eager for
knowledge!
After the dinner we have some
time to play their games: crown
caps are flipped in turns.
As we returned to Trimona, our
main “home” we found out that we
didn’t have a key nor anything else
with us- Only Clemens had his
IPDI mobile with him. We felt like
“street children” sitting down on
the concrete without money or any
other valuable things. But luckily
somebody opened the door an
hour later : )
Zambales Experience
Indigenous Culture Experience,
22 – 28 July 2011
Summary:
Our last week, we spent in Zamabales, north of Manila, close to
the east-philippine sea. The main
focus was intercultural exchange
with LAKAS (Lubos na Alyansa ng
mag Katutubong Ayta ng Sambales), a community and organization of the Aetas, one of the many
indigenous tribes in the Philippines
(Aprrox. 12% of the population has
indigenous roots).
After an introduction on Idigenous people from John at IPDI,
we went to Zambales, at the east
coast of Luzon, where we stayed
with host families and spent the
days, working with the community.
On our first day, we went to the
rice-field, where we plucked the
rice-seedlings, which we replanted
on the next day – both very hard
work, because of the heat and the
position you have to work (bending
down).
The people of the LAKAS community do cultivate rice and other
crops collectively on fields. All of
them work together, and share the
harvest.
On our last day (after a small
earthquake hit the region), we visited the mayor of the nearest town,
together with Carling, the chief of
the community and spent the afternoon playing with the children. In
the evening we shared our experiences and answered also question about Austria, before having a
closing solidarity night, were we all
put an the traditional clothes of the
Aetas.
Die letzte Woche verbrachten wir
in Zambales. Dies ist eine Region, die nördlich von Manila am
südchinesischen (oder ost-philippinischen) Meer liegt. Der Schwerpunkt lag dabei auf dem interkulturellen Austausch mit der indigenen
Bevölkerung. In dieser Zeit arbeiteten wir vor Ort mit Partnern von
LAKAS (Lubos na Alyansa ng mag
Katutubong Ayta ng Sambales)
zusammen. Diese „Organisation“
wurde 1984 gegründet und gilt
als erste Organisation der Aetas
in Zambales. Sie beschäftigt sich
hauptsächlich mit Bildungsprogrammen, die den Aetas unter
anderem ihre Rechte vermittelt.
Geschichtliches zu den AETAS
Auf den Philippinen lassen sich ca.
12 Prozent der indigenen Bevölkerung zurechnen. Dabei unterscheidet man in 60 verschiedene
indigenen Bevölkerungsgruppen.
Aus diesen Gruppen, gelten die
Negritos (auch Aetas genannt),
als Ursprungsbevölkerung. Davon leben auf den Philippinen
noch ungefähr 150.000 Menschen
(Stand 2009). Die Kultur der Aetas
beinhaltet traditionelle Praktiken
und verfolgt nicht-westliche Regeln
und Gebräuche. Weiters betreiben
die Aetas Subsistenzwirtschaft,
das heißt, sie leben hauptsächlich
von ihrer Landwirtschaft, die sie
kommunal bewirtschaften. Dabei
bauen sie Reis, Bananen, Gemüse
und Süßkartoffeln auf ihren Feldern an.
Der Vulkanausbruch des Mount Pinatubo, zwang die Aetas 1991 zur
Evakuierung ihres Dorfes, dieses
direkt am Fuße des Vulkans lag.
So leben sie heute, nach zehnmaligen Ortswechsel, in Zambales,
deren Hauptstadt Iba ist. Ein Teil
der Aetas bewohnt die Gegend
rund um Iba, worin wir einige Tage
in ihrem Barangay verbringen
durften.
22. Juli: Ort: Botolan
Wie vor jeder Reise, wurden wir
von IPDI noch gründlich auf die
Aetas vorbereitet. Dies geschah
bereits am Vortag vor unserer Abfahrt nach Zambales.
Gestartet wurde dann am nächsten
Tag um 6 Uhr morgens in Manila.
Nach einer fünfstündigen Busfahrt
erreichten wir den Treffpunkt mit
dem Barangay (-dorf) chef Ka
Carling. Mit ihm fuhren wir dann im
Jeepney ins Dorf. Dort angekommen wurden wir von der LAKAS
Community herzlichst empfangen
und sogleich in die Dorfbücherei
geführt, wo wir unser Mittagessen einnahmen. Dann folgte eine
Einführung in das LAKAS Dorfleben und anschließend lernten
wir unsere zukünftigen Gasteltern
kennen. So verbrachte ein jeder
von uns den späten Nachmittag
mit seiner Gastfamilie.
23. Juli:
Dieser Tag begann ebenfalls schon
sehr bald. Denn wir trafen uns
schon um 7 Uhr morgens um auf
das Reisfeld zu fahren. So fuhren wir mit dem Jeepney und der
halben Community zum Feld, wo
wir dann einige Stunden die hier
herangezogenen Reissetzling aus
dem Boden zupften und zu Büscheln banden. Weiters ackerten
wir mit Hilfe des Carabao (Wasserbüffel), der an einen Pflug angehängt war, ein Stück Land. Darin
konnte ein jeder von uns sein Geschick mit dem Arbeitstier testen.
Diese Wasserbüffel stellen auf den
Philippinen ein wichtiges Hilfsmittel in der Landwirtschaft dar und
ersetzen somit die mechanischen,
wie etwa einen Traktor.
Nach dem Mittagessen, dieses wie
immer sehr reichhaltig war, begaben wir uns auf eine Besichtigung
der Gemüseplantagen. Anzumerken ist bei der Lakas Community,
dass sie sehr die Dorfgemeinschaft
schätzen und daher alles gemeinsam erarbeiten und auch, sowie
bei der Reisernte, alles untereinander aufteilen. Nach Erzählungen
der Gasteltern, reicht der Ertrag
vom Reisfeld aber nicht für eine
ganzjährige Ernährungssicherheit
aus, sodass sie noch Reis zukaufen müssen. Weiters sind sie in der
glücklichen Lage, dass ihr bebau-
tes Land ihnen gehört (wurde von
der Kirche erworben) und sie somit
mit einem Besitztitel ausgestattet
sind. Dies ist nicht selbstverständlich, denn in anderen philippinischen Landesteilen, müssen die
LandarbeiterInnen um Landraub
fürchten, um einem Staudammprojekt oder der Agrarindustrie zu
weichen.
24.Juli:
Auch an diesem Folgetag brachen wir wieder um sieben Uhr
morgens auf, um beim Reisanbau
mitzuhelfen. Diesmal pflanzten
wir die gestrigen gezupften Reispflanzen in das Reisfeld bzw. eher
„Schlammfeld“ ein. Diese Tätigkeit
stellte sich als wahre Knochenar-
beit heraus. Denn bei der Arbeit
steht man im Schlamm, in meist
gebückter Haltung und das bei
brütender Hitze. Daher ist es nicht
verwunderlich, dass einigen von
uns ihr Kreislauf Schlapp machte.
Das Mittagessen wurde stets auf
großen Bananenblättern serviert,
dieses die Frauen von Lakas aus
dem biologischen Gemüse zubereitet hatten. Natürlich wurde
dieses nach alter Manier von uns
mit den Fingern verspeist. Nach
diesem arbeitsreichen Tag, begaben wir uns mit der Lakas Community in einen nahegelegenen See
zum Baden. Dabei hatten wir auch
die Gelegenheit unsere Wäsche
im Fluss zu waschen, die wir gerne
annahmen. Im Lakasdorf wieder
angekommen verbrachten wir
noch einige Zeit mit unseren Gastfamilien und schauten spätabends
dann noch einen Videofilm an, worin es um eine Besichtigungstour
vom erloschenen Vulkan Mount
Pinatubo an.
25. Juli:
In der vergangenen Nacht haben einige von uns schlecht geschlafen. Schuld daran war nicht
das harte Bambusbett, sondern
ein Erdbeben von nicht geringer
Stärke. Den Vormittag verbrachten wir bei der „Bürgermeisterin“
von Botolan. Dabei hatten wir die
Gelegenheit ihr Fragen zu Politik,
Wirtschaft und der Indigenen Bevölkerung zu stellen. Nach diesem
Besuch widmeten wir uns wieder
den Kindern im Lakasdorf. Wir
spielten mit ihnen einige sehr lustige Spiele, die von groß und klein
angenommen wurden. Im weiteren
Tagesverlauf bereiteten wir uns auf
die anstehende Solidarity Night
vor, die um 18 Uhr begann.
Bei dieser Veranstaltung war das
ganze Dorf am Gemeindeplatz
versammelt. Die Lakas Community, so wie als auch, hatten ihre
traditionelle Tracht an. Im Laufe
des Abends führten sie uns ihren
Tanz, den „Talipi“ vor. Bei diesem
Tanz wirbt der Mann um die Frau.
Dabei sollte die Frau stets lächeln
und sich von dem Mann berühren
lassen. Geschieht dieses, so ist
das ein Indiz für eine bevorstehende Verlobung. Generell gilt bei der
Lakas Community die Regel, wird
ein Mann oder eine Frau am Knie
oder an der Hand berührt, so wird
dieses als „sich annähern“ verstanden.
26. Juli bis 28. Juli
Am 26. Juli stand der Abschied
von der Gastfamilie bevor, der uns
allen sehr schwer fiel. Wir machten
uns nun auf den Weg zum Beach
Resort, um dort für ein paar Tage
auszuspannen. Weiters vollzogen
wir unsere übliche Reflexion über
unsere Erlebnisse von den Aetas.
Der Wettergott meinte es aber
nicht gut mit uns und so erlebten
wir einen Taifun (Stufe zwei von
vier), meterhohe Wellen und einen
damit verbunden Stromausfall, mit.
Dies tat der Stimmung aber keinen
Abbruch, denn das Meer und der
Pool waren angenehm warm und
man konnte noch sehr gut schwimmen gehen. Da aber der Regen
nun doch nicht mehr enden wollte,
entschlossen wir uns am 28. Juli
das Beach Resort frühzeitig zu
verlassen, um nach Manila zurückzukehren.
Unsere Gastfamilien:
Renate:
Ich lebte mit Endon und Tangoi
gemeinsam mit den sechs Kindern,
der Oma und der Tante in einer
einfachen Bambushütte. Die Familie hatte (wie viele andere auch in
dem Dorf) keinen Strom. So wurde
traditionell an der hauseigenen
Feuerstelle gekocht und abends
wenn es dunkel wurde, kamen die
Petroleumlampen zum Einsatz.
Geschlafen habe ich im Bambusbett (das mir die älteste Tochter
(17), zur Verfügung stellte), dieses
doch sehr gewöhnungsbedürftig
war. Da in der Familie keiner wirklich Englisch sprach, kam jeden
Abend die Cousine der Familie
vorbei, damit ich die wichtigsten
Daten erfragen konnte. Doch die
Kommunikation funktionierte auch
ohne meiner „Dolmetscherin“ ganz
gut.
Georg:
Ich verbrachte die Nächte bei der
Familie von Toto. Es waren immer
sehr viele Leute im und rund ums
Haus da Toto mit seiner Frau 9
Söhne und eine Tochter hat und
immer auch noch jemand zu Besuch da war. Deswegen war ich
mir bis zum Schluss nicht ganz
sicher wer jetzt wirklich zur Familie
gehört und die Namen konnte ich
mir auch nie merken. Doch als in
der Nacht das Erdbeben war stan-
den alle schnell mal auf und da
sah ich die ganze Familie.
Zwei der Söhne konnten ein bisschen englisch und erklärten mir so
auch den Tagesablauf und wie das
so funktioniert mit Wasserholen
vom Dorfbrunnen, morgentlichem
Feuermachen zum kochen, usw.
Ich wurde natürlich auch immer
sehr gut verköstigt und bekam immer noch eine Spezialität (von der
ich manchmal nicht wusste was es
ist) zum normalen Essen dazu.
Es war ein sehr toller und erfahrungsreicher Aufenthalt mal länger
mit der Familie mitzuleben.
Once we went swimming, taking
a bath and washing the clothes to
a river near the village we stayed
in Zambales. As we had always
to fetch by ourselves the water
to take a shower in this village, I
certainly took the opportunity and
washed myself and my hair in the
river – with the shampoo I had
brought. For me this was just a
very ordinary shampoo, I just had
bought the first I saw in the supermarket. But as I took it out of my
pocket, I realised that it wasn’t an
ordinary one for the girls and women around me, who had accompanied us. Suddenly I heard them
all saying: “Wow, it’s L’Oreal!” and
“Look, its shampoo AND conditioner in one!” or “Oh my gosh, that
must have been expensive – it’s a
whole bottle!” The fact that it was
a whole bottle actually really is
something special, as Filipin@s
often buy things in little packages
as the big package would be to
expensive (see the picture). Of
course it was no problem to finish
the whole shampoo in just some
minutes, because anybody would
miss the possibility to try this
“wonderful shampoo” as I offered it
and so we had great fun washing
collectively our hair in this river…!
But for me, the situation was also
quite weird, not just because I felt
once again how luxury can be
defined differently… It seemed
to me also quite crazy that in this
little village, which seemed to me
so far away from the consumerism
as I know it from home, L’Oreal
can provoke such reactions and
even emotions. It seemed to me
like people would believe that they
could be happier just by having
the possibility to buy this shampoo
and not some other. Although I
know that having a certain amount
of money IS really important also
for the personal well-being, it was
really strange to realise that just in
this village, where I experienced
many things that I consider important for my well-being (like a strong
community, strong family bounds,
to live with the nature…), I realised
that to many people here consumer goods are very important.
Maybe it’s always the same: you
long always for that what you don’t
have…?!
The great importance people give
to some goods and especially
some brands is certainly strongly
related to advertisements in the
Philippines. Or maybe I better say
the “culture of advertisements”
there – than to see how advertisements are functioning in the Phillipines really was an experience!
If you are watching TV, you don’t
watch some movies, news or whatever with some short interruptions
for commercials, but it’s the other
way round: you watch commercials
with some interruptions for the real
TV programme. The degree of the
commercials struck all of us – in
my opinion mainly because of this
huge gap between reality and the
idyllic world of them. I noticed this
gap also regarding the choice of
the protagonists of the ads: they
didn’t represent Filipino people at
all – because they were white or
very light-skinned people! Always!
But this was just anther sign for
the crazy idea that white people
are considered somehow “better”, which you could feel and see
very often in the Philippines. For
example in the run on “whitening
products” like body lotions, soaps
etc. If we told people that at home
people spent quite a lot of money
to get tanned they thought we were
crazy. And I thought: What a crazy world! Somehow commercials,
“the society” or whatever always
manage it that people “want” to be
different as they are and that they
spent a lot of money for it!
Another interesting detail of advertisements was how they used
the word “happiness”: without
exaggerating, you could see on
every corner some ad from Coke,
saying “Here you get Coke and
therefore happiness” – but following the ads you could get this
great feeling also by buying some
cheeseburger look at the picture
of the plastic bag) etc. To make it
short: I very often had the feeling
that people believe you can BUY
happiness and like I wrote already
before this was quite strange to
me. Of course it’s very clear that
for many people in the Philippines
more money could be very helpful
and they really need it – no doubt
about that! But as a member of a
society where most people have
enough money, but still are not
happy but always want more, this
idea sounds strange to me.
Certainly it is very easy for me to
write these things, as I could buy
all sorts of things if I would like to
– and therefore of course I don’t
judge anybody. I just conclude that
I’ve learned much during Kapintig
from Filipin@s about theses things
– about wishes, about possibilities
that money can give you, but also
about those that money CAN’T
give you and about satisfaction
and happiness – and I certainly
didn’t make these learning experiences in some of the huge shopping malls in Manila or some other
temples of consumerism! :-)
Miring
When I first attended the „information weekend“ in January, I couldn’t
really understand the program of
this trip “LernEinsatz”: travelling
to a so called „third-world country“
and try to get a look inside of the
NGOs and the people behind that
work. I thought: “Well, that sounds
really nice, but we are not going to
work or actually be involved in any
project?”
Honestly I couldn’t really understand what the bigger reason
behind the journey was. But I
came to the decision, I want to try
it and I want to find that “bigger
reason”. As our trip was divided
into four different “legs”, in which
we were supposed to learn about
different people, culture and life
circumstances, we always had
some time to reflect our experiences and to share our feelings after
each leg. In the office of IPDI, our
partner-organization, there was
space and time to do several kinds
of reflections – we could either
express ourselves visually by drawing colorful posters or verbally by
having deeper conversations about
ourselves inside of this trip.
Soon I found out that the others
also had problems in explaining,
“why we were here”, especially to
the people at home. I was asked
several times: “So are you going to
build a school or help in any hospital in the Philippines, or what do
you do there?” In the office of IPDI
we had the time to talk about these
issues:
• Why are we here?
• What do the host families, with
which we will stay with, think about
our coming? What are their reactions?
• How can we explain the purpose
of LernEinsatz?
We soon got an answer:
“The people appreciate the fact,
that somebody from another country (let’s say “First World Country”),
cares about them. This is the feeling that they get out of the LernEinsatz and that is what makes
them feel proud and special.”
When I heard that, I was really tou-
ched. I started to understand that
also even little aspects of a visit
can sometimes mean much more
than someone might not even think
of.
Ok, this is now one beautiful aspect. But this still doesn’t give me
the feeling, that this is the bigger
reason of the Lerneinsatz, which I
am still looking for.
When we had our very last reflection in the office of IPDI, our group
was thinking about, what to “take
back to Austria”, meaning like:
What did we learn during our trip?
What were the most meaningful
experiences to us? What effects
does the trip have on our daily-life
and on us?
We were collecting thoughts and
feelings, we were doing another
poster paved with mind cards, we
were sharing our funniest moments
and our biggest challenge during
the whole trip, but there was still
the question:
“And now?”
As I kept on travelling a while
after the trip to the Philippines, I
couldn’t stop thinking about this
question. I thought, now I have
done the “Lerneinsatz”, I have had
each kind of amazing experience,
I have had Ups and Downs in this
month, which I will always remember as probably one of my most
interesting months of my life, but
I still didn’t find the bigger reason
behind it.
As I was visiting friends during my
travels, I started to tell them about
the trip to the Philippines, about
the hospitable people, the exotic
nature, the admirable culture and
how the trip opened my horizon. I
have to say, that I am a big traveller and that I might have told travel
stories quite a few times already,
but this time it was different. It was
the first time that the people next
to me were really curious and were
really excited to hear more of my
stories. I was very surprised and
happy about this positive “showing
their interest”.
Then, maybe one month after the
“Lerneinsatz”, I got a message
from a friend of mine:
“Hey Conny, I was so touched and
impressed by your stories, I can’t
stop thinking about a great idea: I
want to involve myself in a charity
project! Thanks for sharing your
stories with me! Have a great day!”
First I was really surprised that he
was actually thanking me for telling
him about my journey, because
that’s what you do, after you have
been somewhere far away, right?
But then I came to the conclusion,
that there is even more behind
“telling those stories”. It is about
“sharing feelings, moments, experiences” and giving others another
picture of a society, trip, project or
whatever topic is included in the
stories of the LernEinsatz – and
there is several.
Finally I came to the big answer:
This is what it’s all for: the possibility to set the ball rolling: To be a
small puzzle-piece of a bigger picture - where people start to create
their own ideas, projects or talks
with other people. And then there
are those people, who start being
active. And then there are those
and those …
I do now have the opportunity to
be in the position of “multiplying”
my experience, for others and not
to forget for myself.
This is actually a really big power,
which should not be ignored.
For me, this is even more than the
bigger reason, which I was expecting to find. For me, this is the most
beautiful output, of which I can now
make use of any time.
Coring