a look through my lenses..

My fourth day in Manila. Its a warm sunny morning but it looks cold & gloomy outside. The road is congested filled with jeepneys, taxis, pedestrians, tricycles scattered all over, most of the time they’re within two inches of each other. Driving here is crazy and kind of scary. It seems like they have no traffic rules but they seem to have developed their own rules. In America if there is a two lane road, only 2 cars can fit side by side. In the Philippines, you can fit as many as you possibly can. They make most of what they have, no space on the street is ever empty. Usually there are vendors selling food on rolling carts or makeshift stands, countless beggars desperately asking for money, prostitutes walking back & forth waiting for a client to pick them up, homeless men, homeless women, homeless children, and even homeless babies sleeping on mostly every corner. I’ve hear stories. It this is the first time I’ve seen it through my own eyes. I can’t help but to feel helpless. I wish there was a way we can help them all. We give away food but there is always another person starving on the next corner. We give away spare change in hopes that they’ll use the money for themselves and that a sick & twisted person isn’t watching them from afar waiting to collect their earnings. There is no real cure for poverty but it doesn’t mean that trying doesn’t make a difference in someone’s life.