Sunday, February 15, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Dumpsite! A place where in people would never wish to visit. Just by the word itself you would know why people don’t want to go there. Just imagine all kinds of garbage are stored in that place…But, don’t you know that many people depend on those dirty thrown garbage? Yeah, this is really true, garbage as a source of living.
July 3, 2006, we Mass Communication students of LITC with our adventurous teacher in feature writing went to visit the known Irisan dumpsite. When we arrived in our destination, I can’t help but to cover my long nose because the air is really odorous. I said then to my self” what more if I’m in the real act of picking up garbage over the exact location? I can’t imagine my self doing it but I must do it and I need to. As we arrived on the exact location we can see already garbage pickers around sixty plus, they wore dirty old rugged clothes, when we merge with them I feel uneasy, Its really my first time to do that kind of work. I cannot forget it especially when we started to pick that dirty garbage like plastics and bottles.
As the time goes on, I am enjoying even though it was really my first time, I tried to talk to some of them and I discovered that some of them came from far places like Pangasinan, but most of them are raised at Irisan from childhood up to now. I heard that they found a fetus then a thin old man said “ what if the mother give the child to me, I will feed it with garbage” when I heard this, my fragile heart was touch. I know what he mean, So I found out that even though their lives is full of difficulties they still know how to render help, and they understand the real essence of life.
As we continue doing our task we also throw simple jokes with them, I really admired him, they still know how to share there sweet smiles and even their laugh aloud. They still know how to enjoy life despite with those things which they are facing, despite with many things that comes in their way. They don’t even mind if they looked so haggard and weird, it seems that they are so immuned on the odorous air. I said then to my self”if I am in there shoe, I think I can’t tolerate this kind of work” I feel pity to them, I ask myself and even God, why is that there are people who live this kind of difficult life? But I know and I strongly believe that everything have purpose, I also observed especially to the young ones, I can see in their pale eyes that they want to be a student like us. They also have big dreams or ambitions which they want to fulfill but they can’t, just because of a big problem in financial aspect. When its time for us to depart from the dirty and odorous garbage I have a mixed emotion, happy and sad; happy because my work is finally finished, but I feel also so sad because some of them became close to me. But I said to my self that someday I would help them, but this time I can only help them by sincere prayer, They said we are cowgirls because we did not just go there to visit and take pictures but then we perform the real act of what the garbage pickers are doing. What an honor to us LITC Mass Communication students are cowgirls.
In this unforgettable experience, I was able to learn many things about what is life all about, I was able to realize that I am still lucky, and I also found out that we must be aware of what’s happening around us, for us to know and help if we could do something for them, like the garbage pickers, being like them is not ashame, we must not degrade them instead we must find a way to help them because in God’s sight we are all equal.
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