The Before Story (b.GK)

Yesterday, went to visit a Gk site in Quezon City with a couple of new volunteers, along with the head of the Builders Corps. It's always fascinating to see the impressions of new volunteers especially the foreign ones on their first time to see a GK community. Understably, they will take photos, lots of them. The site was picture perfect, in a sense, that the left and side of the road displayed starkly the difference between a slum with its tattered look, vulnerably held together by slabs of wood and just a few steps away to your right of the street are the rows of colourful GK homes. It was a stark contrast, and a great photo opportunity of the "before" and "after" work of Gawad Kalinga.

As one of the volunteers puts it, it would be darn sad to wake up every morning on the other side of the road. Fortunately, through dedicated GK caretakers and volunteers there will not be a "before" anymore, but more of the "after"...

It is fascinating to me how our foreign volunteers would often take photos of the "before," it's but natural to take photos of the unknown, and they have never seen a slum before. So, this is what it looks like...and uploaded in social networks, it shows what the Philippines is (currently) about to their friends.

I remember Jonathan from New Zealand, writing long paragraphs describing the slums of Manila in writing a story about a GK site in Cavite. Then I realised why he wrote in that way, with a foreign readership, it was necessary to describe what a slum was all about because they haven't seen one. From my perspective, Filipino readers want to focus more on the heart of the story of transformation because they all know (too well) what a slum was all about. So, as in all things, people find a common ground and I learned some valuable lessons along the way.

Back to the recent day, I observed that the new volunteers would tend to take more photos of the slums more than the GK villages. While, on a trip to Sydney, I would take photos of all the beautiful homes because this is where I want my country to be 24 years from now, that' one generation from now. And I can really see it happening before my very eyes.

I remember Aussie friend Adam saying, we should visit the slums in the Philippines because a few years from now, you wouldn't be able to see one anymore! and that's history in the making and that's part of the "places you should see before it's gone" like the Berlin Wall. you would want those "before" photos, they would be worth a million. But I think most Filipinos would rather have the "after" photos now. They have the before photos all too imprinted on their minds.

It is quite ironic how foreigners come to the Philippines to find out what exactly is a slum while more and more Pinoys leave the country to look for a "better" life outside.  One day soon, I hope our people will no longer be forced to leave their families and loved ones to seek better opportunities elsewhere. Someday their own land will be able to provide for them.