Reflection so far...

The kids at Baseco act differently to the kids in Sydney. They are not scared or nervous to aproach a stranger or someone they have never seen before. For example, when we had just arived in Baseco all these kids that we didn't know would come up to us and speak in Tagalog which is the national language of The Philippines and they would just be social with you no matter who you were. They also wouldn't care how dirty they got because normally they would wear sandals and they would get filled with mud and rubbish. Another thing I observed was that they didn't care where they lived. At the church party on Sunday all the kids were laughing and singing. It was like they had forgotten they were living at the slum.

When we were wandering through the markets exploring, I observed that most things were sold in small amounts wrapped in plastic. For example, small bags of oil, sugar, salt, dishwashing liquid, and shampoo and soap.

This is one of the reasons why the slum area is so polluted. It's because the people buying these things can't throw them in the recycling bins because the government doesn't collect the bins like they do in Australia. So they see no point in throwing it in the bin so they just throw into the area around them. I saw this with my own eyes. When we were at a kids' party, a boy who was about 9 years old had bought a snack from a shop and was finished eating it. He just threw the plastic wrapper on the ground and not into the bin.

I don't know how much Christmas means to the people in The Philippines but it is probably quite a lot because they have already started decorating in all the malls and even at the airport! It was quite a suprise when we arrived in Manila to see all the Christmas decorations on display. There was the Three Kings, the barn where Jesus was born and a massive Christmas tree. And since then, everywhere we have gone except the slum there has been Christmas decorations.

One decoration that we are not so sure about was in the shopping mall next to our hotel. It is a huge Christmas tree (you cen see it in the photo slideshow above) that is leaning a lot so that the big star on top was almost sideways. My mum thinks that this was not deliberate but I think it was because if the Christmas tree was straight then the star wouldn't be shining on top of the barn down below where Jesus was born.

The games that the children in Baseco play involve no materials whatsoever. They play very basic games. The people here don't need much to have fun, they don't need an Xbox or Playstation or any other gaming device. As long as they have someone to play with them they still have fun no matter what.