I have to admit that I am really longing to go the Don Bosco farm and start my work. One of the reasons that I went abroad was to escape the concrete jungle of Babylon. But for the moment I went from our fast city life to an even worse environment! Really, Davoa is a very big city, with too much stinking cars... Also going to school is really hard for me in this hot weather, plus the fact that languages is really not my strength. But it is the last time I have mentioned this, I know it will be good if I can at least speak some words Cebuano/Visaya. I have to hang on one more month and then I will be surrounded with nature for the rest of my stay! I heard from my Belgian colleague Pieter and from another volunteer that Don Bosco is really like paradise; it is located at the foot of Mount Apple, the biggest mountain in the Philippines (about 3000 m), with hot spring sources where the installed natural sauna, waterfalls, scooba-diving possibilities etc.
Last Friday, the Japanese sister and the French priest graduated from the language school. It is a custom here, that when you do, you invite your friends who bring some food. You also prepare a speech in Visaya and then you get your diploma! This Friday I also skipped school for the first time. In my area, there was San Jose fiesta. When I arrived after school at home, the sisters of my tatay were there and they brought the karaoke machine!! The whole evening we were drinking beers, eating and – of course – singing karaoke. I have to admit, that after some beer, I more or less started to enjoy the karaoke, although I did not know many songs in the book, I think I did almost al the songs I knew more or less (at least I did al the Bob Marley songs ;p). So when I got up the next day at 6H45 to go to school, I was still drunk, so I got back to bed and decided not to go to school.
For my father; AXA is everywhere...
Yesterday night I went with Frithjof (my other Belgian colleague) to some Philippine activistas. The have an small Alternative Learning Centre, which means they have some 100 books (politics, nature, economy, anarchist literature etc.) and movies. It was nice to meet some people with more or less same interests, and together we watched a movie.
Another very concerning problem here in Davao, is the current mayor, Duterte. He rules with iron fist here and has his own – although he will deny the existence – death squad; the DDS (Davao Death Squad). It is a pretty scary organisation that is maintaining the peace in the city... Last year there were around 270 killings in Davao; no killings by criminals or so, but killings of drug users, pushers, dealers, and other – actually – small criminals by the DDS. The mayor is playing police, judge and executer all in one. The current rating for 2009 is more than one kills each day!! And there is nobody that dears to talk openly about the problem, only the church and some priest have the guts to openly condemn this regime. Because killing criminals is not solving ony problem, people become criminals because there is something wrong with the society. And also, with the Philippines now being the number one corrupt country in Asia, I think that the real criminals are those people in high places...
Greetings!
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten