On Saturday I visted Samal Island with some of the Mindanao Peacebuliding Institute participants.  We took a boat out to the island and spent the entire day relaxing at the beach.  It was beautiful, I felt right at home!

Today we visited two local NGOs, Bantay-Bata and Tambayan.  Bantay-Bata is a foundation that rescues sexually and physically abused children.  They remove the children from their homes and house them in the “safe house”.  The safe house is where the children live where the staff provides proper care and therapy.  We met 12 beautiful children.   They were so small and innocent, I couldn’t fathom the idea that majority of them had been rapped.  The ages ranged from 7-17 years old.  We spent the entire morning with them.  They sang for us, danced for us, and fed us some gooooood Filipino food.  It was sad when we left because they had become so attached to us.  One girl, Mimi, even started to cry because she was upset that we had to go. 

The second NGO we visited was Tambayan.  Tambayan is a hang out spot for prostituted women.  This NGO offers a haven for the women to hangout where they can do their laundry, cook, receive therapy, and just socialize.  I was shocked to see how young the girls were.  We watched a video that they had prepared explaining why they live the life they live.  All of the women come from poor families where they result to prostitution to make money.  It is quite sad.  At the end of our visit my professor went around asking the women and children what they want to be when they grow older….teacher, nurse, engineer, flight attendant…were just a few of the answers.  I told them to never give up no matter how hard it may seem and to continue on with their dreams.  They answered me by saying, “but we’re poor, how can we continue our education?”  My heart just broke when they asked that because I really had no answer for them.  These children have it so hard.  All of you out there, please remember how good you have it.  Wouldn’t it be terrific if we could just help all of the poor people in the world and stop the injustice?  I wish I could rescue all of these people and take away all of the pain of these sexually abused children. :( 

Saturday after Samal Island we left the Mindanao Peacebuliding institute and moved to our new hotel in Davao.  The next day, we went to visit the Indigenous Market place where they sold jewelry, clothes, bags, and pearls.  The pearls are so cheap here!!!  A pearl bracelet was only $5!! In the evening I went out with my Brokenshire friends.  They took us to this rooftop bar place.  It was so much fun!  I have really gotten close to them; I’m going to miss them a lot when I leave :(.  The next morning we had a debriefing where we talked about our past week and what we learned.  Apparently many of us are going through life changing experiences.  The syllabus didn’t say that we were going to cry so much!  Haha But these are good “cries”.  Many are reflecting on our lives and figuring out which pathway we went to take for our future.