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July 02, 2008
Glorious arrival
I just arrived in the Philippines last night, and what greeted me upon exiting the airport building was nothing less, nothing more than expected: humidity, heat (at 11pm), and the excitement of crowds of families gathered to welcome their loved ones home. Although I am not a Philippine national, I perennially feel a sense of homecoming when I come here, a bit of a curiosity considering the disparity in the standard of living and general way of life between the Philippines and the United States. This feeling, though, becomes more understandable once I reveal that I, too, have family in Manila, perhaps granting me inclusion into the group of balikbayans ('Filipinos returning home') anxiously awaited by those just past baggage claim and customs. It's nice to be loved, isn't it?
I have entitled this blog 'Hand and Heart', a translation from Filipino of Kamay at Puso, the organization for which I will be interning this summer. 'Hand and Heart' represents this summer's personal and professional challenge, merging hard work and outreach with personal engagement and passion. This metaphor is in no way meant to limit my goals for the summer nor the contents of this blog. And it's certainly not intended to be cheesy, if that's what you were thinking. Rather, it might be constructive to think of it as an inevitable theme one faces when undertaking this type of work, attempting to mitigate, fight, even eliminate fundamental global problems that have been ignored, under-addressed, badly addressed, under-covered by the media, you name it, or even those whose causes have been identified, but whose effects merely take time to definitively suppress. This theme of 'Hand and Heart' actually reminds me of a conversation I had with my mom and my friend Agnes the night before my departure -- of "giving oneself to the cause". To be completely forthright from the get-go, I have no intention of "giving myself to the cause" this summer, or giving myself to anything for that matter. I could not imagine handing that kind of ownership to any thing or person. However, I do believe the expression raises important questions about how individuals can attempt to balance sanity with humanity when working with NGOs, communities, and individuals who are clearly in need of help or advice or support or whatever. I hope to address this general struggle, as well as the specific work I will be doing during these two months, throughout the blog. In my next post, I will get more detailed about Kamay at Puso, the work they do, the plan I will undertake, and the context that led to the birth of the organization. I will also try to describe the taste of the mangoes I will be eating everyday while here, though I expect that adequate words just don't exist (yet).
Posted by Belinda Navi at July 2, 2008 07:10 AM