Made it to Hong Kong (updated May 1, 2007)

By PJAMES on April 25, 2007 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posting from Hong Kong International Airport: 9:35am

Olympus E-1, Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Digital: 1/100s f/2.8 at 14.0mm iso200

I'm really sorry I couldn't post any new content on my last day in Manila Philippines - I had an Immigration VISA Extension issue that I very much needed to work out before today, and with spending the day with Rosa & Edison's Family, it took up nearly the entire day.

I decided to take Rosa, Edison and Anna (MayAnne's older sister) to dinner at one of my favorite local restaurants in Manila last night, and treated them to a simple but nice dinner (they have really good local food there), and we all had the best time, talking, eating & laughing - I had 4 sticks pork BBQ and a little rice, as I wasn't very hungry myself.

They all enjoyed the meal immensely, and Edison even took home what he couldn't finish - they had such a great time, and it made me happy to see them enjoy themselves in an environment they're never able to be in - eating at a local restaurant, whatever they wanted.

We then went back to the sidewalk outside her place, sat and chatted for the longest time, as Auntie Josie & Tito Willie worked on washing cards there on the curbside; that's how they earn a small income for the Family.

Update: May 1, 2007
While Rosa, Anna, Auntie Josie and I sat outside on the sidewalk, I was shown Edison's report card from his school where the total avg. score was 79.

As Edison came running by I complimented him on a good job in his school (he'd been out of school for a long time while he & Rosa were living on the street) and I also told him he's now got a new goal to aim for in his studies - to break 80 total avg.

I told him he was smart, and that it's important to have small goals to work towards - in this case, an 80 grade, and he listened closely, and I told him I was very, very proud of his grades in school.

I went back to talking to Auntie Josie and the subject of Rodelyn came up.

I asked what happened, and in her best English she tried to tell me that Roddy simply ran away from her care after a time, and that she did see Roddy roaming the streets nearby from time to time.

No sooner then Auntie Josie had updating me on Rodelyn - I head my name called from accross the street - I looked up and saw Rodelyn running towards me through traffic, her arms stretched open for a huge hug she slammed me with right there on the sidewalk!

She hugged me tight & had the biggest smile I'd ever seen on her face, and after a few moments I asked her to sit with me and explain why she'd run away from Auntie Josie's care.

Her smile faded and I noticed Auntie Josie watching her with a stern face - Roddy told me she just wanted to go back to the streets, and I asked her if she realized how many people cared about her, how many people loved her & didn't want to see her homeless anymore.

I tried to explain to her that Auntie Josie took her into her home with much love & kindness, even though Josie's family were very poor & could ill afford another mouth to feed, etc.

I explained to Auntie Josie my best guess was that children who live on the street develop their own sense of disciplines & values, doing what they want, when they want - and do not have to answer to anyone, especially adults.

Coming into Rosa's Family, Roddy most likely found a true FAMILY discipline of waking up on time, eating on time, going to school on time, respecting adults & others, doing your chores, getting to bed on time, etc. - and this is something a street child simply does not have to be concerned with, while surviving on the streets.

Roddy just probably rebelled, and decided to take off on her own again - that's the way I look at it.

Then Roddy looked up at me, and asked ME to adopt her - she asked me this 3 times "can you adopt me"?
...I told her that in the USA, adoption agencies have very strict requirements for adoptive parents - that they especially have to have a more substantial income and material assets (compared to Families in Philippines) and that I probably wouldn't meet those requirements.

I then told her that because of her posts on this website, there are a few people who have expressed interest in helping her get off the streets and into a Families care, maybe an adoption, and at the very least a friend of Steve Griffith's in Mindanao who's offered to look into the req's of getting Roddy adopted by another Filipino Family.

I explained to Roddy all that doesn't happen overnight, and that everyone who loves her will be looking into ways to eventually find her a home and to make life safer for her, and I hugged her.

She told me to wait for a moment, that she'd come right back - and she darted away across the street.

She never came back, and that's the last time I saw her in Manila before I left the next morning.
...I'll edit her new images I shot & post them here this week.
(end May 1st. Update)

I've got more images and will be posting again from the USA as soon as I get some much needed sleep, and get the mobile office set up once again.

I want to thank everyone for all their well-wishes, emails, texts & phone calls.

Many Thanks for reading today, posting from Hong Kong - en route to the USA
PJAMES

UPDATE: April 26, 2007
Posting from USA

Olympus E-1, Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Digital: 1/100s f/2.8 at 14.0mm iso800
Rosa & friend Anna at the restaurant, on my last night in Metro Manila.

Olympus E-1, Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Digital: 1/160s f/2.8 at 14.0mm iso800
Rosa's Auntie Josie & Tito Willie washing parked cars for income, on my last night in Metro Manila - and on the same sidewalk where Rosa slept in 2004/2005 - the very same sidewalk where I photographed Rosa on Jan.1, 2005 taking her breakfast that appears on the main page of this website.

I made it back to my sister's house in the USA last night, 30 hours after arriving at Manila Int'l Airport at 3am the day before, to begin the journey back.

I'd managed to sleep from 10pm to 1:30am at my hotel in Manila; I just couldn't get to bed any earlier than that, and I knew that I really wouldn't have a real chance to sleep until I got back to the USA, but that's just par for the course on a typical travel day when leaving Manila on a 6am international flight.

When we arrived at Hong Kong's Int'l Airport, the entire place smelled like rubber cement glue & paint thinner, although I couldn't see any new construction projects going on - that was very strange.

I do like flying on Cathay Pacific Airlines, but their hub is HK's Airport and the lack of signage there for passengers transfering to connecting flights is very confusing.

HK Airport also lacks customer service rep's upon debussing the plane, to direct passengers to their connecting gate, so most of our planes passengers headed to the first transfer gate they saw, and were turned back by the security screeners who were attempting to direct us to an upstairs gate with hand signals.

Walking away from that first gate and looking for signs that point to escalators or elevators was even more confusing (there were no signs), so you're on your own in tracking down various airport employees passing by you, and asking them the simple question about how to get upstairs.

The HK Airport is wired for WiFi pretty well, and so I was able to get online for a quick update, right before I boarded the plane - and it was the most crowded international flight I've ever been on; I believe the plane was completely or near completely sold out.

But once Cathay Pacific has you, it's a very good experience onboard the plane - their service is excellent, their planes are new or very near new, clean & comfortable - and their meals are absolutely the best I've ever had on any airline (I don't like salty foods, and most airline food I do find too salty, but Cathay Pacific's meals aren't loaded down with salt, and rival dishes available in any good restaurant)

You have to remember, for the past 5 months I've been eating basic local meals in Filipino street restaurants & canterias, so the opportunity to have a really wonderfull multi course meal with appetizer & dessert on my Cathay Pacific flight was a truly welcome, pleasurable experience for me - thank you Cathay Pacific!

I don't sleep really well on International flights (I fly coach, not business or 1st. Class) and I kept nodding out for a few minutes at a time (I envy those who can sleep well in coach on an Int'l flight) and I was very tired by the time we landed in New York.

I took a bus home from there, but they were 2 hours late in arriving, and so we landed in rush hour traffic and I remember just crashing in my seat, sleeping a few minutes and then realizing we were going no where fast.

I finally made it back and my sister fetched me and brought me to her house where I saw my Father & my nephews for the first time in 5 months; I've really missed them all.

Last night I slept from midnight to 2pm this afternoon, and woke up a few times during the night & early morning not really knowing where I was for the first few minutes (that's normal for me after getting back) - at 7am I though for a moment I was back at the hotel in Manila, and thought to myself 'do I have a flight to make today...?'

I woke up for a moment at 9am here & thought for the first few seconds I was was back on Bantayan Island, and had to get out of bed to get to work on the laptop, etc - when I realized I was cold (it's 60 degrees here in the USA now), so I rolled over, was sad for a moment...and drifted off back to sleep.

I miss the Philippines, the pRice Families and my friends there.

I have to go through a period of dealing with jet lag, and re-adjusting my body's clock to a 12 hour [ahead] time difference to Philippines (as I write this it's 6:30pm here in the USA and I feel like I'm just starting to wake up, as it's 6:30AM in Philippines) so inbetween the jet lag I'll be getting online to update some previous posts from last week for a start, before beginning to post some newer images & stories.

Thanks for reading today, and for your patience if you're following all the stories and issues I'm photographing & writing about - the lack of internet time available to me in Philippines really handcuffed me, and created a huge backlog of work for me, but I can use my time here while I'm re-adjusting to my new time zone to edit more images, and to write in a bit more detail with future posts.

PJAMES