On the first day, we struggled really hard with our flight. It’s delayed! In total for more than 3 hours we need to wait in the middle of night. And as you know it was quite cool because air conditioner in airport was 16 and we don’t have any jacket or warm cloths in our hand. After 4 hours fly, finally we arrived in Manila, Philippines. Yes, Philippines… the country that won the most of beauty contest.
And what is exactly the reason we are here?
We joined the training course represent Great Indonesia. The training is a project from 4EU&AS to analyze the importance of youth mobility for personal and professional growth of young people and explore the benefits it provides to the community. But beside the training I knew and learnt something that the media have not reported about a country that won the most of beauty contest.
First things, Manila as a capital city and economic city in Philippine has more population than other city. A lot of people think that they may get good amount of money if they move and work in Manila. But the truth is absolutely up side down. Many people work as a sex worker, night worker and many more mostly because of that they got a children. Low economic made them end up abandoning their children. I got this story from the man who work in KFC when I want to give my burger to a beautiful girl in front of the door because she stand there for long with no one.
Second things, what I got from this journey is Philippines and Indonesia has good relation. We have many similarities. island country, friendliness of people, and languages. Yuhuuu.. for example we have salamat, in Indonesia it means congratulations and in philippine they say it for say thank you. So when I heard that word for the very first time I thought that they were trying to speak Bahasa with me hehe. Many local people think I am a Filipino because my face looks like almost the same as local people. They speak Tagalog to me.
We tried filipino food and public transportation too. We tried jeepney, are buses and the most popular means of public transportation ubiquitous in the Philippines. They are known for their crowded seating and kitsch decorations, which have become a wide spread symbol of Filipino culture and art. And it was cheap! We paid 8 Peso only to ride for more than 2 km.
We ate Filipino street food, i forgot the name of the food but what was that is like fish ball and it taste yummmm. And for 1 fish ball you have to paid 15 peso. Yess its cheap
As a volunteer it help me to know much more about the country rather than you go to a place to just spend time to see, be amazed, take photos and upload on social media. More than that, volunteering is a very special thing because you have direct contact with the local with: BEING THE LOCAL
Ambar Nia, representative of GREAT Indonesia at the training course held in Boracay, Philippines