Volunteering in Manila

Today we headed out of the main city of Manila to the outskirts called Cubao, about an hour by public transport, to volunteer at an orphanage. The orphanage where we went has about 69 children newborn to age 15, girls and boys. They are known to take children that other orphanages will not take. The reasoning is that they don't “fit the program,” they are a sibling group, they are disabled or special needs, or they may require much counseling and medical intervention.

When we got there we met with the head volunteer Jordan, from the US, who oriented us with the facility, the children and the staff. We met most of the children, then headed out to the park with some of the older girls. We were there for about an hour, then headed back to meet the other children, who would be waking up from their naps.

Walking back into the building there were adorable children everywhere! I was in heaven, I didn't know which direction to go. We ended up sitting down with some of the toddlers, reading to them, counting with them, playing games, building legos, singing songs, and then we got to hold some of the babies, they were just precious!

Jordan told us some of the stories of the children in how they ended up there, the abuse, neglect, and torture some of them have gone through at such a young age is disturbing and unbelievable. They had such a blast with us, but I think we took away more from them then they can imagine.

For dinner we grabbed food at a local spot with buckets of six Red Horse beers for $7. We chatted it up with some locals and before you know it we were heading home around 4am.