Manila Bay Children

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Manila Bay Children
I found children walking on water in Manila Bay here in the Philippines. I took my morning walk Sunday, walking down towards the United States Embassy I came upon children walking on water.

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Manila, Philippines
Ermita - Malate Area
Southeast Asia
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Hotels in Malate Philippines
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This photo was taken just to the left of the USA Embassy; in this area, trash has collected. The floating trash is thick enough that small boys were able to walk on it.

What is a Beachcomber? These children are searching for something, they are Beachcombers who took it one step further, and they are off the beach and walking on water.

These two boys are working their way out to deeper water in search of some unknown treasure.

As the boys would choose their steps, they would sometimes drop into softer spots.

Two boy chest deep in floating trash in Manila, Bay Philippines.

I took a video of this; however not sure if I want to put on YouTube.com, I took a video the last time I was in Manila of some street children walking around. A very small boy did not have on clothes, and YouTube.com pulled the video, I am not sure, reality of poverty is edited, so hard to get excited about doing the work.

As I was sitting on the wall next to the bay, I started to talk to a man who was riding his bike for 60 kilometers; he was in complete gear, gloves, riding shorts, a special bike. He said,
“The rivers come down into the ocean, and then the trash washes back to the shore.”

The contrast between a super motivated Philippines man riding his bike a great distance and a few boys walking in trash is the novelty of coming to the Philippines. A person can get whiplash by the sudden cultural differences, from one extreme to the next without a caution light.

The is a nonchalant ability for the Philippines people to accept these situations as if they are 100 percent natural. I on the other hand try not to become jaded and also ignore them along with the groupthink.

Manila Bay Children

Street Children |

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Reader Submitted Comments | Deleted Comments (0)

Little Blossom said on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 01:08:52 AM

Ive found myself asking more questions about these pictures, than there are apparently answers.

What are they seeking?

How many have been injured/killed doing this?

Where are the parents?

Yes, cultural clashes.

It reminds me of the visual aftermath of the Thailand tsunami in 2004.

Aryan said on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 09:24:42 AM
http://www.hotelsuncity.co.in

Interesting text. You have a nice blog. Keep it up!

hoz said on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 01:15:56 PM

They are looking for anything they might be able to recycle to sell and make a few centavos or pesos. They may be street children (no parents or runaways) or their parents may even send them out everyday to bring something home.

In most cases their home is a squatters shack on government owned land or even a cardboard box on the sidewalk.

The abject poverty of the Philippines can be heartbreaking if you are sensitive.

Daniel said on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 01:49:13 PM
http://www.israeltour-online.com/

What a sad post... Of course cultural clashes has a place, but still its very sad. Lose-lose situation for everybody - people and ecology.

Andy HoboTraveler.com said on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 02:21:05 PM

Street families or just squatter families is my opinion on how to describe these children, they all appeared to be associated with mothers and fathers. I see very few children without parents.

The family is strong here in the Philippines, both a great thing and a horrible thing, the majority of girls in the area selling their bodies want money so they can send back to their families. I blame the family and the church for most of the prostitution in the Philippines. Social pressure is tremendous to earn money in any way possible.

There is about 10 times the street children in Manila than any of the 16 Africa countries I have visited. The whole world migrates to large cities to live a horrible lifestyles, I think the desire for excitement of the city is an addiction.

In the USA, people will spend 70-90 percent of their money to pay rent, just so they can live in New York City.

These people always appear happy, hard for me to feel sad, I value happiness more than money.
Andy

Mexico beaches said on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 02:58:11 PM
http://www.themexicobeaches.com

Is really scaring what is going on in those countries, sometimes I wonder what could we do as the charity organizations do not look trustables to me...

Mom said on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 03:49:27 PM

Breaks my heart to think people really live this way. I am positive some people would say it is good to grow up with what is called street smarts that it will make these kids strong. BUT my heart longs for children to be children in all ways and to enjoy the sunshine, trees, birds and all the gifts of life we have that has been bestowed on us. I think of my kids playing in a tree house they made, enjoying a game of ball, reading, catching turtles and having a good time on a picnic with a peanut butter sandwich with their dad and mom pushing them on a swing and catching them at the bottom of a slide. This is what a child needs to do to learn how to love and be loved, not these these really sad circumstances.

Samuel Peterson said on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 06:11:51 PM
http://www.gettucsononline.com/

The blog is very nice also the post is very interesting, I like it very much. Keep it up.

hoz said on Wednesday July 15th, 2009 01:55:18 PM

My wife and I had just seen the film No Counrty for Old Men in the US when we visited Cebu City Philippines.Watching the street children go about their daily routine of scavenging, selling water or trinkets, or begging I said to her,The Philippines is no country for young children.

She got my meaning immediately.

dharmaj said on Friday July 17th, 2009 02:57:12 PM

Very intriguing post. I had never seen children able to walk on the water like that. Manny Pacquiao is from the Phillipines and has made his name as an exciting boxer. Not hard to see why so many are excited over his success and bringing international interest to the country.