Volunteering with Clique of Light in Manila

Post date: 13-Jan-2010 01:07:12

With the help of a fundraiser Halloween party that Colin's mom hosted (thank you) and Colin and I's savings, we hosted a Christmas Party for inner city children in Manila. The event was a success thanks to all the hard work and organization of the Clique of Light volunteers. It was an extremely rewarding day for the volunteers and it was great to take part in the spirit of giving during the holidays. Glenda Maquilan was the main organizer for this event and she did an excellent job.

Glenda

The event took place in Intramurous (old Manila) in the Philippines on December 20, 2009. When we arrived at the event at 2:00 PM Colin and I first felt a bit intimidated to be surrounded by 150 children and their parents. Most people also spoke very little English and I felt bad when kids would talk to me in Tagalog and I couldn't answer them in Tagalog. However, we smiled lots and played with the kids and pointed at things as our usual universal way of communicating. Many kids also warmed up to us and asked our names and we asked their names.It was great to bring joy to so many children. They got their faces painted and they were entertained by clowns who blew huge bubbles around the kids. The clowns also hosted a game where kids had to bring a sock, a belt, a sexy mom, a gray hair etc to the clown and the first person who presented the item won a prize. I felt sorry for the poor old lady who was getting her hairs plucked by 10 people at once. It was also quite funny though.

Each volunteer was responsible for organizing a group of 13 kids. We served chicken, spaghetti and juice to each child in our group. Colin felt so bad because one little girl in his group couldn't eat because her teeth hurt too bad. It's not like her family can afford for her to go to the dentist to get them checked.

For dessert, dirty ice cream was served. Yes, dirty ice cream. No, we didn't serve it off the

ground. It's called dirty because it doesn't have a smooth creamy texture. It has little ice chunks in it and that is why the texture is called "dirty." It was a tough job handing out ice cream because we couldn't tell who had received ice cream already and who had not because the kids were eating it so fast and it took us so long to scoop it out, but in the end there was more than enough for everyone. I'm sure it was probably the first time that a lot of kids had ever had ice cream. There was enough ice cream for us to try some too. I had Ube which is purple and is made from a vegetable that looks like a purple yam with black skin on the outside. I liked it.

The event ended with us handing out wrapped up Christmas gifts to all the kids. Each child received a pencil case, pencils, sharpener, and a notebook as well as a T-shirt. There were different sets for the boys and girls.

Many other great random pictures from the event:

Carol and I

Colin and I in our volunteer shirts

Colin has his line organized

Sweetheart

Observing

On the sidelines

You can view all 368 pictures here (we had a few people helping us take pictures):