22nd Feb - Payates

This morning sees us at Payates with our host club of Makati Rockwell.

Payates is an area built up around a massive rubbish dump. In fact the livelihood of the people in the area is from the sorting, reuse, and sale of rubbish. Without seeing the rubbish, literally an entire valley, you cant fathom how much is generated by a city of over 10 million (in the metropolitan area alone).

The area is relatively well know locally, as a few years ago the rubbish collapsed in on itself and killed over 1000 people. I cant imagine what types of pollutants the people are living with or that are leaching out into the soils and eventually Lake Laguna.

The focus of our Payates visit was a school and community library. Unfortunately the library lost many books due to water damage and is currently under threat due to the proposal of a new access road - which can on end at the library due the location of a church and the school if it is extended any further.

The newly appointed principle at that school is doing a magnificent job on limited resources, attempting to engage not only the children, but also gaining the commitment of their families to the education of the children.

The children attend school in two shifts, the first one from 6am to lunchtime, and the second from lunchtime to 6pm, with almost no breaks. My children will certainly get me up on my soapbox if they ever complain about 9am to 3pm again!

While there we saw the school percussion band preparing a number for a special celebration at the end of the week where they will crown the prince and princess of the school. What a terrific performance - the drum squad at Yanco Agricultural High School, where my children are boarders, have some serious competition.

On leaving we toured the campus of the Philippines University, its open space and large trees were a relief from the traffic and must make learning a pleasure.

We later visited the University of Santo Tomas (UST), the oldest university in Manila, celebrating this year its 400th anniversary.

The buildings on the campus were very grand, and the open spaces well planned and well utilised. We were all surprised by the fact the student wore a uniform, with the colours denoting the faculty in which they were enrolled, and the style the degree they are working towards.

Whilst there we toured a exhibition of books and maps from giving us an insight into the history and development of Filipino writing and how degrees were awarded historically.

The evening was with the RC of Makati Rockwell - a club much more like my own sponsor club, Lake Cargelligo, friendly, relaxed, and if you aren't there you may just get elected to a position! This club asked many relevant and insightful questions after our presentation, which we enjoyed answering.

On our return to Ed & Amore's home the driver of our host for the day, PP Eph Despabiladeras, his driver got lost in the unfamiliar area (many of our hosts have drivers and people movers due to the traffic and time it takes to get anywhere, allowing them to catch up on calls and business).

Dane, with the help of his iPad, managed to direct us right to Ed's front door, although I think Eph's driver had his doubts.

This would just about have to make GSE history, a member of the incoming team directing a local driver in the maze of streets that make up Manila.

I also tried to offer Dane immunity from the vote for who should carry Anim next day, but as Dane seems to be unable to make a mistake, the rest of our members overrode me, just in case the next day happened to be the day he made a mistake.

Anim is our team mascot, a kangaroo, which is awarded to the person who makes the silliest mistake for the day - for today it was Graeme, as he managed to lose the rest of us while touring UST. All of us, with the exception of Dane, have had a turn.

This was our last night with Ed & Amore, and they had organised a party and huge steaks for our midnight snack - more singing, just one more photo, a few beers, and excellent night, and finally to bed at 2am.