Sandier Pastures

We left Tokyo for Manila on Saturday morning. Pristine asked me over and over again when will all the plane riding will end so I promised her, two plane rides more and then we’ll stay put for 10 days and just relax and fly back to Japan again.

We arrived in Manila around noon and immediately went to the hotel. Our flight to my parent’s house is scheduled on the next day yet so we always have to stay in Manila for a night. On our way to the hotel, I was bombarded by questions by my young daughter. Why are there people selling things in the street? What are those kids doing under the heat of the sun? The sight of street children peddling all sorts of stuffs always spark curiosity among foreigners, young or old. There is an estimated fifty to seventy thousand street children in  Metro Manila alone. It’s been 12 years since I left the Philippines but they still remain to thrive in the streets, gambling their young lives and that sight always break my heart whenever I go back to my birth country.