I spent my Saturday walking with God.
We went to the different communities outside the village and did a survey for our Parish. Our assigned place was Sitio Sampalucan. It was given that name because everyone in that neighborhood sell sampaloc candies for a living.
We started out very early (for a Saturday morning) around 9am and met with the coordinators. I was dressed down (as always) in tshirt, jeans and rubber shoes. I was wearing sunblock and that was it for 'makeup'. We went to each of the houses and interviewed people. What they do for a living.. how many children they have.. are they married in the Church... it was like Marketing all over again. Demographics is one of the most labor-intensive surveys ever! For us lectors, we were given a task of surveyin 140+ families! That morning, we were only 9 and every one had to interview at least 10 families.
Their houses were very small. It had the most basic of necessities. Some homes have 4 families living in them. Their rooms were smaller than mine and it already housed the living room, dining room, kitchen, toilet and bedroom. Let us not forget the fact that they have 4 children or so per family.
Outside was no different. There were rats outside and I was fortunate enough to see a rat dying from poison with children staring and playing with it until it breathed its last. Trash was everywhere and there was a creek under them. Some even had animals and the smell made you gag. The smell was foul. I tried to be as neutral-faced as possible. I didn't want anyone to feel that I offend them with my reaction to their place.
As noon was approaching, I was feeling quite sad. A lot of people I have interviewed here lived way below the poverty line. Only 1 parent was working and the single income was not enough to provide for the basic needs. Some were already widowed and had to be father and mother at the same time. For them, life was like that. It's either you work hard or you get hungry.
We went home around lunch time. We were glad we finished more than half of the target number. At that time, I was starving from walking around and my throat hurt from all the talking and questioning. My feet ached as we had to walk the whole way back to the church.
I groaned again when I realized I had to go back in the afternoon. It was one of my duties to make sure that an officer is present in all the shifts. It was just my bad that I was the only officer available in the afternoon. This time there were only four of us left. We wanted to finish the survey quickly so we don't have to go again the next day. If we wanted to finish today, we have to accomplish 15 families in less than 3 hours. I had to leave by 4pm because I was supposed to serve at the 6pm mass.
This time, I was taken to the deeper levels of the community. To get to the other side.. you had to pass through someone's house. It was so weird. We were saying, "Paumanhin, makikiraan lang po," to the family that lived there as we used their house to get to the other side. One the other side, there were more families, huddled in one-room apartments with 4 children playing outside. It was a sight I would never forget.
******
A friend of mine asked.. "If there is a God, why is there suffering? Why are there people in pain?"
One this is for sure. It was not God that brought suffering to man. It was man who did it to himself. It was man who did it to his fellow men. Had there been no free will, we lived according to God's divine plan. To be good humans who feared God and respected His creation.
But man was given free will. The freedom to choose between right and wrong. Most of the time, man will choose what is good for him... and most of the time, what he chooses may be good for him but not for other. He becomes selfish and materialistic. Doing everything he can to be "happy"... even if it meant stepping on other people for his own good.
Man is not evil. Man is actually inclined to the good because he was created in God's image and likeness. Sometimes, he forgets that there are other people affected by his decisions and they pay for his 'good'.
That is why we see suffering. Of course, it is not our intention to hurt people. If possible, we would avoid making other people get hurt. But most of the time, we have to hurt them to get what we want.
With those in mind, it will take more than time to stop the hurting. It needs a radical change of heart. A change to think beyond what is good for oneself and to involve others and make them happy as well.
What a fantasy.. =(
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