We have been traveling in the region of islands referred to as the Visayas were the majority of the 7000 islands are. Bohol is the resort island with beautiful beaches and warm bathwater swimming. Negros is a mountain island with the plains growing sugar cane and rice. The fields were a stunning green as we drove from Dumaguete to Bacolod visiting rural and smaller town recipients and pastors along the way. A local pastor is the heart and feet of the community. He or she is the one who knows who the poorest of the poor are. They are the ones ICM resources so that the poor receive nutritional support, health education and livelihood training. When a particularly malnutrition child is identified they come under an intensive feeding program. We saw a darling little girl named Angel who was born shortly after her older sister and before her mother nutritionally compromised herself could rebound. Little Angel has never been able to rebound from the nutrient deprivation and now at the age of 3 she looks like a lanky 18 mo old. Under ICM's malnutrition child operation her hair is filling in and she is gaining weight. By the time she is an elementary child she will have caught up with her peers.
I have very few pictures of the locals. It is a bit of a sensitive topic as we listened to a group of pastors conducting their monthly Thrive meeting (ministerial association) share how the poor often feel exploited, believing that we profit from the photographs and they do not. So, I have wonderful memories and many shots like this one, a rural barangay (neighborhood) path and gate.
Or pictures of us. First Brad geeking out over the vermiculture lab at the local ICM base in Dumaguete or the next one of me reminding the recipients how important it is to wash hands before cooking and after using the CR (comfort room aka toilet)
Andy had his first motorbike ride to a local animal "zoo" where he saw the tarzier (endangered world's smallest monkey) and pet a python.
Off to visit the urban barangays which have similar and different challenges than the rural ones
I know I am playing catch-up reading these blogs but will still comment. I was struck by how you said the poor felt exploited by the taking of photos and them feeling they are being used to get money...which they do not see. When I went to Johannesburg, I wanted to take a photo of a woman we visited, who was very poor and sick. She wanted to know what the picture would be used for....I said, to remind me to pray for her...and she consented. Apparently, groups do sometimes take advantage. Glad you are being respectful.
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