It wasn't anything that will look flashy in my book. It was a simple act of kindness for a small group of kids who have a life much harder than anyone reading this can imagine. BBDO-GO does work for a group called Childhope Asia, which is a non-profit organization that helps kids who are living on the street. Some have "families" of some sort, but most have nothing close to a stable existence. Last Saturday a group of BBDO employees met the kids and a few adult Childhope volunteers in Rizal Park, and we spent the afternoon doing arts & crafts. We took photos, gave them coloring books & crayons, and then we made these little paper angels. After they were done making the angels they were told to write a wish of something they'd like to have on the back of the angels, and the plan was to get these things for the kids as Christmas presents. Many of us thought they would write things like "I want a toy truck," or "I want a Barbie doll." It turns out many wrote about wanting to have their families back together for Christmas, or just wanting to HAVE a family. Things that we could not do. So that part was kind of heartbreaking, but the most important thing was that we did something that made the kids smile, even if it was just for a few hours. I can't think of a better memory to end my journey with.
This is my last post. The purpose of this blog was not to be a continuing, living entity, but a record of "a moment in time." These 10 weeks in Manila was my Temporary Autonomous Zone, and now it is over. If I continue to embrace the unknown and reject conventional thought there will be many others. To anyone reading this, I hope you enjoyed some of the thoughts and actions documented here. Don't live in fear.
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