Viva la Gente

Our long travel day began at 5am as we headed to the airport for our flight.  From the Philippines we flew back to Taiwan where we walked off the plane and we were greeted with that familiar Taiwanese scent, which brought back all the memories from our time in Taiwan.  We then had a very long 12-hour flight back to L.A. and, once we arrived, we were divided into three different groups for our flight to Mexico.  I was on the first flight that arrived into Mexico City at midnight because a small group of us had a mini show the following day.  That night we slept at a nice hostel to try and catch up on sleep for our busy week ahead.

The following day, we traveled to our site for the mini show and did community service by cleaning up the park we were performing in that afternoon.  We only had 20 people with us for the show, so we spent a lot of time rehearsing new dance positions and solos, since our normal mini shows consist of about 40 students.  That evening we returned to the hostel to meet the rest of the cast who had flown during the night and slept at the hostel during the day.  It is crazy how much we miss each other when we are only apart for a day, but when we see one another every day all day long, it is hard for us when we are not together.

This week was very special because my mother, father, and brother came to spend the week with me and the cast.  I had the chance to quickly see them during host pick-up before I met my host family for the week.  It was so great to see them after being away from home for so long and I could not wait for them to meet my family on-the-road.

This week I was hosted with Danny from Mexico City, so I got to stay at his home with his real family.  I was hosted with seven other students- Miguel, our dance captain, Max from Germany, Bonnie from Colorado, Nozomi from Japan, Will from Washington, and Emanuel from Mexico.  It was a house-full, but it was going to be a great week and a perfect introduction into the outgoing and fun Mexican culture.

Wednesday, we had another mini show in a different part of the city.  Our stage was in the middle of the street and as we rehearsed, crowds gathered around to watch.  If funny how foreigners who sing and dance attract crowds.  

Thursday was our Community Impact day and my parents and brother joined us for the day.  I was with a group that had the opportunity to build altars for a holiday called "Dia de Muertos" - Day of the Dead.  It's a significant holiday where families celebrate and remember their loved ones who have passed away.  To celebrate the holiday, families usually construct altars in their homes.  Our altars were for a Catholic Church and were much more elaborate and detailed.  We were divided into two groups and given the freedom to create our own designs for the altars.  We used colored sawdust to create patterns on these large platforms and then we put papier-mache skeletons on top of the design.

It was so great to have my parents spend the day with some of my cast mates and really get to experience what we do on a daily basis.

That evening we had another mini show that my parents were able to watch.  I am no longer surprised by where we perform.  At the beginning of the semester I would have assumed that one of our mini shows would be in an auditorium.  However, I have learned that assumptions get me nowhere because we could be performing in an outdoor amphitheater, in the middle of a street on a makeshift, somewhat questionable stage, or next to an office building in front of a tent.  I have learned that it is not about the location of our shows, but rather, it is about the impact that we have for the people who attend the show whether its performing for several hundred or 30 people. 

Friday was our host family day, so I took the day off and spent it with my family.  I met Breton at the hotel and he and I walked around exploring the area to find lunch.  After lunch we continued exploring the city and talking.  It was really nice to spend time hanging out with my brother.  Once we returned to the hotel, mom, dad, Breton, and I headed back out to walk around the hotel and look at all the fancy shops around the area.  That evening mom and dad took me out to dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe where we enjoyed a nice American meal.

Saturday we spent the entire afternoon preparing for our special show the following day.  We had the opportunity to perform in the Zocolo, which is the world's third largest public square and can hold up to 200,000 people.  Because we were expecting such a large crowd we needed to rehearse our Mexican medley and continue fine tuning our show.

Saturday I had the most embarrassing moment that I have ever had in my life and I will happily share it with you.  For some reason, while I was rehearsing, John our vocal instructor, called me over and told me I was going to be singing a solo in the Mexican medley.  I about gagged when he told me I was going to sing because it was a song I had never learned.  But he pulled me aside and we quickly started learning the song for about 20 minutes until we were ready to rehearse with the whole cast.  While the rest of the cast was rehearsing, I stood aside to continue practicing, while my heart was racing and I was about to have a panic attack.  As I was rehearsing with a microphone in my hand, and by this point, I was really getting into the song, all of the sudden I heard silence and then someone said "Collin."  I turned my head only to find 100 people staring at me with huge smiles on their faces.  I had been singing into the microphone while it was on.  I immediately turned bright red, and if that wasn't enough, since I wasn't paying attention, I thought they called my name because they were ready for my song, so I walked over and stood in the center ready to go.  Then, someone said, "Collin, what are you doing?  It's not time yet."  All I could do was laugh at myself.  Thankfully, I was replaced for the solo, and I realized that I am happier being a dancer.

Finally the day came for our big show.  Our stage was set up in one corner of the plaza facing a beautiful cathedral with the second largest flag in the country waving in the breeze.

We started rehearsal after lunch and as we were warming up on the stage, thousands of people walked by and some stopped to watch us.  We couldn't rehearse many songs during the afternoon because we did not want to give away our show.  It began to rain, but that didn't stop people from coming to watch us rehearse.

We ended up performing for about 7,000 people in the Zocolo and I will never forget standing on the stage and looking out into a sea of people with the lights of the cathedral illuminating the most beautiful flag silently waving in the night sky.  After every song, the crowd went wild and all we could hear was the deafening sound of the audience.

It was very special to spend the week with my family and for them to spend time getting to know my other Mexican host family.  It was also great to show my parents how I have grown this semester and what I have learned about the world and myself.

A Week to Remember

A small group of students had to leave Puerto Princesa early to perform a mini show in Manila.  We left early Saturday morning and arrived at our performance site in time for lunch.  We were performing outside the Mall of Asia, which is the second largest mall in Asia.  I quickly learned that shopping is a popular hobby in Manila and they actually have a term called "malling" because there are so many malls in the city.  We rehearsed for our show and then we performed.

That evening we headed to our host family, but it took us two hours to get to the house because of the chaotic traffic in Manila.  I stayed with the Maceda family and I was roomed, just for the weekend, with Brekken from Wyoming, Sarah from Denmark, and Veronika our marketing manager from Sweden.
After sleeping in until 11:30, the four of us decided to walk down the street to get massages.  We got one-hour Swedish massages and it was incredibly relaxing.  We knew it wouldn't be our last time getting massages.

That evening, Veronika had a staff dinner with Cast X, a special group of guests, including family members, friends, and UWP alumni who would spend the week with us experiencing life in Up with People.  Brekken, Sarah, and I had Pizza Hut for dinner and then walked around a mall looking through all the fancy and expensive stores.

Monday we finally met up with the rest of the cast and spent the afternoon with Cast X listening to leaders from around the Philippines.  One of the speakers was the founder of Liter of Light, which is an organization that provides light inside the homes of people living in the slums.  There is no electricity and, therefore, there is no light.  Liter of Light provides light by recycling a bottle and filling it with purified water and a little bleach.  The bottle is then put into the roof, half outside the home and half inside.  The liter bottle provides enough light for the family to be able to spend time inside the home and prepare meals, instead of having to resort to spending the day outside in the sunlight.

Since the whole cast was back together, I was no longer living with Brekken and Sarah.  For the rest of the week I lived with Veronika, Gary from Belgium, and Liz from Arizona.

Tuesday was the first of our three day community impact project.  The cast had been divided up into groups where we had the opportunity to spend three days at the same community impact site.  I had the chance to work in one of the many slums of Manila called Quezon City.  This slum is part of Gawad Kalinga, which is a area that has been restored and cleaned up by the government.  While the people living in Quezon City may have more than others living in the slums, they are still incredibly poor.

The first morning we received an orientation where our contact explained the area to us and gave us an overview of what we would be doing during the week.  After orientation, we were given host families that would be taking care of us throughout the week.  Our host families took us into their homes and showed us what life was like for them. There were so many children running and playing in the streets that after a short time with our host families, we all flocked outside to the children playing.  We danced and sang with the children in the streets all afternoon.  Wherever we walked, the children followed wanting us to carry them and play with them.  After the first day, I knew we were going to have a memorable week.

The next morning we headed back to Quezon City and we started the morning off by pulling weeds and picking up trash in the yard of the community church.  It was rather overwhelming to pick up the trash because the river that runs along the slums was consumed by garbage.  It was overwhelming because, as I stood along the river, I watched endless mounds of trash pass me by.  As much as we wanted to make a difference in the river, no matter how much trash we cleaned up, more trash would flow through an hour later.  The hardest part was watching the children bathe and play in the river, but it made me appreciate life and it made poverty a reality for me.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the children.  Because it was the second day, the children were no longer shy and they laughed and played and danced until we were all exhausted from having so much fun.

Thursday was a unique Regional Learning day.  We had the chance to play with children in the morning who lived in another Gawad Kalinga called Besaco.  The most memorable experience from Manila was playing with nine-year-old Ryan.  I played one game with him, and after the game, he would not let go of my hand.  I ran around with him on my shoulders  jumping up and down as he giggled and smiled.  When the time came for us to leave, I had a difficult time letting Ryan go.  It is so difficult to spend time in a slum and witness such poverty knowing that there is only so much you can do.  The smile on Ryan's face is an image that I am privileged to have experienced and it is a memory I will always cherish.  Ryan will always be in my prayers for the impact that he has had in my life.
That afternoon we walked through the slums in the rain.  As we walked through the streets, people came out from their homes to greet us and say hello.  From the slums we headed to an old fort in Manila and learned about some of the rich history of the area and the Philippines.

That night Veronika, John our vocal instructor, Mark a Promotional Manager, and I all headed to a club to celebrate one of my closest friends birthday.  We celebrated Nicole, one of our Education Coordinators' birthdays.

Friday was our final day at Quezon City.  We spent the morning playing with the children, which is something we always looked forward to.  That afternoon the children wanted to teach us some of their favorite games, so we spent some time learning the rules and playing the games with the children in the street.  We ended our time with the children by watching them perform for us.  The children sang, danced, and recited poems for all of us.  It was their way of thanking us for spending the week with them and it was the most special gift.  We were all touched by the generosity, kindness, compassion, and love that the people of Quezon City showed us during the week.

Saturday was one day that I will never forget.  We had two shows and during our first show, many of the children from Baseco were able to attend and they sat in the front of the theater.  After our first show, I started feeling light-headed and sick, so I laid down and could not get back up.  I lost all color to my face and a few tears rolled down my cheek.  Some of the staff and I decided that I needed to go to the hospital.  More than half our cast had been sick at some point during our week in Manila and two girls had left for the hospital right before I did.  Elsa, from Finland, had fallen and fractured her wrist and Romane, from Belgium, had fainted.  As I was waiting for the car to take me to the hospital, I ended up getting sick.  I knew at this point that something was seriously wrong and I needed to get to the hospital quickly.  I had never felt so awful in my life.  Shawna, our Operations Manager, joined me in the car on the way to the hospital, but it wasn't before long that I had to ask her to pull the car over so I could get sick again, this time in the street.  We made it to the hospital and I sat down waiting to get checked in.  At this point, A fever started, so I was shaking uncontrollably in my chair.  After getting sick once again, I was finally put into a bed behind a curtain.  Kelly, one of our Education Coordinators and one of my closest friends, was at the hospital taking care of the three of us.  With tears still in my eyes, a nurse came to check on me and decided to treat me for dehydration.  As miserable as I was, I thought it would make me feel better if I had a conversation with the nurse.  As the nurse was preparing me for an IV, I learned that he had only been a nurse for less than a year, which definitely did not make me feel any better about getting an IV.  After digging a little to get to my vein, the IV was finally in and the solution was dripping.

A little while later, a doctor came in to check on me and give me a shot.  I attempted to talk to the doctor as well and I decided to ask if this shot was going to hurt.  She replied, "it will hurt worse than the IV."  And that was the last question I decided to ask.  But it actually didn't hurt as bad as I had expected.  After laying in bed for about an hour, Elsa and Romane had been discharged and were now waiting in my room with me along with our fearless mother Kelli.

Kelli, Elsa, and Romane sat by my bed for the next hour while we waited until the doctor said it was alright to leave.  My night at the hospital was one of the most horrific and terrifying experiences I have ever had, but I would not have changed that experience for anything in the world.  The girls and I had great conversations while we were in the hospital.  As I laid in bed, I couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably about the situation we were all in and then the girls couldn't stop laughing.  That night will always be a memory that I will cherish because Kelli, Elsa, Romane, and I became so much closer after holding one another hands with tears running down our faces and being there for each other.  I am also incredibly thankful for my friendship with Kelli because she made me feel safe and comfortable in such an unfamiliar and undesirable environment.

Sunday was a relaxing day after my chaotic experience in the hospital.  I woke up at 11 feeling well enough to get out of bed.  We all spent the morning and some of the afternoon resting and relaxing at the house.  In the afternoon, Carlo and Derlyn took us all to a large mall.  We walked around for a couple hours looking at all the shops and vendors selling everything from electronics to pearls and clothes.

Carlo and Derlyn took us out for dinner on our last night to an Asian restaurant where we enjoyed great company and good conversation.

One thing that amazed me about the Philippines was the immense gap between the wealthy and poor.  It was difficult to process spending the day playing with children in the slums and then going home at night to a beautiful house in a gated community with several maids and a personal driver.  The gap was so visible that you could stand in the slums amongst the piles of trash and look across the river and see the wealth in the homes, buildings, and malls with Louis Vitton and Dior.  I look back on my time in The Philippines as a blessed experience and an opportunity to reflect on my outlook on life.  I have realized that working in the slums with children and swimming in an ocean with kids from a small village are experience that have defined who I am and how I want to continue living my life, which is serving others.