POVERTY

The smell was 'fecaloid' and flies were swarming all around. The grandmother was holding a dirty feeding bottle with brownish milk formula inside. The mother was holding a young girl affected with chicken pox. Two other dirty children were roaming around the house. Another young girl brought in orange juice with a drowning mosquito.

I was waiting for the husband who was scheduled for medical examination in connection with his insurance. I excused myself from drinking the orange juice explaining that I was suffering from upset stomach since I ate too much jack fruit the night before.

The place was just behind Nescafe Factory in Alasbang, Muntinlupa. I was not a fully neglected community but definitely it was a deprived area. The man I was waiting for was leaving for Saudi Arabia after an hour. His house was a small one with two bedrooms, a sala-dining area and a small "sari-sari" store in front.

A colored TV was on, near an obviously newly acquired china cabinet. It was a happy family if not for the unhygienic atmosphere. As I was waiting for the man my mind wondered on hundred of communities like it if not worse, scattered all over the country waiting for economic progress. But progress comes only in the form of progressive volcanic eruptions, floods and typhoons, and other catastrophic events.

They say God speak through events. The bigger the event, the louder the message. Let us all carefully listen to what God is saying through all the calamities coming one after another in progression.