Gift giving for kids at Tanza, Navotas

Dec 17: Before going to Heima, I spent half of my day with the TAO Pilipinas and co-YP participants, we gave gifts to almost 300 children living in the slums of Navotas. We first stopped at a ship sitting at the middle of a fork street before going to our sites, it was called Noah by the locals. Its interesting to see how a ship can be used for a multipurpose structure.

M/S Noah

Our fist stop is at Masagana in Tanza. We had a small program, through conducting mini games, "bring me" and "longest breath (by saying Merry Christmas)", for the children.

making children to line in two's, its hard to facilitate this excited kids

It was fun to give gifts to this kids, especially if they'll pay you back with their sweet and happy smiles. :)

After, Masagana we proceed to Isla Pulo. We tried to squeeze ourselves in a van, together with sacks of gifts, it was really fun w/o dead moments every time I'm with this group.

Isla Pulo, is literally an island, so we need to cross a land dike before we can reach the place. It was hard, exciting and another venture for us, but we won't stop for the sake of making a bunch of children happy.

the bamboo is the exciting part, it sways as strong wind blows through it

how they deliver goods

like a boss, yeah!

 After almost an hour? (how it feels like) of crossing the dike, we reached Isla Pulo. It was the first for all the YPs of 2011. We repeat what we have done in Masagana, played a game to give chance to other kids, "bring me", after giving gifts to those whose on the list.

mommy Mimi and Melody, took a pose before starting

a kid also snatched a pose

"bring me", this kids are really competetive.

After Isla Pulo, we return to Noah to have lunch break. I feel bad because I need to leave early for Heima, I wasn't able to go to Tangos, where we had stay last time. Hopefully, we would still undertake TAO Pilipinas activities there while YPs are intern.

Photo Courtesy: Nancy Kempeneers and Cristina Belen