Kids in the Streets.
What you see is not always what you get.
I feel bad about my last entry. It sucks to know that people like that still get to me. Grrr. My apologies.
Today was a little bit better but karma got to me real quick! Our history presentation, that is a video presentation, was about Military Relations between U.S. and the Philippines and we thought it would be nice to have our shooting at the playground in front of Manila Zoo. We had already made the plans and we got there although not on time but still on schedule.
We were actually laughing our butts off because of the kalokohans we were doing. Then after some time, a number of kids heard the commotion we were making. They made their way to where we were and started disturbing us. It was just fine when we were still playing guns.
I don't know why or how. I'm not sure if it's because of Mon-mon's (my other groupmate who came in late) arrival like what Daphnae (my early-bird-who-always-makes-jokes groupmate) said or if it was because Roch (our leader) started talking to them (as if they'd understand her). No matter what the reason was, it triggered the kids' evil sides. They were harsh! Oooohh! I could still remember all the nasty things they said. They were so horrible especially the leader of the pack who was said to be the grandson of the chairman in that place.
They were the worst bunch of kids I've ever encountered and I never want to meet them again.
But emotions aside, I can tell they were just trying to make friends in their own crude way. I think they were just acting the way they did because they are used to it. My theory is that people were mean to them or they have seen mean people and they have based their attitudes on these 'role models'. They were so used to growing up with rude and uneducated people that they themselves absorb these and put into practice.
While Roch was talking to them as if they were equal (in maturity), I felt the kids were already cracked except for the no-good (I apologize) grandson of the chairman. I knew they were innately good kids who turned bad because of the evils around them. Even that kid leader is good but I guess he was more difficult to break.
If I were a patient, warmhearted and compassionate person, I would have empathized with the kids and talked my ass off trying to break them all to remind them that goodness should reign. (And I could have won some award because of this!) That is, however, not the case. I am not patient enough to curb the tongues of those foulmouthed youngsters nor am I warmhearted and compassionate enough to see their feelings beyond their hateful facades.
I blame the adults who are supposed to be looking after those young kids. Have they not thought of the kids' welfare and where they'd end up in the near future? But of course, they, too, must have grown up the same way. That just plainly sucks.
I can blame anybody for the situation those kids are in right now. I could blame the government, I could blame the immediate family. I could even blame their neighborhood. I could blame the leader kid himself. I could blame you. And of course, I could blame myself.
I should have been what I am not. I should have helped right then and there but pointing fingers won't get us nowhere.
When I grow up, I want to be a lot of things. I could become rich and help those kinds of kids. But when those kids grow up, what would they be?
