there was a time when thoughts of living in a slum area brings a terrible feeling. not that i or my family is rich. but because most of the time the stereotype idea is that the slum equals the most hardened criminals in the city. the common thought that it’s where they live. the place where you’ll definitely find them.
i live in the slums now. and i realized there are more to it than just being a cradle of law-offenders. i will not deny it. almost all the time, we worry of our safety especially when night time comes and we find ourselves a hundred meters away from the house. during our first night in the area, we heard men (more correctly teenagers) talking about drugs. not talking very subtly but more of squabbling over who had taken more and who hadn’t. loud and unfearful.
another night, a drunk neighbor was going amok. he was pissed over an unidentified enemy who had thrown a bottle which crashed near the place where he was singing noisily at a time when everyone was craving for sleep in preparation for the next day’s work. typical slum area happenings, right?
but why are we here?
i think our only reason is the economy of housing here. we are renting a house which could possibly costs a double if located in a more urbanized area (the amount we are paying now is only a third of our previous rent in makati). anyways, it is still one ride away from work. believe it or not, a bedspace or a boarding house is a booming business here. and that is what i meant when i say there is more to slums than lawlessness.
really, it isn’t that bad. everyone here knows somebody before they considered becoming a part of the community. in our case, a friend owns a house here. though i don’t venture going into their house because they are confusingly located at the center of the village. going there means a maze of narrow and dead-end streets. while our house is situated just a stone’s throw away from the road.
and our view includes the frequent coming and going of passersby. i think, if i’ll gonna stay put in our window sill watching everyone in a day or two, then i would know the faces of everybody who lives in the area. i would know who talks out loud and who gossips a lot. i would know who seldom go out and the frequent travelers. i would know the students, the workers and the bullies. i would know who belongs to who and the group they belong to. that is how in just a month’s stay here i was able to observe the goings and comings of these people.
there are a lot of children here. and the good news – education is an “in” thing. every morning on weekdays, i hear them noisily clamber into their school services. with mothers shouting many different reminders.
workers in uniform are a frequent sight also. the place is a starting point for “promdis”. it is where their journey of finding success begins. many of them came to try their luck in the metropolis. with low-cost housing, it isn’t really that bad.
but what makes the area a hot spot?
it is when along the way something went awry. the trouble starts with bad companions or belonging to a wayward group. and it happens as people always crave to be accepted. but this can still be described as marginal.
a lot of good people still lives here. people who make ends meet in a decent way. people who dream for a brighter future. people who want to survive in the midst of hardships and struggles against poverty.
that’s why the next time someone tells me he/she dwells in a slum, the first question that comes to mind is – what do you dream about?
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