Helping Out Lanao del Norte

I’m currently on Global Xchange, a volunteer exchange program funded and managed by the British Council, the international cultural arm of the British government, and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), a British volunteer-sending organization with offices worldwide. Global Xchange gives young people from different countries a unique opportunity to work together, to develop and share valuable skills and to make a practical contribution where it is needed in local communities.

Global Xchange works with teams of 18 young people with equal numbers coming from the UK and the Philippines. The participants are recruited, and the teams are formed to reflect diversity in terms of geography, ethnicity, ability, education and gender. Together, in cross-cultural counterpart pairs, they live with host families and work in host communities for up to 3 months in the UK and 3 months in the Philippines.

But now that that spiel’s out of the way, let me talk about Iligan. Iligan was our host community for the Philippines phase of our exchange. We’d already spent over two months there doing work in various peace-building organizations before we were forced to evacuate due to the fighting. It was very hard for us; none of us wanted to leave. In the time we’d been there, Iligan had become very special to us. We’d lived with some amazing families and worked with some very dedicated people.

I know leaving my host family so abruptly was one of the things that upset me. These were total strangers who’d nevertheless taken me in without hesitation. They’d spent time with me, tried to teach me Bisaya, treated me as one of them. At my volunteer work placement at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, I interacted with all sorts of people who were experts in their fields, people who’d been educated abroad, who’d been on government peace panels, done research in MILF bases, but still took time out to talk to me, explain Mindanao’s history to me, the peace process, and so much more. I learned so much from my time here, about the place, and most especially about the people.

In Manila, fighting in Mindanao was always far away, since I’d never been here, since I didn’t know anyone who lived here. Today, as I watch the news and see soldiers in Iligan, tanks rumbling down the streets I used to walk down, houses on fire in towns so near to the city that had taken us in, taught us, shared with us, it all seems very real, and I feel connected and responsible somehow.

Our team has been evacuated to a safe, nearby location, and we have not been allowed to return, so we shall be finishing our exchange where we are right now. But we all still miss Iligan and feel we have to do something to help it even from here. We have been going to classes at a local university talking to students about the conflict. We’ve sent out letters and articles to our newspapers here and in Britain, trying to get the news and our sentiments out there. But what the people of Iligan and Lanao de Norte really need is material help, which, unfortunately, since we are volunteers, are unable to give them.

Which is why I am asking all of you for any help you can give. You may be far away from the conflict, but you can still be connected. I know I feel very strongly about this now because I lived in Iligan, but you needn’t have lived here or have come here to feel the need to do something, to be connected, to be involved.

If you do want to help out with the relief effort in Lanao del Norte, the Philippine office of VSO, VSO Bahaginan has a donation link up on its website, www.vsobahaginan.org.ph. I’m sure any amount would be of great help. If you’re trying to donate and having trouble with the website though, get in touch with me via e-mail, darksaber41@yahoo.com, or my mobile: 0920-9095988. If you do e-mail, put "Helping Out Lanao del Norte" in the subject field so I don't accidentally spamguard you away. Even if you are unable to give but can talk about this to others who can, that would be of great help.

Thanks a lot everyone. Everything we can give counts, every effort to stay connected matters.

Go! Go! Go!

And go we did. And I'm feeling a bit angry and frustrated and guilty about it.

I'm technically still on my exchange. But it's also kind of over.

If you're in the Philippines, and you're not dead or living under a rock, then you know that all sorts of crap has been happening in Lanao del Norte, including in Iligan City, where my exchange has been based. Which inevitably meant that, as volunteers on an international exhange program, and especially since we have ten British citizens with us, we had to be evacuated.

I didn't think it would get that serious. We'd heard that bombs had gone off at a local mall, so I was expecting a temporary evacuation until things settled, but just that. I packed things for one week, as we'd been told, said my see-you-soons to my host family, and waited to be picked up. But as we got to Cagayan de Oro, and as we watched the MILF moving in on Iligan and nearby towns on the news, the possibility of not going back became more and more distinct.

Today we were told we would definitely not be going back.

I said yesterday that I was frustrated because I didn't get to say proper goodbyes and thank-yous to all the people, especially my host family and volunteer supervisors, who'd been so good to me during my time there. I also said I was angry, because I'd felt involved in peace-building, being at MSU-IIT, doing the work we'd been doing there, speaking to all these people who had actually been personally involved in the peace process and peace work, and I'd been happy when I first heard about the MOA, and to see all that deteriorate in the space of days was... I don't know. It made me just feel angry. I feel that I'd gotten so much out of being in Iligan, personally, and it deserved more than for me to just up and leave at the first sign of trouble.

If I'd known yesterday was going to be my last day at my host home, that last Thursday was going to be my last day at my volunteer placement, I would have done... something. More. I would at least have said proper good-byes.

I'm not sure why I feel so strongly about this. I usually don't feel much about anything in general. I don't know. Maybe being in another part of my own country, and learning how different and challenging life is for many there, plus all the learning I've gotten from being at MSU-IIT, has given me more of an emotional connection to the place than I expected.

Then there's the thought of tanks and armed men rumbling down the streets that I'd walked everyday, past people I'd interacted with regularly. It's easy to emotionally distance yourself from conflict when you're physically distant. When it's happening in a place you've lived in, to people you know, it feels different.

I was supposed to eventually get around to writing quirky posts on my time in Newham and Iligan, peppered with my usual cynicism and such. But I don't feel like that right now. Maybe I'll get to it eventually.

Right now I just feel bad. I'm still with the other volunteers, we still have two-and-a-half weeks left together. But in my mind, whatever we do here in Cagayan de Oro is just going to be for us. The volunteering bit is pretty much over.

I'm not angry with anyone in particular. I'm just angry with the situation.

But, I suppose, this is the country I live in. You'd think I'd have gotten used to it after almost seventeen years here.