Living in the Shadow of Smokey Mountain
 I had a chance to spend a day with the Copada family- one of the many poor families that ERDA-SaBaNa is helping in Manila City’s garbage dumpsite coined as “Smokey Mountain”. “Smokey Mountain” because during summer months, the mountain of rotting garbage often ignites underground and sends out toxic clouds of smoke that hovers above the place like a black blanket. And, during rainy days, it brings a different kind of misery - an intolerable stench of rotting sludge.
Eldy Copada, a polio patient, pushes his nearly wrecked wooden pushcart up to the dumpsite early in the morning to look for empty plastic bottles, scraps of metal or paper - all of which can be recycled by the sackful for few pesos. He works from sunrise to sunset but the money he earns does not come even close to giving him the capability to support his wife, Senaida, and his four children- Elsie (16), Elsa (13), Elisa (9), and Eloisa (8). He was ecstatic to bring home $3 that day, but on the average day, he earns only $2. They live in a ghetto-like, low-cost public housing with no electricity and they rely only to an oil lamp placed in the middle of the room. No fresh running water and going without food for a day has become an involuntary habit.
Elsie (16) is under ERDA’s Educational Assistance Program for 3 years now and will be graduating next year from the nearby public high school. She is excelling in school until a week ago when her father asked her to consider dropping out from school. He wanted her to look for a work that will augment the family’s income because he can no longer make ends meet.
She was sobbing while recounting her tale whereby her mother was forced to sell their keepsake plates to pay school contributions so she can take her quarterly exam. She added that her younger siblings have to be contented with her outgrown worn-out clothes and school uniforms from ERDA.
She thought before that education is only for those who are rich and affluent- that she cannot have a better future because she was born to this hopeless predicament. She cannot read because reading is only for those who have electricity at home. 
The Asian Development Bank said in its report last August 2008 that the new poverty line in Asia-Pacific is 61 pesos ($1.35) a day and about 23 million Filipinos were living below that.
Living in abject poverty, Eldy felt that he does not have control over his family. He cannot provide adequate food, healthcare, and education for his children. He feels this constant fear of displacement or eviction from the government for not paying his family’s housing contribution.
Before dinner, I asked the mother what she wanted for her children. She just smiled and said, “Everything and Anything.” All she wanted is a decent shelter and better education for her children - “Without education” she said, “they will end up like us, uneducated and no future.”
Before I leave, Elsie told me something about dreaming. She said, "ERDA encouraged me to dream and made me believe that I have a life beyond this garbage mountain. And, I believe, it is not God's will for me to be impoverished.”
 Gazing into her eyes, I see eyes filled with hope - hope that one-day she will transcend from this destitute situation to a better standard of living through education. But the present reality is slowly filling her heart with hopelessness.
Living in that mountain of garbage may be revolting, but living with the Copada family for a day with all the dark-side of human existence, was indeed a break I need to change my outlook in life. It served as an inspiration for me to work fervently with Fr. Pierre Tritz, SJ and the ERDA Group to help bring back the lost smiles, hopes, and dreams of children through education. When that time comes, naming their place “Smokey Mountain” would become a misnomer- another interesting trivia from the past. No more stench. No more misery.
- Sherwin Lapaan
|
