After three days of ravaging the Luzon region, typhoon Caloy has finally left. So businesses are finally back to normal rhythm and so are we. The deliveries of our fabrics and supplies was finally scheduled. We decided to left early in the morning to avoid heavy traffic in Manila. I must admit living for quite some time (almost 7 years now abroad) visiting Manila gave me excitement. Manila has kept its own flavor in my eyes. The flying jeepneys, the cigarette vendors, and all the other vendors peddling food and drinks in the street. I noticed that there were more and more street children and beggars in the street. I dont know how many times I stopped to give them alms but I know its a temporary help that I gave. I chatted with Ate Cristy our coordinator and we will definetely organize a Christmas outreach activity for them.
I cant help but notice also the sprawling squatters area close to the creek. The spaghetti like electric wirings on the top of the houses, hmmm I'm definitely in Manila. We passed by at Divisoria to check on some supplies. Well, Divisoria is the biggest market where you can find all sorts of items at very low prices. I saw some Calesa also,these are horse drawn carriages often use by chinese traders in transporting their goods, for their is a big chinese community close to Divisoria.
After this 2 hour break we head on to meet our fabric supplier in Quezon City Lorna Manalo the owner of High End Excess Trading. We arrived at the house of Lorna converted into a warehouse for all her fabric and garment supplies. We chatted with her and she said she has gone a long way since she started working as a dressmaker in a big garment factory longtime ago. Her personality helped her changed her career to agent of fabric seller, until she was able to put up her own small company. She said that up to now she still find it difficult to compete with some big companies but she enjoys her job. Her job is basically to buy excess garment supplies in big companies to resell it to small and medium dressshops.But sometimes she can get big accounts too.
We also had a chat with her staffs whom were mostly people from the provinces. They said they love so much working with her because in their former jobs (porter in big supermarkets) they were normally locked up in their apartment specially when they are sick. We loaded our supplies and we head back to Cavite around past 7 in the evening. It was a very tiring journey but a very inspiring one.
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