Today I went to a Manila dumps site called Pier 18 and I am told more than 100 of these sites exist in the Philippines.

The site has over 5000 people on it trying to recycle rubbish. Wombles on a scale you have never seen before but living in a mud bath lined with shacks and children in flocks like pigeons following each other, air polluted with charcoal burners mixed with rotting food rubbish and yet smiling faces everywhere.

THE PEOPLE
You would expect a western face on a dumps site to produce a mob demanding money, even threatening but not any sign of that mood at all. Kind Christian people with calm smiling expressions everywhere As I walked through they got on with their business through the mud with a smile in my direction. Children would give me "Hi 5" one after the other with a slap on my right palm and a big grin, often with the "I'm six with no front teeth" look. Great kids with possibly the best immune systems known to mankind, you need that to get past your first two years, living through the mud, rubbish, smoke, chicken and dog muck etc. Then immunity?

I met many people, some with many children, one woman said she had 16 but 3 are dead. She looked sad but still asked for nothing.

With great respect for the good he does do I would suggest that the Pope should visit here as a normal human, maybe he has already?, rather than on a state visit and discover the impact of the Roman Catholic doctrine inflicted on these very Catholic people. Then go away and consider if Christ would really have allowed this. "Suffer the little children to come unto me" does not mean they should suffer. As a high church goer myself I can only wonder if this is really what the good book intended.

THE SCHOOL
There is a brand new school project near to the site where donars have put together funds to build a new facility. Here I met Tim Strong who is in charge of the project and just meeting Ian Thackwray of Holcim Cement who are donating concrete. It took me two seconds of seeing Ian's direct, no messing attitude to realise he was a fellow Yorkshireman, (from Barnsley,but he could not help that). What a good bloke ... straight in. Batted me aside after he found out "Leeds" and questioned the floor specification. Kindred spirit.

On another dumps site is a school at which I was made welcome. I was told 400 children have breakfast there each day and move on to lessons. Again I got "Hi five" from kids in smart clean economical uniforms and smiling faces.

THE PRODUCTS
A team of ladies/youngsters in a classroom were making items out of things from the site. Glossy magazines are crushed into beads and turned into necklaces, can ring pulls made into hand bags (they need more, save what you can this Christmas and I will send them over). difficult to imagine but they look good ... will bring some back.

On the dumps site charcoal was being made from any wood found. Every inch of dirty rubbish was examined for further riches. This week more were killed climbing onto trucks to throw off rubbish and falling under the wheels. It was explained that the last ne was truck wheels over the head but in other cases arms were missing due to lucky escapes.

MIKE in MANILA