One of my favorite songs in church when I was growing up was a song called Jesus Loves the Little Children. The song starts out as Jesus Loves the Little Children All the Children of the World. When singing that song as a child I really didn’t comprehend what the line “All the Children of the World’ really meant. But when I visited the Philippines many years ago and saw children actually searching through the garbage at the Subic Naval Base that song came to my mind and at that time I developed a love and caring attitude for the children of the Philippines.

As a young sailor I had many favorite street kids that I would make sure had something to eat everyday. I didn’t give them much money straight out because I wasn’t sure that the money would be used for their benefit so instead I tried to make their day a little better and was always rewarded with a smile. It seems to me that no matter how hard the kids had it they were a happy and fun bunch to be around.

These days I have more than enough children in the Philippines to occupy my time as I have tons of nieces and nephews in the province and in Manila where I stay. Although my nieces and nephews to who I am affectionately known as Lolo Dan are not in as bad shape as the street kids I once helped I still spend lots of time with them just having fun.

 I do have a few children in the province that aren’t related to me that I treat as my own family and I try to take care of some of the simple needs that their parents cannot provide. One is a little girl who passes my house every morning on the way to school and waves and says hi to me. Her name is Mary Grace and I found out she was the youngest of 6 born to a mother and father who have no jobs and feed their kids by getting fish from the sea. I bought Grace some school supplies and I make sure she has a small snack to take with her to school every day. She says thank you and gives me that toothless smile that many 5 and six years worldwide have. That alone is enough to make my day.

I’m not telling this story to brag about helping the kids or to bring any glory to myself but to stress if you are planning as an American on moving to the Philippines, find a way to become part of the community and the lives of Filipino people rather than hide away somewhere doing nothing all day. For me, it’s done by spending time with the children and learning from them. Yea I do learn from them!