A new perspective on slums

On the ground, slum communities can cause overwhelming emotions for those of us who live in the comfort of the “developed” world. Living in the Philippines I don’t have to go far to see a family sleeping on the sidewalk, children crossing dirty streets with bare feet and women bathing in buckets as modestly as they can on a sidewalk with heavy traffic flowing by.

Recently, I nervously sat on a plane as we approached our bumpy landing into Manila. I tentatively looked out of the window and saw how close we were flying over the slums occupying the coastal lands of Manila Bay just south of the city. It was a clear day and I felt as though I could touch the tin roofs of the houses. From my uniquely aerial perspective I felt like I was looking down over medieval European villages, with their organically-formed narrow streets in all directions, their jumble of roofs and, most of all, their central town square.

As we descended further, I realized that what looked like remote Italian piazzas were actually community basketball courts occupying central spaces in the slums. Among many things brought here by the American’s, basketball has become one of the most popular Filipino sports. Like Northern Spain’s Jai-Alai courts in the main plazas of Basque Country villages, basketball has formed the center of public life in many Filipino communities. I could see people shooting hoops and others cheering them on in a rich and close-knit life playing out below me. Then I remembered life on the ground, with overcrowded rooms that lack security, access to safe water and protection from the elements.

When I emerged from the airport into the reality of Manila’s frenzied ground plane I thought back to my surreal experience of seeing Manila’s slums from above. Many contrasting perspectives push their way into my path everyday here. I feel fortunate to have experienced this aerial perspective of a place where life is so grounded in the everyday need for survival.

Note: The photo above is a Google Earth view over the coastline of Manila Bay, identical to my view from the plane. In the top left are strange clouds hovering over the bay; in the middle are rice fields with houses settled along a waterway; and in the bottom right is the edge of the slums.