It’s not always possible when you’re on holiday to see into the real life of the locals. So often we are installed in a hotel or B&B in tourist resorts without the possibility to break loose and go off the beaten track. I am lucky to have a friend who lives in Dasmarinas city in Cavite and stayed with her a few days wonder around the community.
After living in China for 6 years I was unused to seeing the hordes of children that you see in the Philippines. Everywhere in this community there were children running around in bare feet, laughing, climbing trees, playing in the road, shouting hello and then hiding when you say hello back. It’s so nice to see children having fun outdoors rather than leading a sedentary life, invisible to anyone but their parents, holed up in their bedrooms playing computer games.
This is not a wealthy community; families here often have mothers working abroad as carers and domestic helpers with grandparents looking after the children. This is not dissimilar to China where the countryside in some areas is devoid of any but the very old and very young. Across all developing countries, those of working age go to where the work is and send money back. How can they financially support their children if they stay where there is no work. I am lucky that I have never had to make this decision but what option is there really when there are mouths to feed, and in Philippines, there are often many mouths to feed.
A few of the houses in the community have a freezer and had homemade signs advertising ice for sale to the other 
villagers without fridges. Clothes drying on fences and walls and lines outside the houses gave colour to the lanes and the sound of cockerels followed me everywhere. Here I also got my first close-up of a jeepney, the ubiquitous symbol of public transport in the country. As locals will often tell you, the jeepney was originally made from the American jeeps left over from WWII and now form the backbone of the local transport system in cities. When I travelled between cities further south buses and coaches were more normal and the jeepney changed in style to become less homemade in appearance.
I never got to ride in one which was a shame but I saw them crammed full of people, sometimes for long distances. They are decorated by their owners and seem to become one of the family, often bearing religious inscriptions and always clean and sparkling.