Aming Tahanan…Tuloy po kayo!

MIL is up for re-election to the city council and it’s been a whirlwind of activities around here. I’ve been helping her with flyers, database, mailing letters and other things. And yesterday she asked if I would accompany her while she goes door-to-door at a certain street. All I had to do was hand her the flyers meant for each house.

It was quite an experience. It wasn’t the best neighborhood so there were a few iffy situations. Most of the people were nice enough to some out of their house and listen. There was an older man who had a list of complaints from the street lights to a crack pipe he said he found under his hibiscus to, let’s just say, ladies of the night walking up and down his streets. MIL patiently listened, took notes and promised to have some answers to his problems. Then he asked where I was originally from. I said I was Filipino and he said he wouldn’t have guessed it. Eh? He thought I was Korean or somewhere in that area.

While talking to another lady, they got to talking about her mother and before I knew it we were being invited inside. It turns out her mom was one of our regular customers when we still had a consignment shop. We always wondered where she was and assumed she must have finally settled in TN. She always talked about taking the train and going down south. Poor Mrs. S had a stroke and was in a wheelchair when we saw her. But she still had on her trademark hat and track suit (burgundy velour this time) which was her usual attire regardless of what the weather was. I forgot to look at her feet but I’m pretty sure she had heels on.

Walking back to the car, we were whistled and hollered at by people passing by in cars. There was a pair of guys who were “playfully” hitting each other out on the street. Who knows what that could escalate to? We passed by a man who was sitting out on his front steps chugging something covered in a brown bag. And in the midst of all these, we see kids playing out on the streets. Either they’ve become used to the goings on around them or they choose to ignore them.

I heard of mothers concerned about the safety of their children. While they say there are good people around them, there are of course the questionable characters and activities that make them nervous about letting their children walk alone or even be outside. I can understand and sympathize. I had only been somewhat exposed to it for only a couple of hours, I can’t imagine having to deal with it 24/7.

I respected what my MIL is doing but even more so now. It’s not a vocation for the faint of heart. She gets a monthly stipend from the city but it doesn’t even begin to cover the pain she feels everytime she reads or hears an unkind word written or uttered about her. And some people can be downright nasty, not caring if they are already getting personal.

We are all praying that she wins. But if she doesn’t, we pray that He gives her strength to get through it and find other ways to help out.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 at 1:35 am by Edie and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.