Bababa ba?

I was in the isaw stand near Law with Josie this afternoon when a kid came up to us asking for some spare change. But Josie and I, rather than giving kids spare change, always made it a point to give food instead. Yes sometimes it can be more expensive to buy street kids some food but there is much much more impact than just simply brushing them off by giving them coins which they could use for who knows what.

Anyways, Josie offered to buy the kid some ice cream, an invitation which he readily accepted. As we went towards the ice cream dude three more kids tagged along. Of course, we also had to buy them ice cream.

After the manong ice cream gave the each kid his ice cream, all of them, save for the first kid dispersed immediately towards different directions, dragging along their PET bottle sacks. Then the kid started telling the other kids, “mag-thank you naman kayo!”

Seeing the other kids were already too far away, he just looked at us, said thanks, and then left to resume his PET bottle hunting.

A few moments later, after sticks of isaw were consumed, the same kid approaches us, and asks us for our left-over vinegar. It seemed a bit weird why he was asking us for the vinegar, so Josie asked him if he was going to drink it.

“Opo,” he said.

And I asked him, “seryoso ka ba? ‘Di nga, ano gagawin mo diyan?”

“Isasabaw ko po.”

With that, I gave him my cup of vinegar and he left us, saying thanks.

It was weird, somehow. Knowing that this kid would be drinking vinegar and mixing it with whatever he could scavenge for that night, I felt bad for the kid. So I stood up and I offered Josie and I’s leftover C2 to the kid, whom we saw with his friend scavenging the barbecue sticks in the trash for some leftover meat.

His friend, seeing a PET bottle with some leftover cold tea in front of them, snatched the bottle from my hand and started gulping down the remains of the tea. He stopped drinking when I told him that they were to share the tea. Good thing there was some left for the first kid.

The first kid said, “akin po ba yan? Salamat po ha.”

And to his friend, “Hoy, mag thank you ka naman.”

As in the earlier parts of this story, I didn’t receive any thanks from the other kid.

But then, rather than seeing how rude the other kids were, I just noticed how courteous the first kid was. I mean we see and we know that these kids are in the worst of situations, scavenging for food scraps and PET bottles every afternoon just to make it through each day. But this particular kid still makes it a point to thank the person who helps him out even in the littlest of ways.

In these times, kids like him come rarely. I see more kids who resort to swearing at and harassing the rich looking person for not giving him some spare change. Take a walk along Katipunan avenue to see what I mean.

Come to think of it, it’s not just the poor kids on the street who forget to say thanks.

I guess this sounds a bit like one of these GMRC lessons wherein I’m nagging you guys to start thanking every person who did you good.

But if you really think about it, thanking a person is acknowledging how a person has done you good.

And that acknowledgment feels good, because that person knows that he or she has done good.

Err, I sound weird now. Hahaha

Make someone feel good today. :)