Manila's Diagon Alley

If Harry Potter was amazed by Diagon Alley the first time he saw it, I on the other hand was looking at Divisoria on a different perspective...a bright new angle of hope and inspiration.

The bustling crowd at the break of dawn, who can imagine such a busy early hours of the day?

At almost six in the morning, together with my sister and mum, we went there to buy vegetables (budget requires).

Obviously, we need to extend the money in our hands thus the trip to Divisoria but more than the savings are the real life lessons I saw.

Divisoria is as humble as the people in it. Leave behind the garbage sore to your eyes and smell that stinks to your clothes, forget about the mud and the noise, what you'll witness are people driven by their will to earn and survive every second, every minute, every hour of the day and this I vouch as their extremely challenging lives...

Then I continue to observe around me, smiles are flowing through their faces..precious. These people do not work in skyscrapers and obviously do not enjoy the comfort of air-conditioning units but they remain to be hard working, simple, accommodating and positive. In spite of buyers bidding for the lowest prices they can get, sellers are still all up to the practice. Adults, teens, children... they all share the same bond of strength.

This experience teaches me how to better appreciate the prosperity and scarcity that I have both at this moment. True that our family, and personally, I am indebted by thousands of pesos but this proves that our status has been on a steady growth and improvement. Gone were the days in Bulao where we could not afford a cold drinking water, where we do not eat the whole day waiting for mum to bring food to our table, where we have to go to school with nothing but our fare...

I am still learning a lot, education really never ended in school, because our life is a big university. The people that we meet everyday, the challenges that we face and overcome, the struggles that we go through, the pain of achievement all boils down to one thing, these are all part of being human...

Never surrender, as the old cliche says, there is always hope...