Attractiveness of the Philippines 菲律賓的吸引力

When I was in the Philippines, I was able to meet with the Filipinos much closer than I could than in Hong Kong. I realized more how friendly and kind they are. Even the strangers that I saw the first time were very approachable and easy to become friends. The children were constantly smiling and so natural in front of my camera. They were truly beautiful people. I visited an elementary school in Maragubdub. The children treasured the coloured pencils that were given to them. They even used them immediately!

接觸菲律賓當地的大大小小，遠比從前在香港更多更近，就更認識他們的友善、親切。即使不是自己所認識的，就算第一次探訪，在街上碰見，大部分都是平易近人，很容易看見他們的吸引力。孩子們的笑容，在鏡頭前的「自然」，實在美麗！探望Antique 省的Maragubdub 村的小學，就算只是一枝顏色筆，他們也珍惜，即時試用，還交換使用！

Words & Photos: Violin Chan
Maragubdub, Philippines. October 29, 2018

The Beautiful People in the Philippines

The people in the Philippines are beautiful. They are a joyful and strong-spirited nation, despite not having a lot of wealth or resources in the country. They place great importance in family values and constantly strive to overcome the obstacles that they may face. Like many schools there, this oversized class was cramped together to write their exams. Many of them even had to sit on the floor by the doorway. But they remained joyous and did not complain. The Filippinos are truly admirable. 

Yesterday, the Phillippines was struck by Super Typhoon Haiyan. Entire towns were flattened and hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed. Many had lost their families and friends. May we remember all of them in our prayers and support them with whatever assistance that they may need in the coming days, months, and years. May they experience miracles in searching for their loved ones and never lose hope.

By Joe Lee

The Universality of Mother's Love

It had been a while since we last featured the photo-a-week series. If you have been keeping up with our tweets and Facebook page updates, you would know that we had been busy working on the latest book titled "Please Listen, This is My Story". The good news is that the book was finally released in Hong Kong at the fundraising concert on July 6th and 7th. With that project finished, we now can have a bit more time to show you recently-taken photos that you have not seen before. To compensate for the long period of silence, we are going to feature several photos this week with a very touching and important theme!

Here are some highlights of the exhibit that we had set up at Light and Love Home in Brooklyn. To celebrate Mother's Day this year, we selected photos taken from all over the world that showed loving mothers tending their children. Though the mothers came from widely different cultures and geographic regions, there was no denying about the universality and power of the mother's love. Indeed, the mother's love is the best example of unconditional love that you can find in this world. They definitely deserve their own exhibit!

Reception area of LLH Brooklyn.

Door leading into the hall.

Exhibition during the Mother's Day celebration event organized by LLH.

Photos inside the hall.

As for the dads out there, you are not left out! Near the end of this blog entry, you'll find a couple photos of happy dads enjoying their time with their little children. Together, the love of moms and dads represent some of the best qualities of our humanity.

We had very limited time to set up the exhibition. Basically, we took the overnight flight from Vancouver to New York just hours after getting off work on Friday (for me). Right on the following day, we picked the prints which we uploaded beforehand at the Costco nearest to the exhibit location. Then, we placed the photos and captions directly on the wall using just plain tape. We didn't use any frames nor mounted the photos on white foam core boards as our usual practice. Nevertheless, we made sure that the photos were aligned nicely and let the message from each picture simply speak for themselves.

Now for the first time, we are posting them online so that you can have the privilege to enjoy witnessing the wonderful parental love from different parts of the world. Kudos to all the moms and dads out there! You deserve our deepest respect and appreciation.

Joe

Photo by Violin. Madagascar, 2010

Photo by Violin. India, 2013

Photo by Violin. India, 2011

Photo by Violin. Madagascar, 2012

Photo by Violin. Madagascar, 2012

Photo by Violin. Philippines, 2011

Photo by Violin. Madagascar, 2012