save 'em!

On my way home today, while I was looking outside the windows of the passenger jeepney I was riding in, contemplating about 'things' in my life, I found something very disturbing. The driver took a stop near an underpass somewhere in Lawton to wait for passengers to fill in the jeepney when three teenagers, 2 girls and a boy, boarded the half-filled vehicle. They look untidy and I could guess that they do not have money to pay for their fare. My attention was caught by these two girls who sat right in front of me. My eyes were on the plastic labo they both had in their hands. Inside the plastics were strips of rags. I do not need an encyclopedia to tell me what it was they were doing. I've seen it several times in the streets before, people sniffing rugby, but never this up-close. I could not remember what it was they were talking about, but every time they would stop talking, they would sniff, sniff, sniff. I watched the plastic labo inflate and deflate before my very eyes.

They set out of the jeepney near the gates of Intramuros without a cent or a word of thanks to the driver. I half-expected the driver to be shouting curses to these teens for not paying, but he did not. No one in that jeepney breathed a word. We just watched these 3 kids, their ages probably ranging from 12 to 16, have their 'breakfast' right there and then.

For the life of me, I did not say anything because I do not know what to say. If I would snatch those plastics off their hands, I will not be able to replace them with food to help them get through the day.

Will someone please do something about it. Will someone please save the lives of these kids. I hope the world still cares.