I sat inside a kubo waiting for the participants of a focus group discussion (FGD) to arrive. I studied my interview guide a little too compulsively while continuously clicking my pen. The sound diverted my focus from the unusually fast beat of my heart and the cold sweat starting to form on my forehead, I was nervous and a little anxious although that wasn't the first time I was to facilitate an FGD.Before we started our field research earlier that day, one of our partners provided us a security brief about Maguindanao, the locale of our research. He told us about protocols that are to be strictly followed to ensure our safety while doing the research. Such as encouragement of political matters. It was election time, he said, it is probably the most dangerous time of the year in Maguindanao. I remember seeing security checkpoints and road blocks everywhere in town. There were "silent" news of ambushes and killings. Still (or even more so) disconcerting considering that not too long ago, Maguindanao bore witness to one of the cruelest tragedies in recent Philippine history now called the Maguindanao massacre. In November 2009, fifty-eight (58) people were killed and buried in a mass grave while on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for the incumbent Mayor's opponent.
Participants of the FGD started coming in. A number of men followed by a group of women. After a few minutes, me and my team mates (a community representative and another one from an international organization) agreed on starting the FGD. The localities where we conducted the FGDs in Maguindanao are Muslim communities, each activity started with a prayer led by one of the men in the group.
Doing a research in a Muslim community is one of the reasons why I was a little worried. I have little knowledge about Islam and from what I know, borrowing or lending is taboo and it is exactly one of the components of the research I'm doing. The discussion started off with the easy introduction part. I was talking and observing them, trying to get a feel of their reaction about the purpose of our research. I was waiting for that jump off point. I thought and said to myself, please just one crack, something I could pick up that would make the rest of the discussion easier. It came, from an elderly man with a toothless grin to my left who said, "Oo nga Ma'am, para hindi kung saan saan tumatae ang mga tao" (Yes Ma'am, so people don't relieve themselves in random public places - i.e. shit anywhere and everywhere). The whole group roared in laughter.
Our research project is about water, sanitation and hygiene in Paglat, Maguindanao. It is a fifth class municipality in the Southernmost part of the Philippines wherein the primary source of livelihood is agriculture and agri-related activities. The Philippine government measured poverty incidence in Maguindanao at 57.8% which means that more than half of the population live in less than PhP33 per person per day (for a family of seven)*. About 80% of families in the municipality still do not have their own toilet. Only a rare few have their own water pumps and even rarer (most often just the politicians and business men) have water faucet. Majority of them rely on communal toilets. The ratio of which is one toilet to 80 families. Most often that not, these toilets are dilapidated, no longer functional or unclean because they do not have water to use for it.
To my great relief, the discussion went smoothly. I asked, they responded and always with something more. I could sense the hesitation on the first questions. There were shy smiles of women, and the soft arms-across-the-chest stance of the men. Their eyes wandering across, looking out to each other as if asking for affirmation. I completely understood. To be asked of your sanitation practices, discuss the matter in a group with a total stranger is a little profane and intrusive. Slowly, little by little, the hesitation eased away replaced by opinions and statements which were equally heartwarming as heartbreaking. By the time I was in middle part of the discussion, they were already participating actively that I needed to listen as actively too.
At the end of the discussion, there were already a lot of thoughts in my mind. Thoughts that went as wide as own self-reflection about life to political and economic structures to the framework of development aid that poured in the municipality. There was an article that I read which said that poverty, unfortunately isn't just about political and economic concepts. It is, first and foremost a human condition. The book written by Amartya Sen titled Development as Freedom says that the primary task of development is to "unfree" people from social, political, and economic constraints that leave them with limited opportunities and chances. I also couldn't help but remember Abraham Maslow's pyramid to self actualization and meaning which postulates that we can only reach the topmost part of the pyramid (self actualization) if we have secured the bases preceding to it (physiological, relationship, etc..). These are classic theories to explain the whys and the hows.
We may put a lot of words to describe their life, the so-called life of the poor. But for them, a toilet is enough to live decently and with integrity. As we drove away, I asked myself the same question I asked them during the FGD: what do I need to live a decent life? I couldn't deal with my answer, not after I heard theirs.
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*Data on poverty threshold from: http://opinion.inquirer.net/23271/poverty-thresholds-and-family-size
One of the communal toilets in Paglat, Maguindanao.
