In our BINHI program, our group was assigned to the community of PAPEL Women Weavers in Tondo, Manila. In this community, I was introduced to a lifestyle that was familiar to me yet different from my current way of living. It was familiar to me because I came from that situation and have experienced it before. Like the families in that community, my family also experienced living a life with so many struggles triggered by our economic status. Attending and experiencing organized recreational and cultural activities were less observed during those times because my family were likely to focus on things that we thought are more important. This habitus was also the habitus I have observed in our assigned community. Families in that community are likely to focus on how to live day by day and how to face these struggles given the resources that they have. Therefore, economic and social are the capitals that are valued the most in their field. They need money and connections to survive which tells that their habitus is to put effort and to observe seriousness in their work.
In my current lifestyle, my habitus is different from the habitus of the members of the community in terms of capital that we value. In their case, they focus more on economic while in my case, cultural and social are the capital that I, together with my family, value more as we are yet in the process of learning lifestyle of the current class we belong to.
Moreover, while I was in the field I could not stop myself from being vigilant. Though I have an idea about their situation already, I was still curious about their lives. I wanted to know more about them so I started to interact with them and listen to their stories. As I was listening to their stories, I felt sad and empathetic. They said that even though they want to get out of their lifestyle, they could not do because the opportunities are very limited and, sometimes, there are no opportunities at all. The availability of the resources in their field is very low which is one of the reasons they could not escape from their situation. Given this problem, I think we - people belonging to middle and upper class - can do something to address this problem they experience. Despite different habitus, I think we can help them with their problems by understanding their situation and involving ourselves in their field. Bridging the gap between us by being aware of their situation will help us understand them.
