A Sense of Place

I went to Google Earth and found the very bridge where the Alquino family of Manila lives.

Diving around the planet on Google Earth is always a bit of a strange experience. Seeing places where you used to live, seeing places where you'd like to live, all from a bird's-eye view, makes the world seem like a very, very small place.

Going back to the bridge via Google Earth was rather strange in that, when we actually drove over the bridge--right there in Manila--it was so easy to forget, or never realize--that we were driving over an entire community and a family with a name. It was so easy for this unknown, unseen fragment of the one billion to just be completely anonymous.

Now, looking at the same bridge from the anonymity of a computer screen from thousands of miles away simply accentuates that "unseen" quality of this family.

Who would guess that beneath that bridge, on the Bay of Manila, an entire community is struggling to survive?