Blonde

While travelling along Taft Avenue in Manila last week, a child wearing dirty shirt and pants entered the jeepney we were riding. He then distributed small 6 3/4 white envelopes to each passenger and just waited at the corner. Written on the envelope was a message in Filipino that says, "Ate at Kuya. Pahingi lang po ng kaunting tulong. Pambili lang po ng pagkain." It did striked me to put in some coins in the envelope, seeing such a helpless kid, running along Taft barefooted and wearing dirty clothes. But in a matter of seconds, I suddenly realized that this child may not be the one who wrote the message. First, the handwriting looks better than mine. Second, it used "po" which is very rare now, among Filipino children. One passenger gave some coins while I hastily took a shot of the very good handwriting. Guilty for secretly capturing his letter in my camera, I suddenly felt the need to give him five pesos. Together with the other envelopes, around three were in my hands waiting to be submitted to the kid. However, just as I was inserting my five pesos in the envelope, the kid stood up and left the jeepney leaving all the other blank envelopes, including mine. I thought he was going to come back and get his envelopes but he just went off. Should I have ran after him and returned his envelopes and our "tulong"? Did I just scared him off for taking a picture of his letter? What was in his mind then if not to get some cash? He wasn't even aware that ten pieces of the white envelope costs six(6) pesos, more that what I was about to give him. If you were in my place then, what will you do? What do you think should we do to solve this problem in our society? o_O By the way, the boy had blond highlights in hair, if you know what I mean.