by: Ancheden J. PacamalanNight Café is the place where people from different walks of life converged every Friday evening 7 o'clock to Saturday at dawn 2 o'clock.
Almost all Kagay-anons know this please because this place is all in one! Food, drinks, entertainment and even second hand clothes are in this place.
This place is not just for party-goers or the happy go lucky students, street children and beggars are visible in the vicinity of night café. It is ironic, right? Despite the happy ambiance of this place, signs of poverty are lurking even around the corner of Cagayan de Oro City.
Every time I go home, I would often see beggars. There has been a time when they came to me and beg coins for food, however I seldom gave. This is not because I do not pity them - my coins are not solutions to their situation.
Dole outs are short term solutions. Well, I hardly think it is a solution. It will only encourage them to linger more on the streets which is obviously dangerous to them especially the street children.
Night Café, which is a street party, is a good venue for them to ask for alms. They are also creating human traffic because sometimes when I would pass this place, they are blocking my way. Thus, slowing my pace.
But I would always have patience and understanding for them. I do not shout at them or even push them.
How I hope that the time will come when I would not see them on the streets but in their safe and clean homes.
For now, I think will see them for quite sometime. Perhaps the government has long term solutions for them. (They better have one!)
