painted face, terrorized boy, hitler in pain and jabee

I'm finally writing something about the fiesta in the town where I grew up. Every year is different. But this year's festivities proved to be the most unique. At least for me. I contributed more this year. Oh well...

I joined the celebration on the 16th. It was the Palaro ng Parokya, where I played a very important role -- a biatch. Nyahahahaha!! But you gotta be in my shoes to understand that the kids (even the elders) are so hard to manage. Sobrang kukulet kaya walang choice kundi magtaray! Ok ok, let's just say I filled the area with a lot of sarcasm. At 3pm the face painters arrived. I was first in line (of course), habang malinis pa lahat ng brushes!! Look what I got:

Cute, eh? There were a lot of games -- basag-palayok, pabitin, bike race, palo-sebo, doll hunt, hakot-itlog, pig chase and a lot more. Cash prizes were awarded to winners -- this is why the kids and adults were all fighting for a slot. There were 20 pabitins so you could just imagine the crowd we summoned. At one point, there was almost a stampede so we had to ask everyone to leave the area and we announced that the pabitins shall be done by group. So we asked all girls aged 6 to 10 for the first batch. But still there were boys who insisted to join, hurting the little girls. And then it happened. I literally grabbed one boy by his sleeve, brought him up to the stage and let the emcee announce that : "Etong batang itong nakaitim, babae daw siya. Kaya mamaya kapag mga lalaki na ang tatawagin, hindi na siya kasali. Tandaan niyo ang mukha neto." The boy was shocked and nearly in tears when I let him go. We are both victims of my terrible mood.

meet hitler

The pig to be chased around. This picture was taken before he was molested. We lovingly called him "babe" when he arrived but he was hungry he literally growled at me while taking this picture. He shortly became Hitler. Heheheheh. The lucky winner took him home to be served the next day plus cash. This was Hitler before he was let go:

Can you see those pleading eyes?!? To be honest, I almost cried for him. He wailed in pain after the chase. I couldn't even take his picture afterwards, out of respect to a pig holding on to dear life. I asked mommy to promise never to have a game like that ever again.

But all's well that ends well just the same. Everybody had fun especially when the Palaro was capped off by Dragon fireworks. Marvelous! And a short picture taking with a new friend:

The games and fireworks ended at 7pm...and we still had a function to go to: the Lakan and Lakambini night where I was chosen to present (and sponsor) an award. Now, aside from being the worst production I have ever watched (terrible terrible technical and logistical problems and worst answers heard from supposed to be intelligent teeners), they failed to even recognize me. And if you will ask me to tell you all about it, I might not finish. But if you will insist, my dear readers, I will tell you that night's anecdotes and you will be in for a laugh.

The next day and the first day of the actual fiesta, Gian and I joined the traditional street and church dancing. We see to it that we join at least once in three days that its fiesta. we heard mass as a family on the second day, at 5am. READ: 5AM! Yup I was awake and amazed that the church was evrything but empty. Afterall, people from different places actually visit us every year. Our church is a Pilgrim Church AND a tourist attraction. I won't be able to recall every bit of what happened but here are pictures I took. Maybe next year, you'll join us?!