Sunday, December 18, 2005
Christmas party
I was too exhausted last night after the simbang gabi in Ateneo to do more than drag myself up the stairs, get dressed and collapse in bed. So I'm only going to be writing about the Christmas party in Bulacan yesterday.
Ah...another year, another Christmas party. How many years have we been doing this? Hmm...I think it's the twelfth year. And up to now, we haven't quite managed a perfectly organized party yet. Maybe it's too much to ask. Hopeless, I tell you. Haha.
Anyway, a bunch of friends went with me to Bulacan yesterday to help out with the party. Actually, they're my groupmates in theology--Jace, Dianne, Ma-ann, Chika and Chelly. Mr. Manaloto had given us the go-signal to make the Christmas party for the kids in Bulacan our group ministry project. I was a little apprehensive at first, thinking that maybe there were too many of us working there, and it would become too chaotic. And that I wouldn't find anything to give my groupmates to do there.
Haha. Joketime. How could I have forgotten those past Christmas parties? There were plenty to do for everyone, believe me.
First thing we did when we got there was eat breakfast, since most of them hadn't eaten yet. Afterwards, we worked on the nametags, checked for mistakes and stuff. That was the easy part. Chelly, then, worked on a Merry Christmas sign, Jace and Dianne joined the crew preparing hotdog sandwiches for the kids, while I, Ma-ann and Chika went to the chapel to arrange the chairs. We had a problem with the weather, so we had to transfer the party to inside the chapel itself. We set up monobloc chairs inside, along with the wooden pews already there. Then, mom informed us that we needed to fix the chairs so that they faced outside. You know how heavy those wooden pews are? Very heavy. By the time we finished, we were already tired.
Party begins. Haaay. Registration has been, and always will be, a bitch. All those kids trooping in. Some had very soft voices, so we could barely hear them whenever we asked them for their names. Some wouldn't speak at all. Some wouldn't let go of their parents. Of course, there were still plenty who weren't registered. Hence, the identity thefts. Will the real David Pascual please step out, please step out? Two people tried to take over his identity so they could get in. Another girl, when I asked her for her name, read one of the names off the registration list. Ang obvious mo, pare. There were some kids who were taller than us, so we couldn't figure out whether they were really just 12. There was also a 12 yr old kid who looked about 4 years old. And the mothers. They kept hinting and guilt-tripping us into letting them in. And suddenly, they all knew who I was. First-name basis bigla.
My mom had hired two clowns who, I think, were younger than us. I think they were overwhelmed by the number of the kids. Haha. Lalo na nung "The Boat is Sinking". Plenty were scared of them. Including Jace and Dianne. Sam and Abby were terrified of them. Sam was throwing a tantrum cause she didn't want to even walk past the clowns to get to the little hut nearby. I discovered later that one of the clowns was deliberately scaring the kids. He was making this strange little screeching at this kid, making the kid cry. Idiot. He was also the clown who was trying to hoard the gifts that nobody claimed. Oh well, he said he planned to give them to his many godkids.
I think the most tiring part of the party was the distribution of the shoes. My mom had bought about 40 pairs of rubber shoes, to be given to those who seemed most in need of them, and of course, whose feet would fit into those shoes. Chelly and I went around, looking at feet, searching for the right pairs...as secretly as we could. Like last year, people eventually caught on and began to follow us to the hut where the others were fitting feet into shoes. We kept trying to drive them back, but they wouldn't listen. They kept coming up to me, guilt-tripping me into choosing them. The parents were worse. One even tried to talk us into giving her two pairs so she could give the other to another child, who was at home. Fine, she was going to give them to her kid, but there were plenty others in that party who needed shoes, too. There were some who approached me, asking me for shoes, and I had to tell them that it would be unfair if I chose them, and they would have to take off the shoes they were already wearing so that they could put on another pair. There were plenty in that party who were only wearing ratty slippers. In other words, mahiya naman sila.
The kids' problem was that they were too chaotic, too rowdy. They wouldn't listen everytime we told them to sit down or step back so that they wouldn't crowd in the clowns and my cousin who was giving out the gifts. But they're kids, so I suppose that was okay. Only to be expected. Though there was one time when one kid got his arm sprained by another.
The parents, meanwhile, were a different matter. Their problem was their dishonesty, which they would pass on to their children. Actually, their children were probably more honest than they were. When we were giving out the shoes, I kept forgetting those we've already given the shoes to. They would tell me so. The parents meanwhile, kept coaching their children to lie so that they would get more. Hay naku.
Dealing with them was tiring enough. They were all going to me, asking me for more, asking me for favors. There were too many of them, and they all suddenly knew me. They were all older than me, and I never knew how to deal with them, talk to them, reprimand them if I had to. It seemed...wierd.
It was good that mom and dad decided not to go to the debut of Andrea last night any longer. We were ready to drop and we wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. We would only have humiliated ourselves at the debut if we'd gone.
Ah...another year, another Christmas party. How many years have we been doing this? Hmm...I think it's the twelfth year. And up to now, we haven't quite managed a perfectly organized party yet. Maybe it's too much to ask. Hopeless, I tell you. Haha.
Anyway, a bunch of friends went with me to Bulacan yesterday to help out with the party. Actually, they're my groupmates in theology--Jace, Dianne, Ma-ann, Chika and Chelly. Mr. Manaloto had given us the go-signal to make the Christmas party for the kids in Bulacan our group ministry project. I was a little apprehensive at first, thinking that maybe there were too many of us working there, and it would become too chaotic. And that I wouldn't find anything to give my groupmates to do there.
Haha. Joketime. How could I have forgotten those past Christmas parties? There were plenty to do for everyone, believe me.
First thing we did when we got there was eat breakfast, since most of them hadn't eaten yet. Afterwards, we worked on the nametags, checked for mistakes and stuff. That was the easy part. Chelly, then, worked on a Merry Christmas sign, Jace and Dianne joined the crew preparing hotdog sandwiches for the kids, while I, Ma-ann and Chika went to the chapel to arrange the chairs. We had a problem with the weather, so we had to transfer the party to inside the chapel itself. We set up monobloc chairs inside, along with the wooden pews already there. Then, mom informed us that we needed to fix the chairs so that they faced outside. You know how heavy those wooden pews are? Very heavy. By the time we finished, we were already tired.
Party begins. Haaay. Registration has been, and always will be, a bitch. All those kids trooping in. Some had very soft voices, so we could barely hear them whenever we asked them for their names. Some wouldn't speak at all. Some wouldn't let go of their parents. Of course, there were still plenty who weren't registered. Hence, the identity thefts. Will the real David Pascual please step out, please step out? Two people tried to take over his identity so they could get in. Another girl, when I asked her for her name, read one of the names off the registration list. Ang obvious mo, pare. There were some kids who were taller than us, so we couldn't figure out whether they were really just 12. There was also a 12 yr old kid who looked about 4 years old. And the mothers. They kept hinting and guilt-tripping us into letting them in. And suddenly, they all knew who I was. First-name basis bigla.
My mom had hired two clowns who, I think, were younger than us. I think they were overwhelmed by the number of the kids. Haha. Lalo na nung "The Boat is Sinking". Plenty were scared of them. Including Jace and Dianne. Sam and Abby were terrified of them. Sam was throwing a tantrum cause she didn't want to even walk past the clowns to get to the little hut nearby. I discovered later that one of the clowns was deliberately scaring the kids. He was making this strange little screeching at this kid, making the kid cry. Idiot. He was also the clown who was trying to hoard the gifts that nobody claimed. Oh well, he said he planned to give them to his many godkids.
I think the most tiring part of the party was the distribution of the shoes. My mom had bought about 40 pairs of rubber shoes, to be given to those who seemed most in need of them, and of course, whose feet would fit into those shoes. Chelly and I went around, looking at feet, searching for the right pairs...as secretly as we could. Like last year, people eventually caught on and began to follow us to the hut where the others were fitting feet into shoes. We kept trying to drive them back, but they wouldn't listen. They kept coming up to me, guilt-tripping me into choosing them. The parents were worse. One even tried to talk us into giving her two pairs so she could give the other to another child, who was at home. Fine, she was going to give them to her kid, but there were plenty others in that party who needed shoes, too. There were some who approached me, asking me for shoes, and I had to tell them that it would be unfair if I chose them, and they would have to take off the shoes they were already wearing so that they could put on another pair. There were plenty in that party who were only wearing ratty slippers. In other words, mahiya naman sila.
The kids' problem was that they were too chaotic, too rowdy. They wouldn't listen everytime we told them to sit down or step back so that they wouldn't crowd in the clowns and my cousin who was giving out the gifts. But they're kids, so I suppose that was okay. Only to be expected. Though there was one time when one kid got his arm sprained by another.
The parents, meanwhile, were a different matter. Their problem was their dishonesty, which they would pass on to their children. Actually, their children were probably more honest than they were. When we were giving out the shoes, I kept forgetting those we've already given the shoes to. They would tell me so. The parents meanwhile, kept coaching their children to lie so that they would get more. Hay naku.
Dealing with them was tiring enough. They were all going to me, asking me for more, asking me for favors. There were too many of them, and they all suddenly knew me. They were all older than me, and I never knew how to deal with them, talk to them, reprimand them if I had to. It seemed...wierd.
It was good that mom and dad decided not to go to the debut of Andrea last night any longer. We were ready to drop and we wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. We would only have humiliated ourselves at the debut if we'd gone.
# Lyn found a missing piece @ 1:15 PM 
