The Cultural Celebration

All right folks settle around your computers cause it's about to get emotional up in here. Today was almost the last day for us to see the kids. We just have tomorrow left and we only see them for something like 3 hours. So we went up to villafont in our jeepney, the top crammed with kids, and waited for the celebration to begin. As Filipino custom dictates the ceremonies started an hour late but that was okay because they served us food! Which I would have been sick of but they had fried bananas covered with brown sugar or something similarly delicious. I probably ate like 30 of those. They were radical. So the ceremony started and we had a special space on stage and we had a song that we sang and they did some dancing that was cute. I had to give a little speech. It was probably like 30 seconds and I stuttered but Dewey and Rick insist I did well. Then they gave us some certificates, which were nice. After the ceremony was over the kids came up and people started crying and two cute little girls clung to me crying into my shirt. I didn't cry or anything but it was an emotional experience. After about ten minutes of sobbing and soaking my shirt we went to play games. The first one I didn't really see but I guess some people had to eat gross stuff like baloot, an egg they bury for a month and then eat, for a prize. It was kinda like fear factor. No one threw up though but I think its because Filipinos have iron stomachs. Then we went to another game where a group of people had to get someone up a greased pole. There were three teams and three 15-foot poles covered in lard. I regret not trying to climb the pole but I really wasn't in the mood for climbing bamboo smeared with pig cream. Then the kids circled up and the R.O.W. kids and schoolteachers tried to capture a piglet. Which was way cute. That little dude was fast too! Cici ended up catching it and we presented it to the Essay contest winner at Salvacion. Then the game repeated but the pig went to the essay writing contest winner at Villafont. Then we played a game that I still don’t really understand but it involved carrying people.

Me on the left looking lovely as alway

Then we went and had lunch where I probably had like for sodas and some surprisingly good pasta. Then the other people assigned to Salvacion and I went down to Salvacion and played football and other games and had another goodbye, which wasn’t quite as emotional, but some hearty hugs were given. The kids are awesome and the love they show us is amazing. I have a feeling even the adults will be sobbing when the time comes tomorrow to say goodbye.

-David Macey