Party Time Again

Ooops, I forgot to tell you we have 3 parties here in the office: one's a big one in a hotel with our partners and suppliers, next is the internal one the last working day before Christmas and the third is the last working day of the year.

Our party's theme for this year is aptly called Barrio Fiesta when I was chosen to be the Hermano Mayor. I planned this one and I'm not gonna give you much detail but a few pictures


the centerpiece with the usual lechon


the delectable food comprised of kare-kare, pinakbet, pancit canton


ensaladang mangga with saging and biko


the star of the table, one I personally chose: ginataang kuhol (the golden snail of the 70's scattered on many ricefields intended to augment food supply. This turned out to be an ecological disaster. I also remember in my childhood we used to gather snails to be cooked)


an integral part of the party is the costume contest where all employees are required to don an attire in line with the theme. Here we have various costumes from our diverse cultures shown above: the Igorot of the North, Muslim garbs of the south, tribal costumes and the getup of the pangdanggo sa ilaw dancer (the bow and arrow of the one with tribal gear came from me. I bought it in Subic. I wore a salakot, camiso de chino but not shown)

The beauty of the Philippines, opposed to other Asian countries like Thailand, is the diversity of unique cultures present aside from the visible influence of Spanish and American aside from Arab, Indian and Chinese ones molding the Filipino traditions and psyche.

On the other end of the equation comes inter-racial and religious conflicts perpetually dividing this poor struggling country of mine.