Our Barangay Fiesta Today May 15

Today, May 15, our Barangay (small parts of a City) is celebrating a Fiesta. I woke up with a loud banging of drums. I hardly have enough sleep and I can’t get back to sleep again. I started thinking. I started to remember I am sad. As the days crawl, everyone from the neighborhood for sure is celebrating because I was hearing different sound everywhere. Just beside our house, one of the neighbors initiated a videoke. Everyone was singing along. They are singing Filipino songs. The sound of the voice are pure nasal but that is okay if they are enjoying it. I can smell that someone is barbecuing some squid. My mother is doing her laundry, she worries that when it is about to dry the clothes all the smell will absorb by our clothes. I don’t know what is her idea now. It seems she has a plan B.

At home, my dogs are really irritated by the banging sounds of drums. They hate annoying sounds. Once they start barking, they start to annoy me too. I have no idea to stop them. Imagine I was stopping five dogs from barking. It is really stressful. I am staying at home because I need to rest. I will have to start my new job tomorrow so I need to rest.

Getting back to the past, I and my sister were always excited during Barangay Fiesta because we join some street activities. I usually join singing contest. My sister joined games too and I do too but mostly I am a spectator because I don’t want bruises. In the evening, at 6 pm, the Santacruzan will start. This features different beautiful teenager parading with their gowns in honor of Mama Mary. I never joined Santacruzan. I was never invited. They only choose beautiful teenage girls.

At the evening, there are activities like dance contests or singing contest. Sometimes these are combined into one show. I and my sister watched this. We bring our own monoblock because we will stand there to get a nice view of the stage. We love every performance. We appreciate the effort. I remember once while watching the contests, there was a brawl. Some guy was chasing another guy with a knife on his hand. We keep our monoblock and ourselves are hidden in some part of an apartment while the brawl was happening. When we know it stops, we get back to our original position like there was nothing happened. That was indeed a laughing moment for me and my sister.

We stayed there watching until 1 in the evening. We do not mind staying up late because there was no class in the morning as our barangay is always scheduled during Summer. I remember when I and my friends joined dance contests. We won as first-runner up. When I got back to school, I was the talk of the class because it happens that most of my classmate saw me dancing on the stage. They thought I can only sing, they never know I could dance too. I joined singing contests too but I never won anything, even runner-ups. I enjoyed joining such contests.

Right now, I do not feel anything about our barangay fiesta. I guess this kind of occasion is only for those who have money to celebrate. I only use my money for my family.