Giving Back!

Tambay: by Philippine definition, it's a term most commonly used for hanging out with your friends. Also it has its negative attachments, in society's judgemental eye, a "tambay's" definition is an individual who has no job. just sits around all day, drinking, smoking, free loading, good for nothing person. Well in my case, me and my buddies could be labeled as "tambay's" but most of the negative tags don't apply to us.

Exhibit A:
May,2 2010. Barangay Pitogo's Fiesta

We tambay's or as they use to call our group in our area "The Palku's", planned and organized an event to give back to the community. Our main focus was to host party games for the kids in our community and it all turned out well. I was quite surprised at how quick the whole thing was planned and put together, well... its kind of a no brainer since a bunch of us really gave their best efforts to make sure that everything goes according to plan. We each assigned individual groups for games, feeding program and alas my favorite the clean and green campaign (go environmental club).

First of to show their appreciation, the kids did a few dance numbers for us, which was really hilarious and fun at the same time. The kids were going crazy, dancing to the beat of lady gaga and some other pop songs. Their dance number also helped because it attracted and drew more and more kids to come join the fiasco.

Next, came the games...

(To the peeps abroad I will try to explain these games as best as I can for you to understand some Filipino Culture :D)

1.Pukpok Palayok: (Pukpok: to hit something/ Palayok: a pot used for cooking) lol, and yes that's the objective, the only twist is that you're blindfolded, easy right? Not... the first pot, none of the kids hit the pot dead on, so one of my buddies had to do it for them, but on the second pot, came sweet success. Oh for laughter purposes even though the pot is filled with coins and candy we also added baby powder. :)


2.Sack Race: Event number two was the typical sack race, the only twist was that it was girls vs. boys, and yep the race was very entertaing and competitive, a few kids fell on their butts, but the thought of winning candy and cash fueled their drive to win.


3. GawGaw Piso: forgive me I just invented the game title since I forgot what the game is called lol (Gawgaw: a powder like substance which I think is used for making glue/ Piso: referring to the filipino coin) First a one peso coin is placed in a medium cup, then the cup is filled with gawgaw. The objective is that you have to blow all the gawgaw off and if you manage to reveal the coin then we have a winner! the only drawback is the gawgaw literally sticks on your face so you end up looking like a crazy mime after. This was the event that drew the most laughter, all the kids were cheering for their buddies and at the same time laughing at their unrecognisable faces.

I know that we only had a few games but all the kids were satisfied and the smiles on their gawgaw filled faces were priceless.


Feeding Program:


Since it's our neighborhoods Fiesta, we decided to serve "Lomi", it's a type of noodle soup which is very thick, yet filling and delicious, (sadly, they don't have this kind of Dish in California, so that's a Nay for noodle lovers) We decided to serve it old school style, we cooked it in a huge pot outside the streets and we used random firewood for our burner which I thought was pretty cool. With their share of bread and a cold glass of ice tea, all the kids had their stomachs filled and all in all it was a success.

So yep, I admit it we are a bunch of Tambay's, I belong to a group of people who loves to hang out, enjoy each others company, tell endless stories of life and the awesome experiences that comes with it, but hey we definitely broke the mold, proving that we are not just good for nothing individuals who are freeloaders. Instead we appreciate the value of community, and that giving back even though it's only for the benefit of the kids is enough just for now. Kudos to all the Tambay's!