Piyesta!

Yesterday my friend Mike invited me to go to a birthday party with him and his host family. The only thing on my agenda was to make my lesson plan (which could definitly be postponed) and play solitaire with my Lola... so, I happily agreed to go to the party. At first, I thought it was just like any other party here in the Phillipines, all you do is eat, eat, eat. A photo of the enormous bowl of pasta is attached and that is just the marienda for the party, also known as the snack. I should also tell you that anytime you do not eat rice here in the Phillipines, it is just a snack. I have learned this the hard way because I would eat an entire bowl of pasta thinking it was my dinner and then be told a couple hours later that is it time to eat dinner. As I sit there, still full from pasta, I thought constantly about how I should never make that mistake again :). Anyways, so at the party we were just eating and chatting like normal. Then, the videoke machine came out which is also very common. Filipinos love to sing so this is traditional entertainment at any kind of party. The loud music and beautiful voices made every child in the barangay come out of their house. I quickly noticed that the children were more focused Mike and I than the music. One moment, I turned around to about 20 beautiful smiling faces and felt terrified because I was not sure what to do! After smiling for about 2 minutes, which held there attention while I picked my brain for ideas...we danced, sang, raced around the block, played slap and took pictures. As I was getting tired it was clear that the children could play for days. This was such an amazing experience for me. The children were so happy just playing silly games that I could come up with. Bending knees and raising your hands in the air never looked so awesome! When it was time to go, we were all walking down the street to fetch a bus back home and when we turned around... the children were following us, all 30+ of them just smiling away.