BCC Christmas party

23 December 2012

BCC Xmas party

            Last night we went to the Barangka Credit Cooperative (BCC) Christmas party (refresher: we’re staying in a building owned by the Coop that’s just across the street from the main building). According to the flier, the party started at 3:00pm but someone told us not to arrive until 4:00pm. Around 3:30, one of the BCC workers knocked on our door to invite us to the party. It starts at 5:00pm, he said.

            This year’s theme was BCC Re-Birth: 1980s. Everyone was dressed up for the part. There was lots of spandex and bright colors. One man wore dark, ripped jeans and had an Anarchy symbol painted on his face. One of the important older men in the organization (not sure his exact position) was wearing a red plaid shirt, long blue plaid shorts, and suspenders. We’re not entirely sure how that was ‘80s theme but he was very proud of his costume. Last year, we were told, the theme was “cowboys” so everyone wore cowboy hats and boots. They even rented a live horse for the night.

            We arrived to the big basement party space at BCC at 5:00 and were ushered back to a table. I sat next to a man named Ritz, who was sitting next to a man whom everyone called “Bishop.” Our neighbor from Ireland and her fiancé joined us a few minutes later.

            There was a stage in the front where a man and a woman with microphones were greeting the room (of course, this is all in Tagalog). They greeted each person at each table and announced their names, including ours, to everyone else. This took quite some time, as you might imagine.

             After they finished this they asked for 12 volunteers to play a game. Since we had played a number of games at the IPC Christmas party we thought we knew what we getting into. When they asked for some of the “foreigners” to come up on stage, Grace jumped right up so the Irish VRA and I followed. We had no idea what type of game it would be (dancing in front of everyone? Hitting things with eggplants?) but we figured it would be better to go first and just get it over with.

            All 12 of us stood in a line on stage and the first one was invited to the center microphone [An aside: all the Filipinos at the party knew how to use a microphone like a pro. In the U.S., I’ve found that most people don’t know how to hold a microphone. Think of all the weddings or events with toasts you’ve been to in the U.S. where somebody is always telling the speaker to hold the mic closer to their mouth. Since karaoke is so popular here, the Filipinos we saw looked like they had been born with microphones in their hands]. We couldn’t quite tell what was going on but it seemed like the person was being interviewed/quizzed by the MC for a long, long time (at least 5 minutes). At one point the contestant started crying. One by one the other contestants went up and I could kind of gather that they were being asked various questions about things in the Philippines but we couldn’t figure out why so many of them started crying (two more cried).

            When it was our turn to go, Grace went up. One of the MCs translated for her. She was asked to tell the crowd a positive and negative thing that had happened to her in 2012. The MC asked her several other questions, such as “where would you tell your parents to stay if they came to the Philippines?”

            I went up next and was asked the same first two questions. My next two questions were a bit different, though: “If I were manager of the BCC what would my financial plan be for the next three years? They currently have assets of P600 million, what should the BCC working towards by 2015?” My next question was, “what advice would you give to the next Miss Philippines contestant in the Miss Universe competition?” I aced those questions…

            This game and other talking went on until 6:45. I think people were getting quite ready for dinner. According to the schedule I saw in the afternoon, this had gone well over time. When the MC finally stepped off the stage I saw him glance at his watch and give a little giggle.            

When the dinner buffet started we had some rice, pancit, and some kind of meat nuggets. We ducked out around 7:40pm because we could tell the night was going to go on for a long time (I woke up well after midnight and could hear the party still going strong). We missed the gift exchange (our vegetarian friend got a big box of ham), and all the dances that each division of BCC had prepared. We were sorry to miss out on seeing the results of all the practicing on our roof that had woken us up a few nights before (it seemed like everyone in Marikina was practicing some sort of group dance, including the church ladies next door).

We felt very flattered to be invited to the party and were really happy to be included. We have a great neighborhood and everyone seems to try to make sure we feel comfortable here but we're missing Christmas back in the U.S.!