The good people at Philippine Generations -- the big Fil-Brit youth organization I'm designated by the Embassy as liaison because, you know, I'm sooo youth -- came up with another fantastic event: a parol making workshop to usher in the Christmas season! In my welcome remarks, I mentioned how activities like these were great because they could make you feel like a carefree kid again.
HA! If only everyone knew of the painful childhood memories I had of crying during grade school WorkEd classes because I was one of those kids who was never good with his hands and couldn't make that goddam macramé spice rack to save his life. KAYA NGA NAGING ABOGADO EH!!!
Kidding aside, all that angst is still buried deep inside and will manifest later on is long gone and forgotten, and the workshop was genuine fun. Still, motor skills do not magically appear overnight (despite my letters to Santa), so my own parol's progression was slow, to say the least. The hardest part by far was getting the bamboo joints to stay in place. I was told by the traditionalist instructors present to never use any form of adhesive, and that everything could properly be held together by string, knots and good ol' concentration. With that sage advice, I was indeed able to complete the frame -- by using masking tape and begging one youth's mom to finish it for me.
And even with all that help, my parol still wasn't finished by the time the (five-hour) workshop ended, and was looking, ahem, a little asymmetrical. I just told everyone I was really going for the minimalist/abstract/impressionist/ironic look. (I was. I WAS!) Anyway, all the kids at the workshop were handed the same type of kit as I was, and we were all under the same time constraints, so it's not like anyone could come up with anything that beautiful or artistic...could they?
(....must...suppress...childhood...angst...memories...must)
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