Pinoy Fiesta

Last month, one of the yayas for my niece and nephew went on vacation. It was the fiesta in their town and she was this year's hermana mayor.

Here in the city, being hermana mayor was a position my parents cannot even dare assume when our village holds its own pseudo-fiesta annually. Not only was it too much of a hassle, with every detail of the event passing through you, but also quite expensive since the hermana mayor is expected to shell out for fiesta expenses such as the musiko, fireworks, and prizes for raffles or contests. And not to mention the amount of food he has to prepare to feed anyone and everyone who has helped in preparing and conducting the whole affair. The amount of food we're talking about here would be enough to feed an entire tribe in the far-flung villages of Africa for at least one month. I know, obscene.

And so the yaya left for a few weeks vacation. My mom, being the dakilang lola that she is, assumed the yaya role temporarily. And that meant staying up with my hyperactive nephew's kakulitan. She had no choice. Besides, it's only her who can understand my nephew's blabber. I swear, the two of them have developed a language only they could understand.

After a few weeks -- enough time for my three-year-old nephew to perfect the recognition of alphabet letters, colors and shapes, learn to count from 1 to 10 in both English and Spanish (impressive, huh?) -- the yaya finally came back.

Immediately upon her return she carries with her a brand new problem. Her son couldn't enrol for this coming school year coz they didn't have enough money for the school registration. That's why she needs to advance some money to send back home for her son's education.

All of these came at the expense of feeding half the town during the fiesta.

How twisted can some people's priorities be.