Enter the Village (or better, The Woods?)

With so much hype given by its trailer, The Village could be a big disappointment to all of those who are expecting the most out of what is has pre-delivered. The marketing has done it well enough to encourage me and my friends to go out and watch the movie on its first day of showing here in Davao. Much to my surprise, as we are about to enter the theater for its last full showing that night, as the credit was flashing on the big screen I heard some claps from the audience. It might be a good sign that the movie indeed is great, from what I have read from a review that gave it a good one.

If ever you want to venture into the woods or enter the village, expect something different from what the marketing has given you. It is not what you think it is.

The Village, helmed by M. Night Shyamalan of the Sixth Sense phenomenon, is about a community situated in 1800s of rural Pennsylvania surrounded by woods that is inhabited by some mythical or furious creatures. The movie centers on the romance between a blind girl, Kitty and a man, Lucius, who always questions the policies set by the elders of the community. The movie takes a great time to develop each characters and the movement of each shots takes you deeper into the personality of each individual as well as the entire village. Shyamalan has delivered a unique love story which caused the dismay of some of my friends because they were expecting to be frightened. But I wasn’t disappointed by the movie since I have read some mixed reviews and some gave out hints on what to expect on the movie. Nevertheless, it was breathtaking and lovely especially when watching how the blind girl was able to gain strength from her love to his man to conquer everything that is forbidden. Kitty has to venture into the forbidden woods to get medicine from the nearby village of which no one has ever done. It's like Frodo venturing out of the beautiful shire to save Middle-Earth. I hate romantic movies, but this one is different because the circumstances set around the love birds are different from what we usually saw on screen.

Another thing I want to say, Shyamalan is a fave of mine, I have seen his movies since the Sixth Sense and I had admired his creativity even though Unbreakable delivered a different tune from the others. There is a certain philosophy he has fixed in the movie (Don’t read the following if you don’t want to be spoiled). As we were about to go home, I told one of my friend that the movie’s theme is about how we were being scared by our elders so that we don’t do some of the things that we wanted to do. I was even become biblical that I told her that “what if” hell is much like the woods. We must not do things that are unholy for our soul will go to hell. What if Hell is created so that we will be sacred to do things we desired to do? That hell is created by men before us to not lead us to our desires?

If you are a fan of good movies, go and see this one.

The Festival of Festivals

The Annual Kadayawan Festival is coming to its culmination this Sunday, August 22, 2004 with big concerts and parties everywhere in the city. Today, Friday, that’s August 20, I am at the office, it is supposed to be a holiday but I am here. I am doing something that is not part of my work. It is much boring if I stayed home the whole day watching TV. At least here in the office, I am able to surf the net and check my emails. Tonight, I won’t be able to catch Sarah Geronimo and others on her concert at Holy Cross Gym because I don’t have money to buy the tickets even though a hundred would do.

Saturday is also a holiday in celebration of the natal day of the late Ninoy Aquino but the main events of the festival will start on that day. Early in the morning the street dancing will begin and I’ll be roaming the city taking pictures just for fun the heck of it. DTC will be having IEC around the downtown area of the city. The volunteers will be there to lend their hands. On the evening of Saturday, there will be concerts everywhere you will go. MTS has SouthBorder, the Venue has Bamboo, and at the PTA Ground Rivermaya will grace the Tsinelas Party of MOR. I wish I have the power of astral projection so I could be in those places at the same time. Well for sure I’ll be at the PTA grounds because that is the only show that is for free and I adore Rivermaya most than the other bands.

Just like the last time we had the celebration, everywhere we go there were street parties. Every street in Davao was packed with people dancing and cheering with joy. The downtown area was closed to vehicles so you will see people walking their way to the street where they want to be.

I have heard also that there will be lots of showbiz personalities to join the occasion and ABS-CBN is having a telecast of the event over Studio 23. So people not in Davao will be able to see what spectacular this event is.

The festival will end on Sunday with another concert at the PTA grounds sponsored by the City Mayor’s Office but Monday will be another day at the workplace so I guess I might be coming late on Monday (hehehe…).

It’s a heartwarming experience to enjoy occasions like this in the city that I have loved so much.

A Dialogue at 5-A

I was in a hurry finishing the certificates for tonight’s event. It was already 7:00 in the evening and the show will start at 7:30. The blank ink on the printer was empty and I couldn’t finish printing the certificates because the designs were all in black color. So I called Veejay and never got an answer. Unfortunately, the printer mixed the three remaining ink colors to create the black, but the printing was too slow. I tried calling Veejay for the second time, he answered and said that I’ll just have to deal with what is available because they are about to start the program. The venue for the program is at Brgy. 5-A Gymnasium in Bankerohan (where Davao’s Public Market is situated), all of the volunteers were there and I was left in the office with June, who was busy framing the certificates. We finished the certificates and head to the venue in no time.

On August 14, 2004, the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) of Barangay 5-A with Davao Teen Center, conducted a Parent-Child Dialogue at the Brgy. 5-A Gymansium. The aim of the event is to have a venue where parents and their children discussed adolescent issues that are sometimes a taboo in their own homes. Some of these issues include pre-marital sex, teen-age pregnancies, and drug addiction. A number of parents and their children attended the event. There were even younger kids who attended but were more occupied playing with there colleagues.

The program started with a doxology, an interpretative presentation by my fellow volunteers to the song Bathala of Joey Ayala’s Band, and then followed by the national anthem heartily sung by Liezel.

The show proper began with some dance and song numbers by some of the volunteers and some special guests (?). The first part of the dialogue was the youngsters’ points-of-view on the issues. I got the chance to ask them and with me was Jupanie. Most of them are SK officials from the neighboring barangays of 5-A. I got the chance to ask one of the ladies (there were 2 guys and 2 girls) about her opinion on teenagers getting married to the guy who accidentally impregnated her so they might not be labeled as immoral even though she doesn’t love the guy. She simply answered me that if it would be her case she would gladly tell her parents the possible problems and difficulties she might encounter if she gets to marry the guy. She will openly tell her parents what she thinks about the situation because, as what she said, it is about her future not theirs. There were a lot of questions I would love to ask them but our director was already telling us to cut our questioning short because there are still a lot of things to do that night. We wrapped up the portion and the singers replaced us on the stage.

I never got the chance to listen attentively when the parents’ dialogue came because I could not get the words they were saying. There were problems with the sound system. I was thinking then that some of them might not be able to hear us out clearly lately when we were on stage because of the audio problem.

There was a part of the program where the audiences get to play a “Pera o Bayong”-kind of game. The kids outnumbered everyone on the stage. And fortunately a boy won the contest which kept me guessing how he was able to answer those questions.

After the game and some dances, we arrived to the culmination of the program. We lighted candles and together we sang the theme song of every young people, “Next in Line” by After Image. The volunteers and the staff gathered on the stage as we sang the song and ended the night with confetti and balloons.

It was a tough event, it ended around 11 and we only had bread on our stomach. So we headed to Sir Chris’ house for a late-night dinner. Everyone talked about how well the event was and celebrated until our stomach got filled and felt the need to sleep and rest. We headed back to the center, where some of us stayed to let the night pass.

Another mission was accomplished, another mind was being educated, and another life was being connected. I’m out!

The Practice

It’s been a long time since I have posted my last web log. I was very busy with work and with the center and I really haven’t had time watching movies and even going out for gimmicks.

The days last week was full of pressures and stresses as all of the volunteers of Davao Teen Center had practices for dances and other presentations for the upcoming event which happened last Saturday, August 14. Everyday, during those weeks, I always have to go to DTC as early as possible to join the practice since I am beginning to encourage myself that I am not yet old enough to join a dance number. Some of us who had their respective jobs had been excusing their selves from their work just to have a nice presentation on the event.

It became a routine that everyday I have to bring some extra shirts for the practice. I think everyone of us does. The music they have chosen was kind of a slow Hip-Hop but entertaining. I get into my position and asked Jordan, our choreographer, for help to teach me the moves. I was kind of irritated by the way he teaches me because he somewhat wants me to dance as good as possible when I was just memorizing the steps. I even told him that I’ll just have to look at them dancing and I’ll just study the steps.

I could still remember when I was in high school; I used to dance in the school with some of my classmates. I even help choreographed some of our steps. There was one time when we had to travel to another municipality to join a dance contest there, which we haven’t won. (I don’t want to reason, I might sound defensive). I missed the sweating and the shouting if one or two missed a move. And I began to miss my high school classmates. L

Back to the practice, everything went fine as the days passed us by. We had snacks of bread and juice. The bread has been our all-time favorite snack.

While we were practicing our dance, some of the volunteers are also practicing their song numbers and doxology presentation. One volunteer invited someone to teach them the doxology presentation.

As the days passed, the time to practice seems to adjust farther. From 6PM, now its 7PM. Some of the volunteers who are part of our dance number coincidentally got some job and they are only available after 7pm. We sometimes finished practicing at around 9 in the evening and sometimes have to sleep at the center for some of us are tired to go home.

There was one instance, it was Tuesday night, and I was still at the office by boss came to our cubicle and surprisingly told me that he has to see my presentation on Wednesday. I was told I was going to present my project on Saturday before that. So I asked my colleague if I could borrow his laptop just for a night. I bought my work at the center but I have to practice first before I start my work. I slept at 2am, woke up by 6 and the next day, I have so much stress and was so tired.

Then the event came.