Rasta Creekside Decor

April 11, 2009 Black Saturday, our Brgy. Council conducted a meeting for the preparation of our barangay (also known by its former Spanish adopted name, the barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward) fiesta. EXECOM presented some details concerning the flow of activities for a weeklong celebration. Suggestions and ideas came popping out from the constituents who wanted our activities to be more festive and memorable. As usual, there’s a band that will awaken the residents at dawn, basketball tournaments, parlor games and most especially the holy mass was on the top list.

Beautification in each sitios (A sitio in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay, the location of which may be distant from the center of the barangay itself. During Spanish occupation, sitios were named to make a centralized government for municipalities through the barrio system now called barangay.) is funded for a certain amount ensuring the somber ambiance into a cheerful and jovial celebration. Sunday morning when we began gathering things needed for the materialization of the design that abruptly came into my mind - our patron, St. Peter which is oriented in a Rastafarian colors. It was just a second idea because it was actually the face of the reggae king Bob Marley convinced me to use such colors. Since it’s for our fiesta, the aforementioned design was agreed. We cut red, yellow and green charrol (can't find in dictionary but it is acolored plastic ) for our flaglets (word that doesn’t exist in dictionary too but often used) and stapled it in a tiny rope and in a solid colors. Though the amount allotted for our street décor run out of budget, the effort and the assistance rendered by our neighbors uplifted me to keep going for a two days work. We solicited donations from our kind-hearted neighbors and friends. Monday night, all work has been done. It was our plan to have it before Tuesday since I’ll be leaving for Cebu.

Our sitio which was newly created got its name from a nearby creek. We collectively and decided to call it as CREEKSIDE. Residents here are the dwellers from the shore whose houses were destroyed by the intense low-pressure weather and always been affected by an uncontrollable sea wave especially during high tide. Since we’ve known each other, the spirit of bayanihan (is a Filipino term taken from the word bayan, referring to a nation, town or community. The whole term bayanihan refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective or helping each other in completing the colossal task) enticed us to start working for the beautification. Albeit no prize guaranteed for such décor but at least we showed to the other sitios of our barangay that we got our strength through our unity.