In the Philippines, it is customary to go christmas caroling door to door in your neighborhood. The twist is that the people you are caroling to are expected to give you money. I have noticed that several times when we've been in town, there have been small groups of kids gathering around groups (or me since I'm white) who will break out in song.
The director of PDK decided last year to start a new tradition which we continued this year. We went caroling last night, but instead of accepting money, we handed out gifts to each home. I spent a week working with the kids who live here making a christmas ornament. I also bought candy, and we made up bags for kids who lived in each household to hand out as well.
We got all kinds of reactions last night. Some people hide or keep their door closed because they know they're expected to hand out money. Some people were wondering why we hadn't stopped at the "big house" on their block. News seemed to travel by the time we'd been to 5-6 houses that we were not accepting money.
The caroling quickly turned into an adventure. The neighborhoods here aren't joined by paved roads and sidewalks. We walked through a neighborhood that was a maze of handmade wooden "bridges". I could see through these slats of wood and was praying that I wouldn't fall. I was more worried about what I might land in than falling on the wood itself. There are no street lights and it had rained all day so it was very slippery. I thought about the irony of this - we (americans) pay money to go to a "ropes and obstacle course".
It was too dark to take pictures (and I'm careful about there I take my camera) but I have attached a picture I took of the city hall lit up.
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