Lead Team’s Christmas '07 fellowships

Last December 26, the LT (Lead Team ha, not Tucio Tan or Lorna Tolentino, hehe) of our district held its 2^nd fellowships as IPPs, IPDG, and past district officers. It was held at the Music bar, Hyatt Casino in Malate, and hosted by Gov. Butch and wife Maling. Our first fellowship as IPPs (limited only to LPs) was held last September at San Lazaro leisure park in Carmona, Cavite.

Food and drinks. Just like the 2 Lead Team’s fellowships during our term, the “Governor’s Big Smoke” 1 and 2, yummy foodie and coldie drinkie were like Sun cellular’s unlimited call and text -- eat till you drop and drink till you get up, hehehe. Most were gulping reddie winey, or sanmig lights, but for me, I stick to the old tradition, sanmig heavy de pilsen...

RTV.PH. Before the real fun began, Gov. Butch, holding spouse Maling as if the Vikings from the Nordic mountains of Sweden are out to take her away, explained that apart from fellowships and friendship, the night was also to update us about RTV.PH foundation, obviously his second big project (the first being the lead Governor of our district). The foundation is now registered with SEC with paid up capital of P1M+, and will produce a series of tv shows about Rotary and other service-oriented initiatives by other groups, that will be aired on selected cable channels. He called on 2 classmates, Tyrone Payron, este Paynor, hehehe, and Lorenz Tato, the latter as the foundation’s treasurer.

Tyrone is working as the indefatigable coordinator for the foundation, and he mentioned that at least 2 cable channels, Destiny cable for selected cities in the country, and a regional cable that will show it in some East Asian economies like HK and Singapore, have expressed interest to air the foundation’s tv programs. So Gov. Butch, Tyrone and other guys in the team are soliciting content and program from us. Mind you, the program is a bit ambitious – one hour a day for 7 days a week! That’s 7 different shows and contents a week!

If any of you are interested to produce a one-hour program, say your pet project during your term, just email or text Tyrone. The easiest and cheapest way to do it perhaps, is to start with whatever video and photo materials that the foundation already has in its library, or any video or photo materials that you already possess. I suggested to Tyrone that perhaps the foundation should get a good director/s to help aspiring program host/s look more handsome or prettier, hehehe. Me, I’m thinking of producing one, but I will have to steal the thick album of pictures and digital copies of projects done by classmate Edwin Afzelius in his club, then I can pose as a club ex-President who did many of those projects. Har har har.

Games. The fellowship organizer, classmate Rose Acoba, prepared 5 or 6 games, with prizes for each set of winners for each game. The first and one of the funniest, was the “coin relay”. Ten people comprise a team, and they’ll pass the coins one by one (from the big P10 to the smallest P0.05 coins) to each other using their 2 forefingers only. Then there was the “dress me as a king” for 3 teams, and I don’t remember the other games. But they were all funny.

Singing and dancing. In-between the games, classmate Noy Indonto was the lead singer and rallied everyone else to either sing or dance on lively music from a ktv on the stage. The group singing was loud and funny. I remember I have danced with beauteous classmates Barbie Rivadeneira, Toni Francisco, Luz Reyes, others.

Raffles. The raffle items were fantastic. I won a box of apples, but I wanted that big box of various grocery items including a bottle of wine… tsk tsk tsk. Lucky for me, one of the winners of about 6 big boxes of grocery items was Lita Wells, and she said she wanted a box of apples because she already has several boxes of similar goods in her house. I heard her “misfortune” so I offered that we swap our gifts, she gladly accepted, and both of us were happy. See the beauty of free trade? Hehehe.

There were 3 mini-slot machines to be won too, and I happened to be the trying-hard MC for the raffles, and I announced that the machine will have a magic spell of handsomeness or beautifulness to whoever will be the winners. The 3 lucky guys I think were classmates Efren Rodriguez, Ces Singzon, and Archie Jimenez. Before the machines were given to them, I asked them to explain why they are handsome (hek hek hek) and I think they have a uniform answer, they’re handsome because their mothers said so! There were also give-away items like Pagcor umbrella and a calendar of PGMA.

Speeches. Aha, this one’s a clincher. Upon the suggestion of one classmate, I don’t remember who, and as an over-staying beer pumped-up MC, I asked our classmates to speak very briefly, 1 minute maximum, how’s life being an IPP. The first one I called was no other than the district’s “most outstanding President”, classmate Edwin. He murmured that he didn’t want to speak but because he’s afraid that I might post the event in our ygroups, he better speak up, hahaha. It wasn’t supposed to be “mandatory” as I have earlier suggested, but when classmates casually stood up to speak, then I urged everyone to speak. Si Efren ibang klase – if given the chance daw, he’d like to become a club President again so he can continue serving more effectively to our less fortunate countrymen.

Exchange gift. As evening turned to night, and as midnight was beckoning, the exchange gift was hurriedly done. The suggested cost was at least P300 for a gift. I brought a bottle of red wine, and got a bottle of red wine in return. Ang tawag siguro ditto ay “exchange wine”, hehe.

The cast. Those who came that I can remember were: classmates Lilibeth, Bing, Tess, Techie, Yolly, Letty, Fely, Toni, Barbie, Ana, Grace, Luz, Rose, Amore, Boboy, Edwin, Yasin, Noe, Jun, Lorenz, Ces, Tyrone, Efren, Archie, Teofy, Palmy, Charlie, Noysky.

Assistant Governors/District officers Edgar Castillo, Andy Fernandez, Nards Tanlu, Patti King, Lita Wells, Cora Tan, Baby Bunye, Paul Chang, Dino Francisco, a few others.

Special thanks really goes to the fellowships organizer, Rose Acoba! Madaming salamat classmate, for all those text messages of invites, updates and reminders. Malaki kinita ng Globe sayo sa mga texts na yon!

The Blackout. Ever-reliable classmate Boboy Intal gave me a ride to the venue, then seeing that I got a big box of prize plus other gifts, he offered to bring me home again. After unloading my things at home, there was a big black-out. Did Meralco’s power lines just snapped for no reason at all? Or did sanmig heavy just snapped my consciousness for no reason at all? When I woke up the following day, I was sprawling on the sala wondering what happened after I got out of Boboy’s car….