Photo: Danica Canas

My daughter and I was all pumped up to watch the Parade of Lights yesterday. Who wouldn't? There was so much hype about it on TV plus Youtube video teasers of the floats were posted everywhere on FB. This is supposedly a first in Tacloban City-the city governments bid to outshine the Pintados Festival and create an identity of their own.

Photo: Danica Canas

On an interview with the local press, Councilor Kristina Romualdez said that there is no festival like the Sangyaw Festival's Parade of Lights. Brazilian music will also be played on every street corner so that all Taclobanons and Leytenos can dance to the parades beat. The float designer also bragged about the materials being shipped from abroad.(Support local please!) With all these expectations set, the Parade of Lights was the talk of the town.




There is little entertainment in Tacloban City. June is the only month of the year wherein this other wise sleepy town breathes to life. There are concerts to see every night. Tiangges to go to and buy random gewgaw. Amidst these are the colorful mylar balloons bobbing through the crowd and the occasional glow in the dark pulsating from a distance. June is truely a fun month in Tacloban.

Photo: Danica Canas

Yesterday was one such occasion. It was the most awaited Sangyaw Festival, second to the Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival which is also celebrated on the same month. At three pm, the streets were slowly filling up with an eager crowd. Some brought their own chairs with them while others climbed the highest elevation they can reach. You can see families picnicking on top of their cars. With the heat and humidity, everyone was still excited and expectant.

Photo: Danica Canas

The councilor said that it will be like Disneyland. So I imagined humongous lighted floats with the Cirque du Soleil doing acrobats. I imagined dancers gyrating their hips to Latin beats like there is no tomorrow.
The parade was a hodgepodge of everything. Twenty floats was included. I saw a pagoda, a ship and a tank. Some fishes, an ugly duckling, a bee, caterpillar and a lost pawikan was included. The San Juanico Bridge looked beautiful. I wish they will deck the real San Juanico Bridge with Christmas Lights too one of these days.Now that would be a great sight to behold!

Photo: Danica Canas

There were lion dancers and women in cheogsam with glowing breasts. (Yes you read that right! Whoever have thought to place those lights in between mammary glands was genius!) The costumes varies. One common theme though was the hastily placed lights added to their outfit. It's as if they bought whatever light is available on the side walk and wore it just to have lights on their costumes.

There was the much heated debate on whether to let the Sto.Nino join the parade and where to put it. Originally, it was to be placed with the angel float. I was surprised to see it placed on the boats hull instead.

Photo: Danica Canas

A day after the parade, FB is teeming with rants and raves about the parade. Mostly rants anyways.This is what makes Tacloban and Leyte's political and social scene colorful. Some say the Petilla's Pintados Kasadyaan, had it been allowed to ply the streets of Tacloban would have been way much better. There is no doubt about this claim. Pintados-Kasadyaan has already made its mark on the countries tourism. Although, gone are the good old days where we would wear ratty clothes to watch the parade, armed with paint and always on guard for merry makers. It was fun being chased down a crowded street with a spray paint or riding a jeepney with a steady fear of a pint of paint being thrown at you.




Let's start our post mortem!

Photo: Danica Canas

Understandably, the Sangyaw Festival Parade of Lights is on its 4th year and like a preschooler, is still trying to find and establish its own identity. I guess, Pintados-Kasadyaan has first started out this way-unorganized. It didn't need a theme because the name of the festival already screams it. Pintados, the painted people of the Las Islas Pintados depicted and glorified in the Boxer Codex.

Photo: Danica Canas

The parade has lots of gaps sometimes lasting more than fifteen minutes or more;ergo, some of the crowd left thinking the parade was already over. The organizer should know better. 


I was part of the Leyte National High School's street dancing for the Pintados before. (Modesty aside, we won.) Sir Manog has always emphasized smiling and enthusiasm even if we were dancing for a mile under the heat of the sun. No complaints. Clearly, in this parade there was lack of gusto on the part of the dancers. Their performance lacks luster. What is their excuse? It was night time. They can't complain that they were already dehydrated and sunburned.

I would like to blame the music for their lack of energy. Had they used real instruments for their music like percussion's and drums, their performance might have been livelier and bouncier but the government chose to play the music from speakers blasted from every corner which the crowd ignored.


On previous parades, local students would be sent out to the streets to cordon off the people. There was no sight of them this time around. The crowd control was left only to a skinny number of police and TOMECO officers was outnumbered. Like all any parade, there was lots of pushing and shoving. The throng only parted a few centimeters to let the floats and dancers pass. I had many scares that Yumi might be pushed under a float or poked by the bamboo sticks used in the dancers costumes. This was the only source of adrenaline rush I had from this show.




It was an early Christmas for all of us indeed. The floats were as bland as a house bedecked with Christmas lights. Palo, Leyte in its full glory at Christmas is much more enchanting. Some say it was a procession and when someone says its a procession it is spelled as B-O-R-I-N-G.

Photo: Danica Canas

A friend,Don Poldo, asked me my opinion on the parade. It sent off warning bells. Here is a dissatisfied customer who traveled 2 hrs by bus from the community he worked in just to see the parade. I then proceeded to tell him the gist of this blog. Then, I asked him, "How about you?". He answered me with only one word, "Chaka!". Maybe because he was left unimpressed. I too was expecting more.

Next year I wish to see more rotary floats with not just Christmas lights on it. There are many alternatives. Why not try to use LED lights in synced to a certain music. They could have used fountains or slides. The Rose Bowl Parade and Bailes de Luces has lots of idea to teach the Parade of Lights.

EL wires, glow in the dark body paint and glow sticks could have been employed to jazz up their dreary garbs. Why hasn't anyone thought of donning up a costume like the ones used in Step Up or Bailes de Luces? They could have had fire poi dancing!


It is already cliche to say bigger and better. I wouldn't wish for next years parade to be bigger but I would surely want it to be better. The number of floats doesn't matter. What matters most is how you wowed the audience. Innovate and bank on your creativity.

Will they be going home raving about the Parade of Lights or will they be ranting about the Parade of Sighs?

P.S.
Kudos to the City government for making the parade still possible. Street parades has always been a tradition in June. It must have taken lots of money, time and planning.

What do you think about the parade?

Vamoose!

Ma.Diwata

Just a few kilometres away from the sawang or center of Burauen, Leyte hides a sandy shore on a bank of a pristine river. This place is called Mambanao by the locals. Its crystal clear cool water, unpolluted by human wantonness is the perfect place to go to on a hot and humid day.


To get to this little piece of paradise, one must traverse through a trail frequently plied by horses with sacks of copras on their back. The trail is planked by the side of the mountain at the left with small springs bubbling at random crevices. At the right is a ravine that falls off to the river.

Getting to the sandy bank is about a ten minute hike. You will never lack conversation topics along the way. With its beautiful flora and fauna and colorful butterflies fluttering around, this is a piece of paradise that needs to be preserved. It is a wonder that only a few of the towns people know of this place.

Descending on the ravine, you can hear the strong rapids emitted by the two nearby waterfalls.

The sandy bar where most of the people like to picnic at offers a warm shade.

The view of the rest of the winding river from here is spectacular! Towering trees abound from both sides of the river bank on top of rock formations. Its just the rippling river, the green trees and the blue sky as far as the eye can see.

There is a rock formation here wherein you will see the "face of Mambanao".

This area offers a good vantage point to observe young boys scaling the rocks and diving through the deep part of the river.

The water near the sandy bank is shallow and calm. If your child is good at following instructions like mine, you can leave her at this side without any fear or worries.





Further on is a cave that I dare not explore.


Going the opposite direction, one needs to traverse through boulders of rocks to access the two waterfalls.

With perfect environmental factors, one can even witness a couple of rainbows dancing on the foot of these waterfalls.
I love this place totally. It reminds me of my childhood and how my lola would bring my brother and I to the riverside to wash our clothes. If you are in Burauen, this is a must see. You might want to bring your own rubber tube and instead of hiking back, ride a tube back down.

Remember how I'd written about my plans to get an ombre? I asked at Christina's if they can do it for me. Sadly, they said no. I wanted to do it myself but I was afraid of over bleaching my hair, if there is such a thing. Luckily, our neighbor in Burauen has a little parlor whom I paid a visit to ask for advice on ombre-fying my hair. Since my hair is rebonded, he was afraid to do the procedure and advised me against it.

Catching a glimpse of Decolor hair dye, I asked him what the product was all about.


It comes in so many colors and a sachet just costs 20php! The instruction at the back is shady. The english drove me crazy. I know I could swing the process if I just watch youtube tutorials and google but I was too lazy to do so. So on a flit of whimsy I got my hair highlighed with aubergine purple streaks . It's very subtle and more like a peek a boo thing since I only dyed the inner layers. It is not in the rage right now (or so I thought) so I was surprised to see Selena Gomez "Call Me Maybe" at Divine Lee's blog a while ago.

She has got electric blue and violet streaks on her hair! These colors are so perfect for brunettes! How cool is that? Now, I am contemplating on adding blue to my hair too. Is this going to be against our school code?I hope not coz I am so tempted. I might do this at the nape area so it would be easy for me to hide by putting my hair down. I'm not an actress so I can't get away with this edgy look on an everyday basis.


I love how bright and colorful her hair is. You have to flip mine to the sides to appreciate my highlights. You wouldn't even notice it exists on normal lighting! I have to add blue and just bleach and dye it by myself. Now my next problem is to get a volunteer to dye the back of my head.

If I am still studying in UP and my titas won't skin my head, I would have loved to dye my hair in these colors instead..


Look at the gradiation on this one!



I can't help but notice how vibrant their hair color is! Mine looks dull probably because the guy gay coloured it one time only.

If you are interested to have your own color dipped hair, here is an instruction I got online from a Decolor supplier.

Crown Chakra

Crown chakra is a multimedia work using acrylic, fabric paint and fabric which tries to project the chakra or energy of the human body. Highlighted in this work is the crown chakra that honors intellectual connectedness and enlightenment. I understand.

Everything in this artwork was unplanned. I just went with how I feel and thought was right. The lotus crown here is inspired by mandala art and mehndi. Psychedelic colors were used because your chakra is simply made up of different colors. For some, they may interpret these colors as auras. (I still remember our humanities teacher, Ma'am Dulz describing my classmates aura's as rhedondron red! )

The creation of this work in itself was a form of meditation . I was entranced with the dots, lines and colors. (Just stare hard and you'll get cross-eyed!) The repetitive process was relaxing both to the mind and spirit.

If I could change a thing about this painting, I wish I could have painted the woman bigger, occupying at least 2/3 of the canvas. I would have dissed out the tacky pink frame and random gold swirls.

One thing I learned here is to make studies first to avoid fatal mistakes. For a newbie like me, experiment and research. It pays. just don't get too carried away by the new techniques you learned by putting them all in one artwork!

I find myself in the mehndi zone these past few artworks. I had a gothic art phase before. I'm glad I'm out of that phase because I'm loving the colors this time around!!!

Yumi find this beautiful so I guess we'll wait for Sir Louie's reaction. He was the one who gave me this canvas to play with for his YOGART project.

Namaste!
Vamoose!,
Ma.Diwata

Vaseline Total Moisture Cocoa Glow 24 Hr Nourishing Lotion for soft and glowing skin has pure cocoa butter and stratys 3 multi-layer moisture. It claims to leave your skin feeling healthy and glowing.

Its 24 hour nourishing formula that combines pure cocoa butter and stratys 3 multi-layer moisture infuse moisture at the top, core and deep-down layers of your stratum corneum, to ignite its natural glow.
I love the cocoa butter smell of this product. It lingers for a while. It claims to make your skin glow but I didn't notice any difference with my unlotioned arm. to keep skin moisturized I suggest you reapply in the afternoon and evening. It is non-sticky and non greasy.

Too bad this doesn't have SPF. So there is a need for you need to apply another layer of SPF.

Yes I'm definitely going to buy this product again but I'm going to use it for bedtime only. I need to buy myself one with SPF. I'll check out Vaseline's SPF variant soon.

Vamoose!
Ma.Diwata

I have always been fascinated with the different tribes in the Philippines. I loved reading Agoncillo's Philippine history book because it takes me to a culture different from what we have today. Among these are the Igorots and Ifugao etc. of Luzon.

Surprisingly, a friend of Dante whom I went to UP Tac with sent us a package with a Sagada weaved rectangular cloth, a choker and dangling earrings! Thank you Dr. Rochelyn Pagpaguitan for the wonderful surprise! It is rare to find a person these days who appreciates the culture of our ancestors.


In my excitement, I let Yumi wear her Igorot attire while I try to figure out what to do with the rectangular cloth. There was no string or button on the cloth so I decided to wrap the cloth around my waist and fold it down to my hips until it was snug and fit.Initially, I thought the choker was for my head.

Here I am with my ratty black shirt and Yumi in her ballet flats just because I don't know what shoes would match her outfit.

There was so much thought put into this garb and the effort to send it via parcel is very much appreciated Doc!

Now, my problem is when to wear this beautiful costume!

It is now raining outside. So glad I let my brother take the picture earlier.

Vamoose!
Ma.Diwata

Garnier Pure Self Heating Sauna Mask comes in 2 sachets in 1 package. (Does that make sense?) Anyways one package is good for 2-4 applications depending on how thick you apply the product or how large the surface area of your skin is. Jejejeje You can store it in the ref or in your kikay kit under room temperature for weeks and it will still work fine.


This doesn't smell citrusy like the other Garnier products. Others may find it strong but I love smelling it on my skin. It has a light blue tint like a baby's sclera. It is the right texture; creamy but not runny. It sticks to the face perfectly. Don't expect it to harden like other masks. It doesn't.

Am I scaring you? Avoid the delicate undereye area please.

You can feel it heating up on your skin but this lasts only for a minute. No need to be alarmed. It is not actually like flaming heat but just a weird heat emanating from the mask.

After 3 minutes or so (just enough for me to write this article), I washed Garnier Pure Self Heating Sauna Mask off with a lot of water. You will notice that your skin is softer than pre-mask. After the water has been dried off, I feel that my skin is tauter.

It claims to purify the pores for 7 days in 3 mins. So I guess if you have black heads and white heads problem you can regularly do this once a week. But I still prefer iwhite to remove those pesky blackheads and whiteheads. Oh well for oily skin then. This one I believe keeps my pores taut and lessens my sebum production.

Will I buy this again? Yes I will because I am now addicted to Garnier products and I have seen how Garnier Pure Self Heating Sauna Mask improved my oily skin.

Vamoose!
Ma.Diwata