Colors of Christmas

I felt like I was Goliath standing among 49 Davids in an area where 20 Christmas trees in varied forms, shapes and sizes were displayed.

With a big book in my hand, I was trying to appear confident and in control as I read the story “Ikaw Ba Ang Akong Inahan?” the Visayan version of the Filipino story, “Kayo Ba Ang Nanay Ko?” that is written by Rodolfo Desuasido and illustrated by Reynaldo Tiongson.

The 49 “Davids” are children from Barangays Tejero, Tinago and San Roque who were invited by Basadours Inc., a nonprofit organization committed to literacy development by promoting reading through storytelling.

We invited them to participate in “Colors of Christmas: Stories + Arts + Play,” a Christmas event co-organized by Basadours and Robinsons Galleria Cebu to spread the joy of the season to the mall’s neighboring barangays.

One thing I love about Cebu — which makes it hard to leave this city despite the worsening traffic situation — is the willingness of individuals and organizations to collaborate on projects initiated for the community and its people. Robinsons Galleria Cebu was more than willing to collaborate with the Basadours for this Christmas event.

This project started out with a casual talk over sikwate (hot chocolate) at The Chocolate Chamber with May Adolfo, regional operations manager of Robinsons Land Corporation.

I eventually coordinated with Robinsons Galleria Cebu marketing communications officer Mia Shara Corpuz and senior marketing manager Joanna Salazar to arrange details including the free snacks for the children and their parents, giveaways and the free entrance to Playlab, a digital playground consisting of 14 attractions designed to be interactive and fun for children.

The gang of 49 children along with their parents and day care teachers flocked to the mall’s second floor , at the area where 20 trees for the Festival of Trees were displayed on December 20, Wednesday afternoon.

I was one of the storytellers alongside three former candidates of Binibining Cebu 2017 from Asturias (Samantha Lo, who won as Binibining Cebu Tourism), Lapu-Lapu (Mary Catherine Codilla) and Medellin (Nica Soza Nabua).

I was shaking from the inside. I could almost picture my internal organs exchanging places from all the motions going through my body. In my crazy mind, I pictured my liver telling my heart to calm down because it will shoot up my blood pressure.

Storytelling sessions with children still make me nervous because children are the most expressive audience. They will ignore you when you are doing a terrible job in entertaining them.

The children that afternoon were between three and six years old, the hardest age range to manage, if you ask me. Basadours executive director Tara Rama was doing a pretty good job in keeping everything together as the host and icebreaker queen.

While I was reading the big book, a five-year-old boy named Achilles caught my attention. I was urging the children to walk like a duck with me and Tara as we followed the story of a duckling looking for Mother Duck and his siblings.

Achilles “walked” with us — and he did it with a smile on his face. The story progressed as the duckling approached one winged animal after another asking the question “Ikaw ba ang akong inahan?” This is reminiscent of P.D. Eastman’s “Are You My Mother?” which was published in June 1960.
It was Achilles’ smile that allayed my fears and made me feel confident that this group will allow me to stay alive until the end of the session.

The event last Wednesday was unique because the mall gave us two venues: the second-floor hotel side for the storytelling and The Atrium (near the Gingerbread House) for the arts session. Fellow Basadour and my architect-brother Hendrix Lato spearheaded the arts station which included origami and dotted Santa Claus puzzle/coloring sheets.

We all proceed to the Playlab located at the Level 1 of the mall and it was a circus of children and parents waiting for their turn to get inside Playlab. After an hour, the children got out with flushed faces, their parents by their side with happy smiles. “We did not want to leave!” they said.

“Salamat, Ate Evert. You are the best world in the Ate. Merry Christmas!” said Achilles giving me a tight, sweaty hug.

I laughed at the honest mistake of exchanging the placement of “Ate” and “world” in one sentence.

Merry Christmas, Achilles!

Merry Christmas, everyone!