And so in a recent trip to Apo Island in Negros , we were lucky to be there on the day there is a big celebration. T'was the birthday of the barangay captain, named Liberty Rhodes, who sounds like an institution or foundation or NGO's name. Here she is, with a dancing partner:
She also owns the biggest lodge in the island called Liberty Lodge.
The occasion afforded the community 4 extra hours of electricity (on normal day, electricity is on only from 6PM to 9 PM), because the program on the small plaza needs electricity. Here is the plaza by day
and the following night:
and the following night:
As you can see, at the center of the celebration is a contest. Real men, is supposed to dress-up and play gays on a pageant night, complete with talent and the proverbial question-and-answer portion. The prize money was 10 K PhP. Here are some of the other contestants.
Two foreigner guests were invited to judge the pageant and then one local. There were some trouble translating the questions and answers, but nevertheless, everyone managed...
[the judges]
[the audience]
Everyone in the small island community assembled in the basketball court to see burly, salt of the earth, mostly boatmen dance to “nobody, nobody, but you/” Everyone had a good time, even the foreigners laughed with the big crowd.
These are two of the contestants who swaggered his way to the tune of Nobody, Nobody.
Then there’s this man who after gyrating onstage went down, high-fived his wife, and then carried his child, still in costume. One happy family.
But there was a controversy in the end.
We werent able to finish the proceedings. But the following morning, when we’re about to go snorkeling, we saw one of the judges, We asked what happened and who was the winner.
Oh, there was some issue, some problem, he said. The one that we chose was not the one that was announced by the host. Hahahaha. In here that’s what we call that “cooked.” Na-luto.
Well life goes on... The most important thing's, that night, everyone's happy.
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