This is the 5th year of doing this Good Friday panata. Prior to that, I just sent some money and gave instructions to prepare water and juices for the devotees.
The simple giving out of ice cold water, bread, etc. required advanced preparations.
The towels were ordered at least 45 days prior to the Holy Week.
The ice candies were made a few days before. The small freezer with 1,200 ice candies was brought to Binangonan on Holy Wednesday.
This is the place where we stage our yearly panata. It’s a very old and dilapidated corner house which we bought some 8 years ago from a family not originally from this town. Owner migrated to Vallejo. The only reason we bought this house was because it’s along the route of the Good Friday procession. We only use this for 8 hours in a year just for the distribution of goodies to devotees. The owner-type jeepney and another car belong to my brother’s employee and her family we’ve allowed to live here to keep an eye na rin on my brother’s old stuff which are stored here.
My son (in white), the young boy is Kayle, nephew of Bong. His mother petitioned him and he’s leaving in two weeks for Los Angeles.
Bong with Chino, 9 year-old son of Ching-ching.
Angie invited us to eat at her nice house in Libis but we were busy preparing for the distribution so she just brought us the food. Ang dami.
Pangat na Ayungin, sarap with patis and kalamansi. This is the true meaning of fasting and abstinence. Ayuno = Ayungin.
Bong, Aileen, Maret, and Angie- all Balikbayans.
Aileen’s childhood friend, Gerry Liro came by. Gerry was formerly with the Inquirer, now with TV5
Inihaw na dalag from Ate Elsie
This fish ball vendor already knew us. They came every Good Friday. My son was already worried they wouldn’t come but they did. How could they miss such business opportunity. Lahat ng dumaan, libreng fishball. Even if we fed everyone one-to-sawa, the bill never went beyond a thousand pesos. The best part- my son enjoyed making tusok0tusok the fish balls.
Everybody happy.
My son, too.
Two more trips to Binangonan were made to bring the Iwata air cooler, carpets, tables, chairs, gallons and gallons of purified water, etc. The surroundings including the old toilet were cleaned a few hours before we arrived.
Last night was another big production. Aileen gave away hundreds of candies to children. We gave out 1,700 cups of ice cold water, 800 pieces of Spanish bread, pandecoco, and munggo bread, One thousand two hundred orange flavored ice candy and 700 pieces of white towels. Edmund said I should have a record of what I gave away each year for reference.
We bought 4 sacks of tube ice.
I brought along 4 male assistants plus Donya Rose. Several volunteers came. Hindi kaya ng 4 people.
Nyke bought the bread from a local bakery. The sizes of the bread became smaller.
It was actually hard to choose who to give these things to. The ice cold water, bread, candies, and ice candy were available to everyone. But the towels were the biggest challenge. I only had 700 pieces as against a multitude of devotees. They’re meant for those men wearing white t-shirts, maong, sobrang pawis-pawis carrying the Santo Sepulcro or Giwang-giwang. But how would I divide 700 by probably 5,000 men? And even if I had 5,000 pieces, it would still be not enough because women also asked and some try to get double or triple. Some naman were honest. “Meron na po”.
Pasensya na dun sa daan-daang naghihintay ng towel. Hindi ko kayo lahat mabigyan. Hamo sa susunod na taon, dadamihan ko pa.
Marami ring salamat dun sa mga nagpunta at nagtyagang maghintay sa akin para mabigyan ng towels. Please note: ang towel ay para lang dun sa bumubuhat sa Santo Sepulcro. Salamat.
