I promised to write something about it.
The Festival of Cultures is an annual activity in Brookings. It is the time when people from various cultures around the world gather in an event to showcase their respective countries. It is open to all with only a dollar entrance fee. That isn't bad at all, is it?
Most of the exhibitors I saw, made money out of the event. Like the Chinese people charging anyone who would like their names written in Chinese. Most of the students were lured into it. With a big colored paper with your name scribbled in Chinese characters, it was a good souvenir that's deserving a place on your room wall.
Or the Indian ladies who showed their skills in designing henna tattoos. Some sexy, young ladies had their tattoos printed on their behinds, you know that part just above the butt. It was so hot!
There were booths selling flags. Others displayed different cheap products from their countries and sold them for five times the price. Oh well, Americans bought them still. You can easily make money out of stuffs we normally throw away at home.
The Philippine booth was simple but full of info. Thanks to the effort of 3 Pinoys who have been here in Brookings for more than 5 years already. They had these cute little things that were collected over the years from other Pinoys who had gone home to the Philippines for vacations. We had the Philippine Centennial Barbie doll, a mini jeepney, a sandal made from abaca, some purses made of shells and lots of other things on our desks.
We were selling dried mangoes from Cebu too! Yes, everything was sold out, Americans loved the taste of Philippine mangoes. We priced them high too. LOL.
Looking at how necklaces made of shells and wrist bands were selling like hot cakes in other booths, I had regrets. Had I known it would be like this, I would have asked someone from Pinas to send me a box full of those little thingie that we buy for 10 pesos or even less. It was a time supposedly for making extra bucks. Tsk. Tsk. Well, there is still next year...
Didn't I tell you that there was a fashion show that featured the different countries' national costumes? Who else represented the Philippines but me. LOL. Actually, I was with another Filipina. It was awesome, my first time. No, I wasn't nervous because I know that nobody from the audience would recognize me. It took guts, really. The best part was that, I was paid -- ten dollars for a 15-second catwalk. Not bad, huh!
Regarding the title of this post, it means, if you cannot understand what the Spanish, or Chinese, or French are saying, just laugh with them. That would already be enough.
Labels: Filipinos in the USA
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