In the Tagalog hot seat

I like being open to new things and I sometimes pay the price for it.

Just recently, I found myself serving as a judge for what I thought was a singing contest in a public elementary school. Except that it wasn’t just a singing contest. It was also a poetry recital contest, a group oration and had the teachers not anticipated the lack of time and held them earlier, it would also have been a story-reading and story-telling contest - all in Pilipino.

This trio of Grade 5 students was amazing while
doing a Balagtasan (debate in poetic verse).

I had unwittingly said yes to all these contests that were part of the school’s Buwan ng Wika culminating activity.  The principal had visited us while we were helping serve some of their students under the feeding program conducted by the Shell Tabangao Ladies Circle (STLC) and asked us to judge a singing contest in August.