Last December, I went to Philippines for an overseas community involvement program with a group of volunteers. Over there, we stayed for 3 weeks at the rural area of Bago City. One thing that struck me the most was that the children of this less-developed city were very different from Singaporean kids and this particular scene left me a deep impression that is etched in my mind until today.
The group of 20 of us were seated at one of the road side stalls having our dinner when we heard children's singing from a distance away. It got louder and louder and before we know it, a handful of them surrounded us singing Christmas carols with one or two accompanying with bells. One of the boy stood right behind me and I tried my best to continue my dinner without paying much attention to him. There was a reason why I did so, because we were told to not get close to them as they will stick to you and ask for more money. From past batches of this same organisation, they learnt that by giving one of them money, the kid will bring more of them and then it will be even harder to reject. I found out from my project directors that they call this pangangaroling.
After a while, they left but for the subsequent days, they came to our doorstep and continued caroling like before with their angelic voices and hands outstretched. This lasted until christmas eve and we decided to distribute sweets to them instead and they were happy nevertheless.
From this trip, I felt that these children were brought up differently in the sense that they were not afraid to approach strangers. However, it made me wonder what their parents think of it by allowing their kids to roam the streets at night with no guidance from adults. Still, it showed that the people here placed much emphasis on christmas since many of them are christians and it was quite an eye opener for me that the kids will go around caroling just like how I imagined other children in the west to do trick treating during Halloween.
