It was last November 25, and I was feeding my son Caleb breakfast when one of my sister in-law went to our house and said;
Les, as per one of the local official we should at Municipal Hall later at 1 PM to claim a sack of rice, 25kgs. One in each household.
If it was only 5kgs or ten I won't bother but it was 25! After a quick computation in my head with the current price of rice, it's Php 1000+. Sayang diba?
Nope, it wasn't at 1 but 4 in the afternoon! Here comes the changes in scheduled.
Now, my only problem was whether I should bring my son? One of my SIL offered, but then she will be taking care of already four kids/toddler. Considering how naughty my son is now, he might have a hard time.
That leaves me with no choice but to bring him along with me. As I am locking our door, one of my SIL told me to leave Caleb with her. She doesn't have a kid, so she says it was fine. The weather wasn't that good, and she was concerned my son would get sick again! That was sweet of her.
Went to the municipal hall at four, and I noticed they are starting to put up Christmas decorations.
The start of lighting will be on December 1, and I can see that workers are busy.
It takes us a few minutes to reach the gym where the event was held.
I was surprised to see a long queue. Though there is no program, just signatories, there are a large number of residents. It was done per barangay, and I know it would take hours before we are done.
I couldn't help but think of my son. Thankfully, he behaved except that he pooped and refused to wear his diaper.
Here's the ten-wheeler truck carrying sacks of rice.
Three minutes before seven, and finally waiting for the rice. Yet as you can see, everyone is already impatient and no longer waits in line. Well, no need to, as the distribution was based on the master list.
Male residents already lend a hand in arranging the distribution of rice.
Past seven, we are all done. Thankfully, my brother-in-law was with me, so he carried it all to the car.
It was only a five-minute drive going home, so we arrived home safely and were finally relieved.
In fairness I commend our local government. This was the first time they distributed 25kgs of rice as Christmas presents. Thus, the sad part was that we really had to wait for long hours and endure queue lines. I am not referring to this alone, but every time we avail free services 😫.