On Project EDSA Peace Mural Painting
I've made a huge mistake.
It could've been fun, that EDSA mural painting thing. It's the kind of activity I would enjoy. Though I'm pretty sure the kids still enjoyed it. And I could be the only one who felt it's only 3% percent fun.
I signed up when my friend informed me about it. At first, I didn't want to because of, well, commitment issues. I can't commit that one weekend because I might have to do something important, but it's just the first week of the month, and I can just ditch the event if I got a more important thing to do that day so I signed up anyway. Then I went on telling another friend about the event. As it turned out, she asked some of her friends, too. (I was thinking if I invited more friends, could it have altered my mood that day? Or I still went on with giving them a taste of my tantrums?) I can be stubborn. I get annoyed easily (for justifiable reasons!). And sometimes, the bad mood stays for hours.
So here's what happened.
I was already in EDSA Monumento a few minutes after 6. I swear I take time seriously unless I know that the person/people I'm seeing don't take time seriously (specifically, most of my friends). But when I go to events, I try to make it on time to avoid missing important moments and whatnots. I took the MRT, got off at Santolan station, and walked about 500m to get to the monument. There were only about 200 people there when I arrived. Project EDSA signed up 1,000 volunteer painters, and some more people to photograph and videotape the event, and more people to do other work. So the expected number should be around 1500+.
After 30 minutes, my friend Kat arrived, there were now maybe, close to 500 people in the venue. A little later, April arrived, followed by Karen. More and more volunteers arrived. At 8, the program started. Although I know this (program) is a staple in any event, I still did not expect it to be an hour-long. Dude, your call time was 6am and you start a couple of hours later? I'm pretty sure most of these volunteers did not even have breakfast just to get to the venue on time. Because you said 6, you did not mention about a 2-hour leeway, and that there'll still be a program whatsoever (which I could've just skipped because all I wanted was to help paint walls). That's a couple of hours of precious sleep time.
Also, most of the people weren't listening to the speeches anyway. I had to walk up to the MRT to find some food because I was beginning to feel pain in my chest (dysmenorrhea). I couldn't just take my meds, because I'm using Mefenamic Acid, and I'm acidic. So unless I want to experience double chest pain, I could just take the med with an empty stomach.
April and I found food (sky flakes syempre) in a street vendor near the MRT Santolan station. After eating and taking medicine, we walked back to the monument. Halfway there, we saw people coming towards us, we decided to stop and just wait for our team.
The whole stretch of walls where the blue team would be working was empty. No sketches, so we can't begin painting. Nganga lang kami dun. A few minutes later, I overheard that out of 15 artists (who were supposed to do the sketching), only 3 have shown up so far. It was already 10. After 15+ minutes, an elderly woman and her companions (blue team) decided to leave. After 30+ minutes, the secretariat must've noticed the blue team was just there, doing nothing, so they decided to give us 4 walls of the red team's. Naturally, we can't all work there. I got pissed (some more) because some kids/volunteers started working on our designated wall while we're still waiting for the blueprint. Wow, whatever na lang yung kulay na available, sige pinta dito, pinta doon. I tell you the ugly parts of the mural must've done by the blue team. I called my friends to go back to the blue team area. There were already some sketches. Volunteers (not the commissioned artists!) started working on the sketches. By this time, though, I was already too annoyed to function. Karen was urging us to go and paint already. But the only available paint was red, so we had to wait for a wall that requires red paint.
It could've been fun, that EDSA mural painting thing. It's the kind of activity I would enjoy. Though I'm pretty sure the kids still enjoyed it. And I could be the only one who felt it's only 3% percent fun.
I signed up when my friend informed me about it. At first, I didn't want to because of, well, commitment issues. I can't commit that one weekend because I might have to do something important, but it's just the first week of the month, and I can just ditch the event if I got a more important thing to do that day so I signed up anyway. Then I went on telling another friend about the event. As it turned out, she asked some of her friends, too. (I was thinking if I invited more friends, could it have altered my mood that day? Or I still went on with giving them a taste of my tantrums?) I can be stubborn. I get annoyed easily (for justifiable reasons!). And sometimes, the bad mood stays for hours.
So here's what happened.
I was already in EDSA Monumento a few minutes after 6. I swear I take time seriously unless I know that the person/people I'm seeing don't take time seriously (specifically, most of my friends). But when I go to events, I try to make it on time to avoid missing important moments and whatnots. I took the MRT, got off at Santolan station, and walked about 500m to get to the monument. There were only about 200 people there when I arrived. Project EDSA signed up 1,000 volunteer painters, and some more people to photograph and videotape the event, and more people to do other work. So the expected number should be around 1500+.
After 30 minutes, my friend Kat arrived, there were now maybe, close to 500 people in the venue. A little later, April arrived, followed by Karen. More and more volunteers arrived. At 8, the program started. Although I know this (program) is a staple in any event, I still did not expect it to be an hour-long. Dude, your call time was 6am and you start a couple of hours later? I'm pretty sure most of these volunteers did not even have breakfast just to get to the venue on time. Because you said 6, you did not mention about a 2-hour leeway, and that there'll still be a program whatsoever (which I could've just skipped because all I wanted was to help paint walls). That's a couple of hours of precious sleep time.
Also, most of the people weren't listening to the speeches anyway. I had to walk up to the MRT to find some food because I was beginning to feel pain in my chest (dysmenorrhea). I couldn't just take my meds, because I'm using Mefenamic Acid, and I'm acidic. So unless I want to experience double chest pain, I could just take the med with an empty stomach.
April and I found food (sky flakes syempre) in a street vendor near the MRT Santolan station. After eating and taking medicine, we walked back to the monument. Halfway there, we saw people coming towards us, we decided to stop and just wait for our team.
The whole stretch of walls where the blue team would be working was empty. No sketches, so we can't begin painting. Nganga lang kami dun. A few minutes later, I overheard that out of 15 artists (who were supposed to do the sketching), only 3 have shown up so far. It was already 10. After 15+ minutes, an elderly woman and her companions (blue team) decided to leave. After 30+ minutes, the secretariat must've noticed the blue team was just there, doing nothing, so they decided to give us 4 walls of the red team's. Naturally, we can't all work there. I got pissed (some more) because some kids/volunteers started working on our designated wall while we're still waiting for the blueprint. Wow, whatever na lang yung kulay na available, sige pinta dito, pinta doon. I tell you the ugly parts of the mural must've done by the blue team. I called my friends to go back to the blue team area. There were already some sketches. Volunteers (not the commissioned artists!) started working on the sketches. By this time, though, I was already too annoyed to function. Karen was urging us to go and paint already. But the only available paint was red, so we had to wait for a wall that requires red paint.
So we painted. Just for the heck of it. When we're done, we had to wait for other walls that can be painted red, too. I hate those kids na pinta na lang ng pinta na walang konsepto, I mean, di pinag-iisipan kung maganda ba yung kulay ganito sa design na yun. Sayang lang kasi yung design. Tapos yung isang wall, okay na, maayos na, maganda na, biglang may isang volunteer na pininturahan ulit ng pula yung isang part. Sinira mo lang 'te. Meron pa dun nakasulat/pinta na "BAYANIHANI AY PARA SA'TIN TO." Kids, what is BAYANIHANI?? May tinatawag kasi tayong blueprint.
Nag-aantay na lang ako nun ng tamang oras para sumibat. Wala na kong gana, kasi chaka na. Some team leaders never gave up though, every now and then, they'd go to other stations to get paint for the use of the blue team.
I left after lunch.
---
Yesterday, I chatted with my two friends who were from different teams and they told me about the problems they encountered at the mural painting. Nawawalang blueprint, walang sketch, walang paint. Sabi ko nga, maswerte sila konti kasi sa blue team wala talaga lahat nung nagsimula. :p It was really disorganized, that leg 1 of Project EDSA. Please pakiayos for the next painting sessions.
