United Nations Carnival Day

The Filipino booth.
Fiesta theme with decorations of native basket and hat, a pair of abaca slippers, bayong bag and a Barong Tagalog.  Images of scenic destinations were pasted on the board.

Last Saturday, Fairview International School celebrated United Nations' cultural diversity with a fun Carnival Day.  Each countries were tasked to make a short presentation and prepare a booth showcasing the country's food and culture.  The booth sale proceeds benefited 3 charity organizations chosen by the school.

Boy, were the Fairview mommies an excited bunch!  A flurry of Viber app exchanges and meet ups resulted in a simple yet successful Filipino booth display.  Apparently our booth also sold the most number of vouchers, which we attribute to the surprise hit "pabitin".

The lovely Filipino mommies - Mel, Tina, Mileth, Cherry and Nancy.

These pretty ladies did most of the hard work, cheers!

 A song and dance number to the tune of Bahay Kubo (Nipa Hut) was the choice for the kids' presentation.  Dressed in baro't saya, a traditional Filipino costume, the kids held baskets of real and plastic fruits and vegetables as they danced.  They learnt most of the song lyrics and lipsynched parts they failed to memorize!

Bahay Kubo song and dance presentation by the Pinoy kids

Baro't saya, a traditional Filipino costume

Native Filipino foods were offered for sale.  We sold suman and biko (rice cakes), puto cheese (steamed spongy rice flour cake),  sapin sapin (layered glutinous rice and coconut dessert) and kwek kwek (tempura style quail eggs deep fried in orange batter).

Suman - rice cake cooked in coconut milk and steamed wrapped in banana leaves.  Usually eaten with a sprinkle of sugar.

Biko - rice cake made of glutinous rice, coconut milk and brown sugar.

Another pan of biko.

Puto cheese - steamed spongy rice cake, with added food coloring and topped with a slice of cheese.

Sapin-sapin - a multi-colored layer of glutinous rice and coconut milk.

Close up of the fiery orange kwek kwek, yum!

  

The pabitin mentioned earlier is essentially a lattice of wooden sticks strung with goodie bags of candies and toys. Decorated with colorful paper strings, the pabitin is lowered up and down for the kids to jump and catch the goodie bags.  Of course, the fun part is not to make it easy for the kids t, they have to work for  the prize by jumping high.

Initially planned to be a free game, there was a last minute decision to charge RM2 voucher for the chance to try it.  This was where we made a killing in sales :)

Kids practicing their jumps!

Fun jumping and good laughs from everyone.

Kids looking up the pabitin.

Sarah and I by the banana tree.  Sarah celebrated her Filipino heritage this time around.

Parade of the small Filipino community at Fairview International School