Bazaar...without the camels and the yelling, but I did win a spider!

We attended the USEC Bazaar this past Saturday. USEC does this annually to benefit the many charities around Manila. It is their largest fund raiser. They sell tables to venders and then have a raffle and all the proceeds are given back to different charities throughout the year. Lady Hiva and I wanted to support them, so we bought the raffle ticket that they asked us to sell to other people. There were so many of them my hand was cramped from writing my name so many times!

We went into the building and the people at the door said, “You have to sign up for a credit card before you enter.” Say what???! Forget that, we will just donate our money later! As we were leaving a security guard must have seen my reaction and said, “You looking for the Americans?” and pointed to the other side of the convention center. Phew, we were able to enter without submitting our credit information to someone.

The place was full of venders selling everything from decorations, to clothes, to food! We made sure we looked up and down every aisle. I even got in trouble once when I tried to skip a few booths and go to the next aisle, because we “Need to see everything!” HAHAHA.  We even stopped to watch the break dancers in monkey costumes that were performing without music (I guess they had a technical problem).

Filipinos are so creative. There are handcraft Crèches of every kind, toys for children, desserts that are so delicious you know you should not ask what the ingredients are, lace that was hand woven with some kind of sticks on a table, ornaments made of old newspapers and telephone books, and of course the clothes. They were doing free eyebrow threading so Hiva had that done, then they told her the ‘catch’ was she needed to stand for a photo-op for the company. Haha, Hiva and I laughed that the lady’s face in the background photo had a mustache.

Lady Hiva LOVED the hat store. I stood there holding all the bags with her purse over my shoulder while she went all Kate Middleton for an hour.

Some of the hats were fun, others really creative, and each sparked a fun conversation. After a few minutes of being there, several Southern women came to look. They cooed, awed, shouted, “I have got to have this,” and laughed with Hiva for a good twenty minutes. More and more people came just to see what was happening.

After each hat I would either give Hiva my approval or make a I-am-not-sure-that-is-THE-ONE face. As one of the lady’s was leaving she said, “That was fun, honey you need to get you one too!” I had to laugh, she was either just making a joke of how much she liked hats that everyone should have one, or she thought I was Hiva’s gay friend. Because what other man would stand there wearing a purse and shopping bags for an hour saying which accessory he liked and which he didn’t! After that when I would meet people coming in the door—yes the hat store was right inside the main door—I made sure to tell them I was waiting for “my WIFE” who is right there looking at the next few hats to try on!

Hiva ended up winning a hair cut from the raffle and as we were leaving we were talking to some friends and I faintly heard my name over the sound system. “Did they just say my name?” I asked straining to listen. Our friend answered with another question, “I think they just said you won a spider, didn’t they?”

I went to collect my prize, so I guess writing all those tickets was worth it.  It turned out not to be a spider but a free dinner at the Sofitel Hotel’s restaurant called the Spiral. Haha…the best part is that the restaurant is now closed down because it was flooded out on Tuesday!   Woohoo! I WIN!