Stories of Quirino (four)

NIA came in late, but not without an entrance that is grand: they arrived in full force, officials from Central, Regional and Provincial offices, and, wait for it; a drone. It was a small one, which looked like a remote-controlled fly ten times the normal size and made the same sound. I was envious. I turned to my Administrative Chief, Mavic and told her, 'you buy me one of those', to which she replied, 'how much are those anyway?'. The buzz the drone was making started a migraine. Well, it was actually my jealousy that triggered the migraine, bitterness is a major factor. They all approached USEC Rose, apologized profusely for being late, had small talk and USEC Rose signalled we start the ceremony.

For some reason, I did not want to get up on the elevated concrete where water was rushing below our feet. But she called out my name, so I went. Roel, part of the PNP Team securing the USEC promptly helped her up the concrete with an umbrella. I told you, these men from the PNP knew what they were doing. When USEC Rose arrived at the area and decided to walk further up the water source, some of the PNP men ran with her. So anyway, I, too, was assisted by Roel, and in no time, was up there with all of the officials. That's the part I started to get dizzy, and made a scene.

Now this is the part where I had to collect myself and retouch my make-up because from inside the pick-up where I was trying not to be dizzy, I could see my staff running around with all their eyebrows meeting. Turns out, USEC Rose did not want to start the program/dialogue, without a representative from the Local Government Unit. She wanted them fetched from the municipio. Given the terrain in the area, they needed the pick-up where I was, which meant I was to be  kicked out from it. So to spare myself from the kicking-out, I alighted the pick-up, and smoked a stick. Not without my mouth back to normal and giving instructions to my staff to please, please, have these people from the LGU fetched, as fast as possible. I could not yell, well, not yet. Still weak from the mini-panic attack. 

From the program/dialogue site, Leonelle came running to me to tell me the guests were hungry and thirsty. We did not prepare food as it was always the arrangement in activities like these that the barangay officials or the contractor of the project take care of the food. There were no snacks. Not even bottles of water to tide our guests by. I am not one who would forget that, if I was given that task. I gave all I had in my provides bag to the guests: water, soda and crackers. What pained me most was I had to part with my Oreos. 

To be continued.