Namamasko Po!

So it's a very quiet Sunday evening for Nards and I. I was reading the last two chapters of Breaking Dawn, while he was surfing. The silence was broken by a shrill and aggressive (almost angry) collective voice of children down the street singing Sa May Bahay Ang Aming Bati. I was startled by the volume. We were five floors up and we could hear them, caroling the house next to our building.

We paused to listen as they massacred this over-used Filipino Christmas song (repeating the same stanza as they went through the houses down the street) and accompanied themselves with homemade tambourines; after which they imperiously knocked (think six little fists banging furiously demanding attention) and screamed, "namamasko pooooooo!!!" The "po" annoyingly elongated. Followed by bam! bam! bam! of their hands on the gates. This phrase was repeated over and over until the unfortunate homeowner either gave in and dispensed a few coins; or they shooed them away angrily.

"Egad. Those are rabid carolers," I remarked. Nards agreed. "They seem to be the kind who marks houses that gives money, and rallies all the neighborhood kids to go there and dish out one miserable stanza of a Christmas song and demand payment."

"Aren't you glad you live in the building with a guard at the lobby?"

"Oh yes!"

If you think about it, this type of caroling is a mild form of extortion. They sing sooooo bad, and rankle you to death until you breakdown and give in.