For my third teambuilding for P&G Asia FSS (Financial Services & Solutions), I became a committee member. Aside from being the brains behind the theme “heroes,” my other contribution as part of the logistics team was to be the marshall of the “X-Men.” We left Petron Megaplaza building at promptly 6:15am on August 23, so I awarded 10 bonus points to the team. We arrived in Canyon Woods, Cavite more than an hour ahead of schedule, giving me time to practice Lupang Hinirang and If There’s One More Gift with my Himig P&G chorale buddies. Some of our groupmates did not make it on time, so only half of the group was able to sing the national anthem and invocation to start off the morning program. Luckily, we were able to pull it off. I think. I hope.
The morning program always composes of company stuff…new measures for the fiscal year, achievements…usually boring stuff that in the past two years I did not really pay attention to. But this year the band 2’s (bosses two levels higher than me) prepared a really funny game and skit that made everyone listen, for once. I was laughing from the start but unfortunately was not able to pay attention to the entire thing because not even halfway through it, my cellphone rang and I recognized the number flashing on the screen as an international number from Korea. It was one of my contacts with an urgent payment issue. Darn. So I had to spent the next minutes running around the clubhouse looking for the treasury folks so we could handle it. Then the teams broke into groups and played a game before lunch was served.
In the afternoon we left the clubhouse and headed for the pavillion at the other end of Canyon Woods where games were to be played. Since I was a committee member I could n
ot participate in any of the games, so Rome and I, both marshalls, just stood around and watched the people playing futsal, dodgeball and amazing race. We cheered and yelled “go!” at everyone we knew. We even yelled “Alex, paapprove!” for fun at Alex, a treasury team leader whom we always asked for approval during operations. For amazing race I was able to watch Gelle at the “fear factor” station. She had to stick her hand into a vat of bagoong (shrimp paste) and fish out a marble then eat chicken feet. You can see the disgust in her face in the picture I took. When it was time to eat snacks, we ate it beside the pool and watched some folks in the amazing race swimming and looking for clues in the water. Then a girl got cramps and nearly drowned, but one of the big bosses, Cerhan, came to her rescue. Then it rained, so the futsal and dodgeball had to be transferred indoors and we were not able to finish on time.
I was proud of the X-Men because instead of checking into their villas, they immediately proceeded to the clubhouse for the evening presentation. Everyone was tired and sweaty but they wanted to get the 10 points for promptness and the time for making props and practice. So we were the first ones in line for the food but I was so tired and sleepy, having had only two hours sleep from the night before, that I could not summon the strength to finish everything on my plate. Just then, Derek, a fellow marshall, approached me and asked me to help tabulate the results of the evening contests. So he an
d Caloy and I sat together at a table and watched the presentations. First, 5 members of each team modeled their superhero costumes down the catwalk. Then each team had to give a performance to let their name be known. The X-Men presentation was easily everyone’s favorite. It was clear, concise, and funny. The plot involved the X-Men being transformed by Professor X into ex-men. Imagine seeing really manly guys suddenly act gay. Another big boss, Sunil, who acted as wolverine (I really liked the way they styled his hair to look like Wolverine’s), carried the whole thing. This is actually my favorite part in team events…seeing the bosses give out cute performances like that. The last presentation for the night was a q&a portion for one member of each team. Andrew’s answer was the most memorable. When asked the question “If you were given a choice to be left or right handed, which would you choose and why?” he replied, “It doesn’t matter which hand I choose as long as I use that hand to do something good.” Winner! In the end we were in a hurry to tabulate the results, and of course the winner is…the X-Men.
While the other people hurried off to rest in their villas, my friends wanted to take advantage of 
the free-flowing beer and stayed behind. We laughed, danced onstage a bit, and tripped all over ourselves. We were able to finish off three pitchers, and by the time we got to Brentwood 3, our house, we were beyond tipsy. Still, we headed over to Brentwood 1, a stone’s throw away, where there was an AP party. Yen plugged in her magic sing into their TV and the girls sang their hearts out while the boys played poker while I got groggy and slept for a bit before we eventually bid goodbye and stumbled back into our house. Caloy, who was supposed to be in another house which was far away stayed the night in one of our rooms while the five (Yen, Drew, Liza, Gelle & me) of us squeezed ourselves into the two beds that were supposed to be good for three.
We woke up around 7 the next morning, and chatted as Gelle slept on. Liza joked, “Let’s give Gelle a chance, after all, she drank a lot last night.” We all burst out laughing because the opposite was true. Gelle doesn’t drink booze due to her ulcer. Yen left early and the rest of us washed up and got our things together. While waiting for the van to pick us up, we posed for pictures outside our house. Then we headed back to the clubhouse for breakfast, closing ceremonies and lunch. The winners were announced and the X-men emerged as overall champions. Then everyone ate and posed for pictures (I was touched because the X-Men
asked me to pose with them). There was even a picture of us with our old friends JC, Richard, Diane and Jerome. After lunch everyone boarded whichever bus they wanted, and we marshalls had to check each bus for our team members. Most of the X-Men remained in their bus. Wow. Team spirit! I, however, opted to join my friends in the Green Lantern bus which was nearly empty. In contrast, this team finished last. Haha. All in all it was a strenuous yet fun teambuilding. Next year, though, I think I’ll join Derek and be part of the participants, not the organizers. I miss being part of the strategies and the stress and the fun!
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all picture here