Voyages.

On March 15, 2005, I served as Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) at the Filipino Club Toastmasters 3029-79 (FCT). At FCT, the TME is responsible for coming up with the meeting's theme. I selected "Voyages" because the following day, March 16, is the day when Ferdinand Magellan alledgedly "discovered" the Philippines and claimed the islands for Spain. And the rest, as they say, is history... written in blood of many Filipinos who realized that we can be a nation on our own. Alright, he can be the greatest voyager of them all and thanks to him, we are now a Christian nation. Had Magellan not "arrived" in the Philippines, we would have been a tiny Muslim country in Southeast Asia. So, we should be thankful and turn a blind eye on our history? Anyway, let us talk about that later. Let's go back to the FCT meeting.

So, it was one of them meetings of FCT except that I was the TME. I was able to prove how supportive the members of the Club are since I have not even officially joined them, yet, they offer all the help to organize the meeting. Cristy Benedicto helped me print the program and the literature. She also helped confirm meeting participants. The same is true with Vicky Cacayan who is a fellow regular at the National Evangelical Church although she is with the Bahrain Christian Fellowship, the Filipino congregation. Club President Tina Romulo also was a big help.

We had two prepared speakers: Ethel Varona who delivered her sixth basic speech project entitled "Massage: The Healing Touch" and Mohammad Ashfaq Tahir, an ATMB who recently joined FCT and introduced himself before the Club with a speech "Myself" using the Icebreak project. Ethel was evaluated by Ed Pascual, a charter member and a past President while Ashfaq was evaluated by Hamza Ali, a Bahraini whom I believe is already an accomplished speaker.

Our General Evaluator was Cristy Benedicto. Jassim Al-Sherafi was the Table Topic Master. Stella Paul, an impressively intelligent lady was the Grammarian/Ah Counter. Stella is also the Club's Secretary. Nestor Ballano, the only Filipino member of the oldest Toastmaster Club in the Middle East, Manama Toastmasters Club, was the Joke Master. Salman Ali was the Timekeeper.

I would have loved to introduce sweeping changes in my program but have decided against the wisdom of that choice since I am still trying to familiarize myself with the idiosyncracies of FCT. I did introduce some little things. I just can't help myself from doing little naughty things to rock the boat. Besides, the theme was about "voyages."

So, the night ended without fireworks. My only redemption was to sit beside the magnetic Cindy Briggs who kept me thinking the whole meeting about classifications of men according to their personalities. We had a good laugh everytime we try to classify the meeting's participants especially when we agree on who should be in the embarrasing corner of the of the spectrum.

I remembered to write about this meeting for posterity's sake. I will be joing the Club soon despite the discouragement of many. I always love to take losing causes and help turn the tide. Such is the passion of a meandering shawarma. ;)