RobOnGuam.com

Door Prize

You May Already Be a Winner!

Door prizes (or “raffles,” as you might know them) are ubiquitous on island. All sorts of gatherings have door prizes as part of their proceedings, and the more cynical among us, namely me, might argue that it’s the way to get people to come to the gathering. In some cases, this might be true. My College had its end-of-year awards ceremony last week, and while I attest to the importance of such gatherings, I generally find them to be the academic equivalent of Valium. However, faculty, staff, and students did turn out in droves because there were door prizes, and the fact that Jamaican Grill catered the event didn’t hurt, either.

But there are lots of events that have door prizes attached that don’t necessarily need to. 5K runs, for instance, always conclude with door prizes, and my sense is that people would show up anyway to run the race and get their free t-shirt and banana and yogurt breakfast. Or the baptism I wrote about in the last entry; why did it have door prizes? Or my credit union’s open house and election of officers yesterday.

My theory is that there’s something about providing for others in Pacific cultures that has translated into the need to not simply feed guests (which people here do at the drop of a hat, and I mean feed seriously) but also to send them home with something. One of my students from Palau has written eloquently about the very complex culture of reciprocity there when families intermarry, and I am guessing that somehow in the modern, Westernized cultures of the Pacific, this has translated not into stone money but into door prizes.

And the things that get raffled off! Prizes tend to be very high quality. Some are purely practical, like a gift certificate for free gas at one of the stations on island; with gas currently running $2.60 to $2.70 a gallon, this is nothing to sneeze at. Or gift certificates to Payless Supermakets, another prize I’d be happy to claim. Then come to fun prizes: brunch for two at one of the many resorts on island. A free day at Mandara Day Spa. An overnight stay at one of the island resorts, or at one of the islands of the Northern Marianas, like Saipan, along with a plane ticket there. Jewelry from one of the jewelers on island. The grand prize at any 5K run is almost invariably airline tickets -- roundtrip, to anywhere in Asia, often for two. They are worth staying around for.

So far I’ve won twice, which means my winning average is 1 in 3, as I’ve run six races thus far. This seems to me to be an extremely high average, so I assume that I will not win again until, say, 2008. My first prize was brunch for two at Soryu, the Japanese restaurant in the Pacific Islands Club. I of course took my running partner Lisa, figuring that anybody who gets up at 5 in the morning to run a race deserves to have brunch, and given that the place was overrun with Japanese tourists, I can attest to the authenticity of the food. (Try the soba noodles if you go.) The second prize is a gift certificate to one of the garden centers on island, and I hope to acquire a Japanese lantern.

I think that everything should have door prizes. Elections? People would vote if you gave them a shot at a day of whiling away the hours at a spa. Weddings? What would you rather have, a box of candy from the wedding table or a VCR? Funerals? They’d be much more fun if there were door prizes. (You could raffle off the deceased person’s stuff, thus saving everybody from the muss and bother of a will.)

Just a thought.

Baptism

A Celebration, Island Style

Marielle Hannah Lagaspi was baptized at St. John’s a few weeks ago, with her proud parents Wendy and Richard beaming. I understand that Marielle was a long time coming, her parents couldn’t be happier, and neither could the parish. I’ve been through enough baptisms so that the thrill has sort of worn off -- maybe working at a Cathedral, as I did, does that to you -- though I still get a real kick out of adult baptisms. Marielle, who’s all of three months old, didn’t pay a lot of attention to her momentous day, other than to fuss a little bit when out vicar Father Rich poured holy water on her forehead. I would fuss too.

The baptism was standard stuff, but the reception was not. I was expecting cake and coffee in the parish hall, thinking that this is what you would do. (More to the point, it's what I would do.) Episcopal baptisms are never private affairs, but part of a service, as indeed that should be, so that the entire congregation is there; and we normally meet after services for fellowship. But Richard and Wendy had sent out invitations for a luncheon at the Okura Hotel, one of the more posh Japanese hotels on island, and I hadn’t been there yet.

Well, the spread was astonishing. What I assumed would be a light lunch for the parish was a sit-down luncheon for 200 guests in one of the ballrooms. This is how baptisms are done on island, apparently. And the food! All the usual suspects, plus: amazingly good sashimi, plus poki (the Hawai‘ian version of sushi, which I hadn’t had yet, and it is seriously tasty). Shrimp galore, salads innumerable. Pans and pans of pancit. Pasta primavera. An entire roast pig. Dessert stations with cakes, ice cream, puddings. Roast beef, roast pork, roast chicken. Coffee, tea. Equally unbelievable was the view; the Okura is situated on the far end of Tumon Bay, and from there you can see all the way to Big Navy. It’s a panoramic view of the bay framed by floor-to-ceiling windows that are twelve feet tall. The weather was perfect, naturally, so the view was spectacular.

The luncheon was followed by lots of fellowship, general meeting and greeting, and a raffle, though the correct term here would be “door prizes.” I will write in a separate entry on the (to me) peculiar tradition of door prizes being attached to all events here, and the prizes started out small (boxes of chocolates) and got bigger and better (cell phones, DVD players). All in all, we welcomed Marielle into the family in the proper island way: enough food for the Warsaw Pact and prizes to boot.

Baptisms obviously have an importance here that they don’t necessarily have Stateside. In part, I would guess it’s the strong Catholic presence on island, though if I recall correctly, baptisms in the Catholic Church aren’t necessarily public affairs. People take hospitality here very seriously, I think because of the remoteness of islands out here; if someone lands on your beach, he’s likely to be hungry, and you really ought to feed him. For whatever reasons, Guam is blessed with a culture that decides that all events need to be turned into parties, and it is one of the great pleasures of the place.