How do kids in this remote island play?
Looks like the iPad culture has not yet arrived in this place (thankfully). I saw one boy, probably 9 or 10 years old, who sat by the external wall corner of their barangay hall, and he was expertly making a ball out of coconut fronds (he calls it “lukay”). I watched for a while and asked him to do it slowly so I would learn how to make a ball too. Hopeless! Can’t get how he makes the thing curve into a ball.
Some, about his age or older, were down at the marshes (their knee-deep) catching crabs from the mud. I asked if they were asked by anyone to do it, their unanimous reply was “kami-kami la” (just us), and they told me they will cook the crabs later. Some others were armed with rubber-band slings targeting either birds or the crabs that would pop out from their mounds.
Ah, I had to suppress my laughs at this dude in dark blue jersey who can’t even walk straight yet. His older brother caught another small crab, tied a string around it and gave it to him. And he was all over the place as if he was towing a toy-car. If that crab was not yet exhausted, it could even have bitten him hehe.
Then there was that time this little angel and an older one attempt to toss or ditch the poor thing, the crab I mean, unto the muddy waters. Kawawang crab, but I guess we all learn about life and death, and cruelty to living things when we get to be of school age, and/or when those things become scarce. Ah, such innocence! I had fun watching these kids at play!
One adult told me that when parents call them to lunch, these kids rush to the sea (wharf/beach area) for a final play, then take baths with fresh water at their homes so they are clean at meal time. Now that, I say, is THE life!
Did you notice there were no girls in the video? I asked that manong tending to his fishing lines where the female kids are, if any! He told me that if they’re not at home with some chores, they usually play indoors and do whatever girly things as none of them want to get dark. Well, same as everywhere else in this country!
For a chronology of this trip's stories, click these numbers:
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