I miss my family and friends back home. Whenever I am alone (when DD is napping) on a hot breezy afternoon, I sit in the back porch while eating a little snack looking around the backyard and watching the vehicle passing by. It feels like homesickness kicking in again.
I remember summer days are super hot in the Philippines. Although rains come once in a while in the afternoons, still the heat and humidity make you sweaty. When I was young, me, my cousins, and my friends love exploring the farms and rivers when it’s summertime and the school is out. We look for some firewood, pick vegetables, and (when there is a chance) bath in the rivers. If not, we just go out there and get-together enjoying three pitchers of young coconut meat mixed with condensed milk, crackers, and the juice. We called it ‘lamaw’ in Visayan dialect. I don’t know but nothing beats its deliciousness. It’s one of my favorite refreshments.
One day when my cousins, a few friends, and I went to pick some firewood at a friend’s farm something frightening happened…to me. It was getting to close to dark so we hurried home. Carrying a sack of a few things – firewood, vegetables, coconut, and root crops – on our heads, we walked homed hurriedly. When crossing a river, I thought the rock I stepped on was sturdy. I slipped and the current had drawn me into the deep part. My sack fell into the water. I thought I will get drowned. My older cousin and a friend immediately came to help. My cousin got me and our friend jump for my sack. My heroes! (On that moment). I was very scared and wet. I never told my parents about it. That was a bad incident one summer. That is why I never let my siblings go up to pick firewood because crossing the rivers is dangerous.
Anyway, memories good or bad are worth remembering. We’ll have our lessons learned.
