Summer Reminiscence

For some, besides Christmas, summer is the best time of the year to meet up with old friends, to travel, to learn new skills, to complete unfinished projects and to do business.

Now that summer for me has become a time to laze around and listen to good music, I couldn’t help but remember the summer days of my childhood. I used to play bay-bay, shato and gira-gira with my boy neighbors. I also climbed trees. There were countless games that children play during my time (kids before were so ingenious) but I settled for the more familiar and sensible games.

Just Hanging Around

They all talked about how this was just a small challenge, something only for newbies and hardly anything to get nervous over as by the time one had barely begun it would soon be finished. It was just some twenty meters down and less than half the distance one had to rappel in Antequera, they assured me. But here I was, walking to and fro across the bailey bridge of Makapiko River, trying to come up with enough nerve to get it up and done with.

Down the river: Bend!

“Don’t let go!” Soaked through but in high spirits, this was our war cry for forty-five minutes or so. Each one sitting on a salbabida, linked only by hands and feet, our fate on the rushing river dependent on this unsevered link and by how much we have learned of the wisdom of the bamboo that grows abundant in the area. This is a water sport made for groups: family, friends and, we find amusingly appropriate, for companies wanting of team building.