It was 5pm, I just woke up from a nap. I heard the bell which my sister and I had been waiting for. “Ice cream!” I called the sorbetero. The flavors for today were mango and strawberry. Yummy!
Many children were playing at the street. School days were indeed over! Some kids were playing badminton, some volleyball. Being the kid that I am, I joined them. For how many minutes, I don’t know, we played volleyball, batuhang bola, and badminton. It was fun. I was the oldest among them, of course, but I didn’t mind. Haha.
I was already sweating and so bid goodbye to my playmates. After a little while, I felt like wanting to go outside again, and so I did. I was clearing out the leaves on our backyard when a VCS kid approached me. He was 9 when I taught him at Vacation Church School and now he is in Grade 7. We talked about his studies in highschool, and his plans for college. He then joined me in cleaning the backyard. Yey!
The sky was turning orange and we could see the sun about to sleep. Bagong umaga na naman, the kid said. I smiled and said, oo nga. Patapos na naman ang araw. 🙂
Just as we thought the day was about to end, we found a long something (haha I don’t know what was it) which we used as a jumping rope. We jumped to the A is for Apple, B for Banana, C for the chocolate chant. We bent our bodies as we walked under the limborack with the special rule in mind: No labas ngipin! Haha. We played volleyball again until it finally got dark. I bid them goodnight.
Before I entered our gate, I saw a neighbor with his bike and borrowed it. I biked around the block and wished I could also own one someday. I entered our house, but something inside me called me to go outside again. I gave in and later found myself sitting with four little boys talking about the day.
Hindi ka pa ba sanay… sa mga away-bati na yan? Ako sanay na ko sa ganyan.
He said as he try to console his friend. Wow. I didn’t expect to hear that from a kid. Haha. Well, he is now in Grade 6 and is graduating tomorrow. Perhaps he had experienced a lot of petty and some serious quarrels with his playmates.
Bakit siya nagboboss-boss-an e babae siya? Dapat ang boss, lalaki na mabait na gusto lahat magkakabati.
Well, I don’t think he really means that a boss should always be a boy; he just said it because he is a boy and he couldn’t accept the fact that a girl seemed to control all the other kids. What I loved about his words was when he said that a boss (a leader) should be a kind person who longs for the unity of all. 😀
I spent the rest of the night listening to their conversations while gazing at the stars which seem to sparkle brighter tonight. I even sang a familiar song:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
As I sang and looked back on my afternoon, I felt like a child once again – a child in awe of almost everything. A child longing to play any game as long as the sun is up. A child wanting to belong, to have not just playmates for today, but friends till tomorrow.
My playtime lasted for just two hours today but I’m looking forward to more hours of playtime for the coming days. I might not be able to spend the same kind of playtime when I get hired as a teacher, so yeah. More playtime soon!
jassy delights 