I've been learning a lot from children here. I love their enthusiasm for life and for anything they believe in. Today I watched for almost an hour as a young group of kids dug in the backyard for an older cousin's marbles. Martin was in Moyogalpa for the weekend and his sister and cousins had been having so much fun playing with their limited marble collection in the backyard. Then his sister, Cesia, remembered that Martin had buried a large plastic water bottle full of his marbles under the hammock in the backyard for safe keeping. He wasn't around to protect them (or lead them to correct place to dig), so Jared found a shovel and started digging where Cesia remembered seeing him stash them.
The dirt here is very hard and compact. Jared dug for a long time, slowly making progress, while the kids screamed in excitement each time they thought the sound changed, indicating he may have hit the bottle cap. Handful by handful, Cesia pulled out small scoops of the parched earth alongside the house. And the other boys waited in excitement. How wonderful it would be to have a whole bottle of shiny marbles when each of them only had their small pocket full. Soon there was a growing pile of dirt alongside the hole and the kids were growing dustier. The youngest found a coffee can and took a turn scooping out the loose dirt Jared had scraped off the dense and brittle walls of the hole. Reaching in deeper and deeper, his hair and face were full of dirt as he turned his head to the side to see me snap a photo."Tapon, tapon!" he shouted, thinking he surely had reached the cap. Cesia pushed him aside and Jared started poking around with the shovel again, trying to pry under the bottle cap to loosen it. The hard object broke free and flung out of the hole, it had only been a rock. So they kept digging. Deeper and deeper until the youngest couldn't reach the bottom any more to scoop out the loose dirt. So it was Cesia's turn again. With her head fully in the hole to reach the bottom, her cousins teasingly pretended to push her in. She threw of her sparkly pink shoes in order to jump in the hole to see if she could feel anything with her toes. When she got out, Emerson had found a metal rod and started poking the bottom of the hole. Someone yelled to quiet the crowd and they all listened in anticipation. Wait, that sounded different. Could it be the bottle? They dug some more, and more. Eventually, some of the boys got distracted by chasing each other to the ground and soon they were all in a hog pile, except Cesia. She kept digging knowing that the marbles were there and wanting to find them before Martin got home tomorrow. We were all a bit disappointed that the marbles were never found but while Cesia pushed the dirt back into the hole some of us decided we would journey down to the lake.
We ended up stopping for some fruit and snacks along the way and had fun laughing and playing in the water until the sun was nearly set. The boys mother called for them to return home and we began the slow walk up the steep hill, Cesia goofing off the whole way keeping us laughing until we parted ways at their home.
The dirt here is very hard and compact. Jared dug for a long time, slowly making progress, while the kids screamed in excitement each time they thought the sound changed, indicating he may have hit the bottle cap. Handful by handful, Cesia pulled out small scoops of the parched earth alongside the house. And the other boys waited in excitement. How wonderful it would be to have a whole bottle of shiny marbles when each of them only had their small pocket full. Soon there was a growing pile of dirt alongside the hole and the kids were growing dustier. The youngest found a coffee can and took a turn scooping out the loose dirt Jared had scraped off the dense and brittle walls of the hole. Reaching in deeper and deeper, his hair and face were full of dirt as he turned his head to the side to see me snap a photo."Tapon, tapon!" he shouted, thinking he surely had reached the cap. Cesia pushed him aside and Jared started poking around with the shovel again, trying to pry under the bottle cap to loosen it. The hard object broke free and flung out of the hole, it had only been a rock. So they kept digging. Deeper and deeper until the youngest couldn't reach the bottom any more to scoop out the loose dirt. So it was Cesia's turn again. With her head fully in the hole to reach the bottom, her cousins teasingly pretended to push her in. She threw of her sparkly pink shoes in order to jump in the hole to see if she could feel anything with her toes. When she got out, Emerson had found a metal rod and started poking the bottom of the hole. Someone yelled to quiet the crowd and they all listened in anticipation. Wait, that sounded different. Could it be the bottle? They dug some more, and more. Eventually, some of the boys got distracted by chasing each other to the ground and soon they were all in a hog pile, except Cesia. She kept digging knowing that the marbles were there and wanting to find them before Martin got home tomorrow. We were all a bit disappointed that the marbles were never found but while Cesia pushed the dirt back into the hole some of us decided we would journey down to the lake.
We ended up stopping for some fruit and snacks along the way and had fun laughing and playing in the water until the sun was nearly set. The boys mother called for them to return home and we began the slow walk up the steep hill, Cesia goofing off the whole way keeping us laughing until we parted ways at their home.