Memories at the rice fields

by Cynthia

At ourplace, all houses were demolished. I am truly sad as I can no longer play with our friends. Most of my friends lived in the rice fields. They were very kind to me. I will miss them dearly.

One beautiful memory was when we played hide-and-seek, our feet were full of mud. When it was raining we played in the pond till our mum was enraged by our act. My younger sibling often fell into the pond, when we were walking to the cherry trees in the rice fields or when he was accompanying mum doing the laundry. Almost everyday I played at the 'ceri' trees with friends. We played by pretending to be crocodiles, occasionally we raced climbing up the 'ceri' trees and took them.

Although it was usually hot during the day, I liked the view at our place as it was green everywhere. There was always cool breeze and usually I fell asleep on the trees.

In the afternoon we usually play "tak jongkok" (squatting) till evening prayer time (maghrib). Once we had a make-up contest using mum's make-up kits in addition to a competition of creating flower crown on our head. We then sang and danced.

At a friend's birthday party, I usually dressed up and picked up our friends. I felt very happy as I could dress up neatly and beautifully. There were many kids coming to the party and it was very joyous and festive.

Beautiful memories that I will never forget.

Translated by Reinilda Delima