On our recent photo trip to Taal, Batangas, I tagged along with some of my classmates when they visited the Pansipit River. We spotted these kids playing in the river at noontime. While my classmates were busy clicking away, I talked to the people nearby and asked if someone actually lives in the makeshift stilt house. They said the house was really made to serve as a playhouse for kids.
It was refreshing to see kids having fun despite of what little they have. Not one of them actually had any toy!
A small girl had some pink piece of fabric (little girl in yellow shorts in the photo above) which she was pretending to wash in the river. A small boy was playing with a rubber bicycle tire (left photo below) and another girl was making a boat out of water lilies (right photo below).
It was really a refreshing sight because a lot of kids nowadays have all the toys, gadgets and are enrolled in a lot of extra-curricular activities (dance classes, voice lessons, gymnastics, arts & crafts, name it…) and yet, they still get bored and they easily outgrow toys. And toys are as good as the craze lasts – which oftentimes is a very short time frame – after a movie is shown, after the tv season ends, after the latest model is launched.
These kids from Pansipit River surely know how to have fun. It reminded me of my own childhood – we spent a lot of time outdoors. In the afternoons, we played street games with other kids in the village. We also didn’t have a lot of toys and new ones didn’t come in often except during birthdays, Christmas, when you get school awards (which rarely happened to me! Haha…) and when there were relatives bringing pasalubong from overseas trips (which I considered windfall! Haha..). My brothers and I treasured every piece of toy we had and I remember, we were happy by just looking at them and lining them up on the floor. Haha… And unlike kids of today, our interest on a specific toy lasted a long time. Even if there's a new character craze already, we were still hooked with our old toys. Great if we get new ones but if not, it didn't send us throwing tantrums either. In hindsight (thanks to our parents), this helped a lot in our EQ development because having fun wasn’t rooted on the quantity of toys we had, but instead, we learned to derive enjoyment from whatever we had.
As for the kids from Pansipit River, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day, 20 years from now, some of them will emerge as creators and inventors. Having less doesn’t seem to put them at a disadvantage. In fact, I think it is bringing out the best of their creativity and imagination. :)
