Childhood Life

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Childhood Life

     Well, as we all know, everybody life starts from a baby. A new born infant that could make a couple feels so blessed, excited to became a father and mother and brings happiness to a family. Later they grows up little by little. But the most important phases when one's trying to develops a human started as early as his or her childhood time and memories.

     Childhood time of me was quite interesting and leave a lot of experiences to gain from. Starting from age of 5, I already been asked to go by myself to a religious class that was about 6 KM go and back from my house. Imagine a 5 year old boy cycling by himself. But I never be alone, cause I live in a countryside neighborhood where there's more friends that also cycling to the class. While cycling to the class, it actually have provided me with much experiences on how to cycle, how to cross a road, how to take care of your own safety. A lot that I gain actually.

     My childhood playground was basically the area around my house and paddy field, where a scratch or wound is a normal thing and already been expected to happen. We create our own cycling tournament, we play bowling using coconut and mineral water bottles.

     The most awaited moments is when it is in a fruits seasons, where 'rambutan', 'cempedak', jackfruit and manggo (only this type are planted around my house). It really give some kind of excitement when waiting the trees to produce fruit. Starting from the tree produced the "flower" then it changes to the fruit. Then wait for the fruit to totally ready to been plucked.


This paragraph was a citation from Nelson Mandela's childhood story.

     "From an early age, I spent most of my free time in the veld playing and fighting with the other boys of the village. A boy who remained at home tied to his mother's apron strings was regarded as a sissy. At night, I shared my food and blanket with these same boys. I was no more than five when I became a herd-boy, looking after sheep and calves in the fields. I discovered the almost mystical attachment that the Xhosa have for cattle, not only as a source of food and wealth, but as a blessing from God and a source of happiness. It was in the fields that I learned how to knock birds out of the sky with a slingshot, to gather wild honey and fruits and edible roots, to drink warm, sweet milk straight from the udder of a cow, to swim in the clear, cold streams, and to catch fish with twine and sharpened bits of wire. I learned to stick-fight--essential knowledge to any rural African boy - and became adept at its various techniques, parrying blows, feinting in one direction and striking in another, breaking away from an opponent with quick footwork. From these days I date my love of the veld, of open spaces, the simple beauties of nature, the clean line of the horizon.

     As boys, we were mostly left to our own devices. We played with toys we made ourselves. We molded animals and birds out of clay. We made ox-drawn sleighs out of tree branches. Nature was our playground. The hills above Qunu were dotted with large smooth rocks which we transformed into our own roller coaster. We sat on flat stones and slid down the face of the large rocks. We did this until our backsides were so sore we could hardly sit down. I learned to ride by sitting atop weaned calves-- after being thrown to the ground several times, one got the hang of it."

For more childhood story of Nelson Mandela, please refers to  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/boy/book.html