As kids, my siblings and I use to visit the village regularly in the company of our parent. This was more frequent in festive periods, especially during Christmas holidays. While in the village, we the youngsters do devise means to create adventures for ourselves, especially when the adults were engrossed in adult things.
Our village had many streams. But most of the streams were way too small for us to exhibit our free spiritedness and some sort of recklessness in there. They didn't offer us the liberty of jumping, spinning and twirling around. As a result we would travel miles to another village where a bigger stream was located. We use to call the stream idim ntan, which literally means stream sand. The stream earned that name from the purpose it served. It was where fine sand was harvested for building and other construction works.
Due to constant digging of the stream to get sand, it was quite deep. The topography wasn't balanced. It was all hills and valleys. Jumping in there was dangerous, yet that was our understanding of catching fun. The interesting part was that, it seemed as though no adult knew where the stream was located, because I can't remember when our rendezvous was ever interrupted by a parent's voice.
We use to leave the house in pretence of going to one of the smaller streams in the village, only to end up there.
There were sections of the stream we use to call the dip, because those sections were deeper than other sections.
While jumping around, you better watch out for the dip.
A cousin of mine who used to claim that he so much loves me, once said that he'll jump right into the dip with me, should I fall into one.
Just as if the universe heard him, he was offered a chance to back up his claim with action. The very day he made that statement, I fell into the dip, while joyfully chasing people around in a hide and seek game we were playing in the stream. I had buried my head in the stream to avoid being detected while moving under the water. When I tried raising my head and balancing my feet on the bottom of the stream, my head could no longer reach the surface of the water, neither did my feet touch the stream's bottom. The water was far above and beneath me.
I managed to pull myself up. My foot touched an edge where I could be seen, but I fell right back into the dip almost immediately. I tried this technique for several times without success.
You know what that means. I was already filling my stomach up with gallons of undistilled water, yet I was still thirsty, not for water but for life. Whenever I was able to pull my head out, I could read the panic on the faces of other kids, who were too frightened to step into the water and perhaps pull me out of the dip.
They'd all ran out of the water, after they might have learned of my dilemma.
I saw my cousin; who promised to die with me, frantically jumping and screaming my name without making any form of attempt to come close to the stream's bank, not to talk of entering the water. I don't blame the poor dude though.
Only my elder sister; who is barely two years older than me, was courageous enough to come right into the stream to offer me a hand which I clung so dearly to, because at that moment my life depended on it.
Well; the fact that you're reading this from me today, means that the the worst didn't happen. Thanks to my sister's helping hand.
We need more people like my sister in our society, those who can offer a hand to someone to hold and live again.
There are many who are drowning today; not really in a literal sense of drowning.
There are people who are in positions that unless someone lend them a helping hand, they would fizzle out.
You can be like my sister today, if you're in the shore; which implies an advantaged position, while someone else is drowning in a lake, you should consider giving the person a hand.
A little help, here and there can save or transform a life. Be courageous enough to lend a helping hand.