Hi! dear readers , it's me again ylaruj. Ready to share another blog post with you. Today's blog is about a sudden brownout at our place during night time and storytelling about my childhood days.
One night the electricity went off, and we keep on waiting for it to resume. Hours had passed and it's not back. Our home and neighborhood was in total darkness. Good thing we have a small lampshade that my mother's boss gave us before. It was our source of light that night. My nephew was playing on his father's phone since it's battery was not drained.
Lots of mosquitoes are buzzing around and feeding on our blood at the same time. They seem that they had a meeting and told everyone that " attention team! the lights are out it's time to feast. I keep on slapping them,they are such a nuisance during brownouts. So we decided to go outside and buy some mosquito killer.
When we are at the road it was in total darkness.
We only see light if there's a car passing by . Their headlights illuminate the road.
We pass these people talking to each other, having some fun ,having a drink using their phones as a source of light.
As I held my sight to the sky I saw the beauty of the moon . It seems like the darkness emphasize it's beauty.
I went home with my daughter after buying some mosquito killer. Lit it and we lay down to sleep. There's a magic in brown out and I can't help but share my childhood stories to my kids. Through my stories, I let them go back to the times when life is simplier. And my story goes like this......
We don't have electricity at home before. Mostly people in my hometown don't have it, those rich people can only afford to install it during my younger days. So our only source of light was a gas lamp. We create shadows of animals using our hands, between our light source and the wall. Every night, we go to bed early, because it's already dark outside,and my parents and elders told us that many monsters are lurking in the dark and ready to eat us if we wander outside, so we stay at home. And my grandma want us to bless her hand and my parents. Then my mother used to play some dramas on the radio with different genres, their is comedy, drama, horror, romance, action and fantasy. You will just have to imagine the scene being portrayed in the drama to fully experience the beauty of it. Sometimes I imagined myself as one of the main character on the drama 🤣. How weird was it😅, actually it's our past time during those times and we can't notice that we already fallen asleep.
I can still remember those times that we went to our neighbors to watch some cartoon movies. They have electricity and television, so everyday after the end of classes or during weekends, after our household chores we went there just to watch. Some of our neighbors will open their doors widely for us to watch but some also will close their doors not letting us peek.
Since we don't have gadgets before, we played many different games , like, slipper game, Chinese garter, tubig tubigan, takyan, siatong, toss ball that the ball was made with coconut leaves that we weaved, lambihaw , sledding using some part of the coconut, swaying on the hanging coconut leaves, sungka and lots more. Sometimes if we get tired of playing we seek some fruits in our neighborhood like, guava,passion fuiit, pomelo, pomegranate, blackberry,star apple, soursop and many more to mention.
If low tide,we went to the sea to catch some fish and collect some seashells for food. If it's high tide, we went with our grandma to the mountains to gather some vegetables and bring it home. She taught me how to weave hanging rice and until now I know how to weave one.My life when I was younger was simple yet so fun.
As I keep on telling my childhood stories to them , they were amazed at what my childhood days were like. They keep on asking me if how does it feel to be born during 90's. I tried my best to answer their queries. I was really into story telling that I haven't noticed that they fell asleep. I covered them with blanket and fan them using a notebook cover. I continue reminiscing my childhood days alone to buy time while waiting for the electricity to resume.
Children's nowadays mostly don't experience what we have experienced before. The way children experienced the world today has shifted significantly. Because they usually play using their gadgets and don't physically associate with their peers .While technology brings many benefits, it also changes how they interact with each other and their surroundings.
As the electricity flickered backed to life, I couldn't help but paint a smile on my face. The brownout had transported me back to the times when life is simplier yet infinitely richer. Brownouts seems like an unexpected pauses of the present that led us going back to our past.
I will end my blog here and see you soon on my next blog post. Have a nice day everyone.