Playing "House" in the backyard... (Journal Entry)

Why do I like village life so much? It brings back memories of my childhood. When I used to pick grass- or even take the clumps from the lawnmower, and make a special stew. I used to collect pine needs, some brown and some green- that would be another side dish. Bowls I had made from mud, would dry in the sun, and then be used as containers. I would get nuts, and crack them with a stick or rock- making the oat like food for my horses and other animals. Using pine needles, I would clean the dirt floor of my home, behind the big tree in our backyard.

The only thing different between my childhood life and the village life here is that my childhood life was a life that I chose to play in, and escape to. For these people, they had no choice- this is there life, whether they like it or not. They make food from the same things I did, but they actually eat it. They draw water from rivers and actually drink it. They sleep in the floor, go to the bathroom outside, crack nuts with sticks, but they actually eat what’s inside. They use pine needles not to pretend to clean their floor, but to really clean it, after all, how else would you clean it? As a little girl I got to go inside at the end of the day, get a shower, crawl into a bed with a comforter on it that no little baby had gon to the bathroom on...here, it's all one life...there is no inside and outside...