Seronga village boys
Some months ago I was in Seronga, a remote village in the
Northern part of Botswana, during that time I was able to capture many snapshots of the rural
life that many still enjoy. I say enjoy, because although such isolated living
may be hard, collecting your water from the river, finding firewood to cook on
etc, the life is a simple one. However many living in such environment, wish to
live in the cities where they feel, life could be better. But I could not help
noting that a number of the kids in this area seemed happier than the kids who
have everything and live in the city.
I feel that many of the activities that modern youth partake
in today, lack the fulfillment, and joy that the outdoors can bring. For example
most of the kids in the cities have a TV, and hours are spent in front of it, in
fact older children on average spend 5 hours a day in front of it, what a waste
of a childhood! Not only does such a inactive lifestyle encourage health
problems such as obesity and heart disease but it fails to optimize brain
development. As kids we had TV for about a year when I was 12 years old and
then we got rid of, which none of us regretted. I still believe the TV is one
of the greatest time wasters.
That is why I loved working on this painting because it
reminded me of my childhood, and what we spent our time doing. No we did not
ride donkeys around, although my younger brother and I did try to persuade our dad
to buy us one each, at that time you could buy one for P80.00 (about $10). However
my Dad would not be persuaded, he would not see his sons riding around on donkeys,
and so he promised that he would get us horses if he could find some at a reasonable
price. Finally someone donated a horse , which my brother named Pepperoni due
to his speckled white coat, and then my Dad bought a red horse with black
points which I named Chilli. I called him Chilli because he had a hot temperament,
which was very obvious during our early days of training where he seemed to
find the greatest enjoyment bucking me off .I quickly learnt how to hang on
especially after this one time where bucked me off and I found myself lying under
a thorn bush cut and grazed while chewing on a mouthful of sand.
Anyway despite the learning curve we loved the horses, and
eventually were so comfortable riding them ,that we even went out riding at night whenever
there was a full moon.Which reminds me that I have to go riding again some time soon,we had so much fun.
Well after all this painting and sitting in front of
this laptop I think I will go for a jog around the neighbor’s field.
PS .Please switch that TV off for a moment and go and dig in
the garden, jump in the lake ,walk in the park, swim in the river, play something,
or just ride a donkey!
Comments
El trabajo es buenísimo, los niños transmiten perfectamente esa felicidad de la que hablas, por cierto, el burro es un animal que me encanta.
Saludos Roger, que sigas disfrutando de esa vida.
artisoo