I taught the kids how to play table tennis. Actually, it's more like teaching them ping pong if you know what I mean. It turned up to be quite a disaster. The kids did not even manage to hold the racket in the proper manner. In the end, I gave up and they ended up in free play. Yeah. Hitting the ping pong ball to each other in badminton or tennis style, hitting it towards the ceiling, sweeping it to one another and chasing after it all over the mass hall. They were having a whale of a time, screaming and shouting in ecstacy. I, on the other hand, stood at a corner and watched in amusement.
It did not take long for exhaustion to kick in. I then decided to give them an ice cream treat. The kids followed behind me like I was the mother hen as we headed to the beach cafe. Each of them got a strawberry and vanilla ice cream cone. I had my usual Orangina drink and we picked a table facing the sea. The kids chatted and joked amongst themselves while licking happily on the cone. They were smiling and laughing all the time. I couldn't help but marveled at how easily contented they were with the very simple things in life. No Mac Donald's, no Ben & Jerry's, no Nike, no Adidas, no Billabong, no Rip Curl and yet life can be happy without all these material wants. Simple things like having an ice cream, a bar of chocolate, hand-me-downs and even a bottle of mineral water would just make their day. How I wish our kids back home could be more like them.
Having ice cream at the beach cafe.
No comments:
Post a Comment