i love children.

as i catched up on my spam emails, i was suddenly brought back to reality by four kids screaming right into our backyard.

Kuya, pengeng kalapatee!

Kuya, pengeng kalapati, amin na lang!

Kuya, pengeng kalapatee!

Mamamasko po ng kalapatee!

tama kanta tayo dali - 'sa may bahay ang aming bati..' tapos pag tapos na, 'tenkyu, tenkyu, ang babait ninyo tenkyu.

sopas na pabori- sopas na pabori... lucky meeee!

sinong mas matangkad sa aten?

mas matangkad ka jan?

sinong maliet?

akuu...

... kuya, pengeng kayamito!

this went on for about 15 minutes. I couldn't stay longer because I had to leave soon.

I found these all so amusing, especially since hindi naman kalapati yung hawak ni 'kuya' kundi manok. but more so because i really admire children. how they can find joy in almost anything, and even in nothing. these children i am talking about live in slum areas (i think) right at the back of our house, peering over our recently installed barbed wires (due to repeated incidents of break-ins).

I don't know if they have been properly schooled - probably, well at least they must be attending school. Or how their living conditions are. but from what i can see from my window, it was not good. tagpi tagping yero, dos por dos here and there, hollow blocks, twigs, etc. etc. I don't even know what is holding their roof together. probably when it rains, it really pours on them. they'll have a plywood for a bed.. and i don't know what else. Sometimes, in that same house or area they live in, I would hear a man and a woman shouting at each other, screaming is more like it, throwing stuff. Its not unlikely that someone would get a beating.

and yet they still find ways of entertaining themselves, and get a good laugh out of it.

i wish I could do something for them, give them their 'kayamito' or talk with them for a few minutes and be the butt of their jokes or something. but, as always, for fear of disappointing them or having them become 'pamilyar' i just hide out here behind the privacy of our curtained windows and listen, until their small voices go away.

I'm not proud of it, but maybe someday, hopefully someday, I'll know what to do.