I live in the city and our space is small so, sometimes I think of the times when I was still young living in our house surrounded with big open space in the countryside. I long for those moments especially when my parents were still alive and living just peacefully in our old house.
My birthplace is just in the neighboring island so it is possible to go home for the weekend but a long weekend is better so there’s longer time. If my parents were still with us, I would go home on some weekends and this would be what my ideal weekend was like.
I will wake up same time as my parents usually at sunrise. In the old kitchen, we still have the old way of cooking food which is building fire using wood with the traditional earthenware stove and the pot. My father prepares the hot chocolate made from pure cacao. The smell of this in the morning brings me good feeling of finally being home.
While my father is preparing the rest for breakfast, I go outside to help my mother feed the chickens. We use rice and corn pellets or the rice bran for feeding. We just scatter them around and the chickens will have a feast.
We then enjoy a traditional breakfast with hot chocolate and sticky rice cooked with coconut milk and muscovado sugar while having a fun conversation reminiscing about the past or the latest gossips in the neighborhood. Lol…
After lunch time, we take a rest then go to the beach. We also like it when it’s low tide so we can pick some shells with edible flesh that attach themselves to the rocks. The native basket is used to collect all of them. I love the view of the mangroves by the coast too.
In the evening, we’ll eat the sea shells cooked in coconut milk with moringa leaves, squash, and chayote. It’s a hearty meal with happy conversations shared with my family.
The next morning, we’ll visit the trees that my father planted, gmelina and mahogany trees. The lot is near a stream so we also bring pale and dipper so we can water the young trees. I can see how happy my father is looking at his precious trees while my mother is just supportive of my father’s plans.
In the afternoon, my close friends and relatives come to our house and just have fun while having karaoke coupled with some dancing. The singing and dancing will go until early evening then the older ones prepare a simple meal for everyone to share. We would be tired by then, we just gather around, make funny stories and laugh at each other’s jokes.
Perhaps I’m just missing the feeling of being home with my parents’ company and presence, but this how I imagined my ideal weekend would be like. Now that I’m a bit older, I long for the simple life and moments in our old house in the countryside.
This my contribution for today in response to #weekend-engagement sharing hosted by 
All pictures and drawing are mine
Footer credit to Canva
