As I sit here on this tranquil Saturday my mind goes back to a time now long gone when I enjoyed many Saturdays not unlike today. Saturdays were always s a time of simple fun and happiness that made one realize the blessedness of being alive. This was especially true if you were a pupil in achool and went to church on Sundays. Saturday was basically the only day of the week that a young person had as their own free time.
Because we lived in a farming community on a post-colonial island, it had become the norm for the mothers or housewives in the village to go into the capital city every Saturday to sell the produce from the family farms. It was the traditional duty of the men or fathers in the family to work the lands on weekdays and the women go to the markets on Saturdays.
And so the journey would begin very early on a Saturday morning. One of the reasons for this was that transportation in those days was really limited; oftentimes it was only one wooden bus or minivan that had to to make several trips to carry all the women to the city. Because the market would open quite early, at about 6 AM, and it was the person who was early would get the best selling spaces, competition was stiff for catching the early worm.
So we would get up while it was still dark and carry the ground provisions, which we called "load," out to the road or, frequently, to the nearby village. After mommy was gone we would all go back home. Daddy would usually go to the mountain farm lands as usual. So al the children would be left at home on their own. My only big sister would wash the family laundry and cook. The washing in the early days was done at the village river where the other daughters of families would also gather. It used to be really fun and playful.
I remember that my older siblings would put me and a neighbour's daughter into a container made from hardened plastic that we called a "banana box" and placed the box in the river. In those days the river would be stopped or dammed so that we had what we used to call a "deep hole." It was here that much of the frolic took place.
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