~~~~
When my mom was an adolescent, she moved to the Philippines because her father was stationed at a navy base. For much of my childhood, she would tell me stories about the adventures she would have on the base. For this assignment, I want to write her story as a pre-teen in a foreign county and how at time she would feel very out of place. She had to combat not only the natural environment but also the social discrimination going on during the 1960s (she had a Filipino boyfriend her parents did not approve of).
The events I want to highlight include: how she would count the geckos crawling on her wall at night, the time she had to fun away from monkeys in the jungle, and how she would sneak out at night to see her boyfriend. I want to use the counting the geckos as a framework—having her lay in bed—unable to sleep—remembering these events that have happened. I know she felt very venerable during her stay there, so I hope to capture that feeling. Also I kind of want to link the stories of running away from the monkeys to how she runs away from her parents--or how people stare at her because of the relationship.
I interviewed my mom about these stories, and below is the transcript of the time she had to run away from monkeys.
“I would go down to the swimming pool like all the time by myself. To get there, I would cut through areas nowadays would seem really dangerous. I remember one time, I was coming home from the Philippines. Uhm, there was this huge, huge steep hill that you would have to get up, and there was no way home other than that. I had to ride my bike or walk everywhere, and I remember I was all by myself. I had to go home, and I was wet. I had my towel and my stuff, and I was walking up the hill, and all of a sudden, I looked on both sides, and of course it’s in the middle of like jungle on either side of the street. Huge trees! And I looked on both sides, and there were hundreds and hundreds of monkeys. Not like the nice, cuddly, oh aren’t you cute chimpanzee monkeys. I wish I could remember the name. The kind that have really sharp teeth, and they are just looking down at cha.
But anyway, that was something I had to learn to just used to. Like, oh okay, there are monkeys everywhere, but I didn’t know what to do, and I was a super athlete back then. So, I remember being absolutely terrified. Remember, I am scared of geckos. So, I had to just take a deep breath. I counted to three. I said a prayer. My heart was pounding out of my body. I couldn’t go back down because I had already gone a little up that huge steep hill. I mean it was a long way to go. I had no other way up or down. I was in a really dangerous situation. There was nothing I could do. There weren’t any cell phones.
So, I remember, I had to run for my life. I also remember just like running running like just (pause) like just (pause) for my life. I just counted to three and just started running like the wind, and it felt like I didn’t breath until I got to the top of the hill. I would look up every so often to either side, and yeah, all the monkeys were still there (pause) making a hideous noise. Just like hideous noise. Just pounding my ears. My heart is pounding, and I’m going as fast as I could to get to the top of the hill. Uhm, I was able to get home, but that’s something I will never forget. Uhm, (pause) I still think about that."
No comments:
Post a Comment