My Childhood

I was very happy when I was a child.

I lived in a new growing section of Salvador – IAPI – and there were a lot of large free areas, inside and outside my apartment building, in which I ran and played with my brothers and friends. At that time there were usually many children in a family and so was mine. We were ten: My father, my mother and my seven siblings (five girls and two boys). I was the eldest. There was not so much violence, hunger, and ill in our city then. I do not remember to have heard of so many serious and terrible social problems we are bearing nowadays even considering the fact that I was just a child. We all used to ride bicycles, to play soccer, to jump and climb the trees. We also used to play games, such as hide-and-seek, hopscotch, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, circle game (mainly for the little girls), tag, pin-the-tail-on-the-duck, and others. My parents were very happy and cheerful persons. They really celebrated all the traditional parties with us: Carnival, Holy Week, Saint John’s festival, Christmas, etc. All of our birthdays were celebrated. My mother was a very religious woman and made us participate of the main catholic events year after year and we did enjoy it!

I was very happy when I was a child ... because I had a family, friends, and a good time.