Stages of life.

I remember when I was a child of 9 to 10 years old. I was a leader for my younger siblings, my two brothers followed me wherever I went. I would always guide them along the roads we were to travel. We lived in a big house with all the services and minimum comforts a family of 7 people needed to live with their basic needs covered.

My father would buy a goat or a pig every year and on some special occasion like his own birthday he would send for the animal and at home together with experts would slaughter it and then cook it with beer and lots of vegetables. The goat meat was, according to my memories, a delicious piece of meat. I have not eaten this meat for a long time now.

It comes to my memory that at that age I had a lot of strength in my arms. My father would put a loose rope around the goat's neck and send me and my two younger brothers to take the goat to graze in the foothills.

My youngest brother was then 6 years old and the other was 8. And then there was I, 10 years old, when I had to carry the animal dragging the rope up the mountain to a house of my father's friends, they asked me to tie the goat to a tree pole and I left it there.

I remember that the next day I had to go and carry chopped wood for the goat to eat and so every day in the afternoon I would go with my brothers. Once when I arrived and greeted the owner of the house she was upset with me, she told me that I tied the goat to a yucca plant and the goat ate it all. I apologized but I had no idea what the plant was, much less what it was used for.

When I got home I told my mother and she told me that it was a vegetable, a plant that develops edible roots and if the goat eats the leaves, the branches will not grow back. So I made a mess without knowing. The next times I had to ask where to put the animal.

In those times we could go out in the street and we were not afraid of criminals. We didn’t hear of any deaths or rapes, at least in our sector.

 That's why my father would send me with my brothers to do the tasks that they had to do, but they were smaller and had less strength. So memories come to my mind of the times we met on mountain climbs because we enjoyed climbing in the ravines and climbing trees. These things I taught my brothers and sisters and of course I was better at them.

But all this has an end. The time to say goodbye to my tree climbing came. One fine day, what happens to every girl who becomes a teenager happened, and then I was no longer useful to my father. Now I had to stay at home and my younger brothers, who were already 8 and 10 years old, took over all the chores I did.

I remember that I hated this stage for a while. I didn't know why I had to go through these changes while the boys followed their normal rhythm, but then by studying and learning I learned why these changes occurred in a woman's development and I learned to accept why I was no longer needed for these manly activities.

It was then that I dedicated myself more to gardening with my mother. Now I had more free time and in this new stage I had to get to know other things that the women in my home did… such as helping in the kitchen and planting flowers and vegetables, doing the cleaning and other things.

And I was already starting high school too, new friends, learning to fraternize, which I didn’t use to do because my father didn’t allow me to. I started to meet friends, they taught me how to dance, I learned about sports. When my high school had its anniversary week, many folkloric activities were celebrated and during the whole week of the high school I did not miss a single day of these celebrations and the competitions among the students.

But everything has to come to an end and so did this stage. I finished my studies in this high school, which took me 3 years, and then I moved to another institute where I finished my training with my first degree as a professional nurse. And here are other experiences that come to my memory.

Another stage, more learning, new challenges… and this is another story to tell.