A FATHER and SON STORY

                                                                         By DAF
 
  A native of the rainforest lived all of his life with nature thinking and knowing that it was the giver of all he needed in his lifetime. He respected nature and now knew its ways that were passed from father to son. He was also doing the same for his own son, passing on the skills and the way of survival to live in the rainforest, but he also knew the future was changing and may not be quite the same for his son as it was for him. The son was also going to a school run by missionaries during the week and returning at the weekends to his family. He was not keen on the separation from his family but the distance by the river was too much to travel each day and made it difficult during the monsoons. So they compromised, and schooling came with separation. 

  On the weekends, father and son would go out hunting, being the only son and the last born in a family of five girls. The father, a gentle caring man in his ways, spent as much time as possible with his son, his pride and joy whom he had every hope of passing on his bloodline. On a weekend out hunting the father could see that his son was not the happy boy he was when out hunting before. After some time the father sat the boy down on a fallen tree left by the people who were cutting down the trees for profit and forcing the indigenous people to travel further into the rainforest to hunt for food for their families. He knew that nature will replant the rainforest and in time will claim back its ground but not fast enough to be able to hunt in this area again and maybe not in his own lifetime.
  The father, sitting on his hunkers and thinking, how easy it is to become a father and how hard it is to be a father was now looking at his son and seeing himself in his son when he himself was a young boy said... 
''There is something on your mind that has taken you away from the hunt.''
The boy holding on to his blowpipe so tight that his knuckles were turning white answered...
''Father, you tell me to go to school so I can have a better life for myself and in time also for my own family when that time comes but I also see you happy in your ways here in the rain-forest and I am between the two worlds as to where my future lies.''
The father, realizing his son had given this a lot of thought, tried to answer by finding the words so that his son would understand and not lose heart said...
''When you look around you here in the rain-forest you know you are in a safe place, but it's more than that, it's when you are in tune with your surroundings and respect nature, but, no matter where in the world you are you can still be in a safe place when your mind is open to your surroundings. The world is your 'rainforest' now, and education, not just in school, is your travel ticket to broaden your horizons. That is my horizon, what you see in front of you, those mountains in the distance that my father and his father before him saw. To go beyond those mountains was a life-changing effect on them, some never returned and the ones that did spoke of the fears they had of meeting different people in different ways and spoke a language that could not be understood. For a father to expect his son to fill his place is not fair to the son but for the father to help his children to broaden their horizons is very fair in this world.

The boy, relaxing his hold on the blowpipe and that smile returning that his father knew like the sun rising in the morning, realized that the days he was now spending in the rainforest with his father were all part of the greater plan of survival. The boy will remember his father in his rainforest for these memories will be his guidance and comfort in adult life.

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