A LIFE WELL-LIVED...

BOYS WILL BE BOYS The Sting (The Wasp Sting)

As a boy, I also had a fair share of petty accidents. I was on third grade when Viling, Jun Benecio and I went out to upper Labo in search for youg macopa, we use as bullets for our bamboo toy guns. After only a few minutes searching, we were so lucky, a huge macopa tree, with all those bullets hanging from it, was there in-front of us. Instinctively, we have not even made the sign of cross yet, we each started climbing the tree, like monkeys. I was first, then they followed. I was about to position myself on a big branch when in so doing, I noticed my right palm was on something soft and powdery. It's only when they started injecting me with their lethal weapon that I knew it was a colony of wasps (bay og lapinig). I yelled "lapinig"!, and was sliding all the way down. They too, were already on the ground. We examined our body how much sting we got!. I was stung the most!. We were all scared, especially me, having the worst. Right away, we applied traditional medicine we learned from our old folks. We bagan collecting "amorseco". The water contained in its stem, accordingly, is best to prevent swealing. True, not one of the dozens or so stings I got, was swealing. We all went home, my place first, and they were also ready to face the music. We were all just glad, there was no music to face! My mother washed the spots with cold water, and made me go to bed to "recuperate". Jun Benecio is gone now, several years back actually, and Viling has since immigrated to the USA, Georgia, as of writing. Though I haven't spoken to them about this incident the times we ran into each other in our adulthood, I know somewhere in their coconut shell, is a folder, full of things worth remembering, this being one of them!