One day in summer. Photo-report about the boys of Skazochny Krai settlement
What do you think are the easiest children’s activities in nature, for example, in their grandmother’s village, or at the homestead? Of course, everyone has examples, from tablets to fishing, but I believe that the best thing is to leave them to themselves. Children have unlimited freedom of imagination, which, along with an huge area to explore and freedom of behavior, makes it a clear winner over ordinary entertainment.
In this report, I want to show one day in the life of four such children (I can be considered the fifth, because, spending time with them, I also fell into childhood). I met them in the field, rummaging in a haystack. As is necessary for children of their age, they did it with full dedication, burying themselves over their heads in dry grass, sparing no clothes. Inspired by their spontaneity, I joined them. When the straw was already everywhere and began to be annoying, they invited me to swim. Ignoring the chill of the mountain river they splashed for hours. Sometimes it seems that children are invulnerable when enthusiastic about a game.
After some time, we were joined by a local wild animal, a chihuahua named Banana. This mongrel no longer resembles the quivering lump worn by fashionable women in bags. Ancient genes awoke in him.
While I was watching the swimming, the boys got a log from somewhere, which, without hesitation, they climbed onto. Not everyone could stand on it at once, so a serious battle arose for the right to take control. The log itself was not going to submit easily, and regularly threw the riders into the water.
During the filming of this spectacle, I didn’t notice that I was getting stuck up to my ankle in the beach clay. The children magnanimously helped to dig me up, after which, as you can judge from the photo, they found a more interesting application for clay. Their “war paint” and mud “snowball” skirmish scared off those who wanted to swim for a while.
This day made me understand that everything the child sees is regarded as a new interest. There is almost nowhere in the whole area they have not studied, or trees they haven’t climbed, some of which nobody else can manage.
I parted with this brave team in the evening. I forced them to stand in one place for a group photo, after which they galloped off to new adventures.
Andrei Rudenko (17 years old), Agudarya homestead
P.S. From Andrei’s mother. We must admit that after this day of “leaving them to themselves”, the parents, along with the boys, later had to restore the haystack and clean up near the river.
P.P.S. From Andrei’s mother. Andrei recently entered the Krasnodar State Institute of Culture with the specialty of “cameraman”, and this report on the topic “One day in summer” was one of the tasks for admission – it was necessary to do it all in one day and add a text. In the report, residents of Skazochnyi Krai family homestead settlement, Saveliy and Matvei Shaniny, David Shakhnazarov, Yegor Shevtsov and Banana, the faithful dog of the Shanins, were photographed. Many thanks to them for that!
First published 20 August 2017 – http://agudaria.ru/odnazhdy-letom-fotoreportazh-pro-malchishek-poseleniya-skazochnyj-kraj/
and 5 April 2018 – https://anastasia.ru/articles/detail/51752/