Family

Neteyam

I watch as Tsireya, Roxto, and Aonung dive into the water gracefully. Lo'ak and I glance at each other nervously, before jumping in after them. Kiri, Tuk, and Joey follow after us, whooping. The water is cool and refreshing, and once I get my bearings, I can see clearly. The five of us look around in amazement. It's just as beautiful as it was at night as it is during the day. The fish swim around us, unafraid. We could reach out and touch them if we wanted to. I look over at Joey. She is amazed. Her wavy hair floats around her smiling face angelically. I can't believe I am the one who gets to be hers. How did I get so lucky?

Lo'ak points to where the three experienced divers are swimming ahead, waiting for us to follow. We do our best to catch up to them, but they're so incredibly fast. After a minute, we have to go up for air. We break the surface, gasping. Joey already looks kind of tired. We're really not used to swimming like this. After taking a few breaths, we peek under to see where they are. Tsireya gestures something with her hands. When we shrug in response, she waves for us to follow. 

I don't want to yet, I'm still out of breath, but we have to try. We take breaths again and dive back down, trying to catch up to them again. After a minute, we have to go back up again. It's so annoying. 

As we're all gasping for air, Tsireya and Roxto pop up next to us. 

"Are you alright?" Tsireya asks us gently. 

"You're too fast!" Tuk whines. "Wait for us."

"Just breathe." She insists. "Breathe."

Aonung pops up beside her. "You are not good divers. Maybe good at swinging through trees, but..."

Tsireya slaps his head, makng him laugh. 

"Come on bro." I sigh. "We don't speak this... finger talk, guys." 

"We don't know what you're saying." Joey agrees, clearly tired. 

"I will teach you." Tsireya is very kind and patient. 

"Where is Kiri?" Roxto notes, looking around. 

"Kiri?" Tuk and the rest of us suddenly realize she's not with us. 

"Who?" Asks Aonung, annoying me a bit. 

"Kiri." Roxto insists. I'm glad one of them noticed. I've been so focused on not embarrassing myself that I hadn't noticed she'd wandered off. 

We start to look around in a panic. Joey dives under immediately, off to find her. The rest of us follow suit, looking desperately. 

After a few minutes, Joey pops up a little ways away. "She's over here!" I see another head pop up next to her, and feel myself relax. Kiri has a habit of wandering off. It usually only happened in the jungle. She'd disappear looking at the plants and animals. I guess she was admiring the ocean life. 

We all swim over in relief. 

"I'm tired." Tuk cries out again. "Can we go back?"

Joey says nothing, but I can tell she's exhausted too. I'm feeling tired myself. Who knew swimming was so much harder than running?

"Yeah, why don't we take a break?" Tsireya offers. "You're not used to using your bodies this way." 

We all swim back to the village. Aonung and Roxto leave us in the dust, but Tsireya happily keeps pace with us. 

Once we're safe on land, she decides to show us how they fish. There's a few ways they do so. One is by throwing a big net into the water and pulling up any fish that get caught. Another is by spear fishing, and the last is by using a bow. The last two can be done in tide pools or off of boats. 

Finally, Joey finds something she is good at. She is death from above to the fish when she's using her bow. Even the experienced kids are impressed. I remember when we were children, and my dad taught us how to shoot fish. We were both good at it then, but this is a whole new level. I'm better with the spear, but still not as good as Joey. 

After our lessons, Joey and I head back to our tent for dinner. When we pass by my parents, I see Tuk is already asleep. She's got the right idea. My whole body aches from the exertion of swimming. Joey looks as if she is ready to collapse. Which she does, once we're home. She lets herself fall face first into our bedding, groaning in pain. "This SUCKS" I hear her almost yell into the blankets. 

I lay down next to her, rubbing her back comfortingly. "We'll get better." 

She mumbles something unintelligible into the bed.

"I'll get dinner." I laugh, getting up to dig through our supplies. I find some fish and vegetables wrapped up in large green leaves, and sit down next to her. "Here."  

She sighs loudly before rolling over and sitting up. "Thank you."

We eat silently as the sun sets, casting an orange glow over everything. Too tired to speak, we leave the leaves on the ground next to the bedding and just lay right down. It's barely dark before we fall asleep.