Swimming in Gullies

"SHHHH don't let it slam shut. If you wake them, we are in so much trouble!" my brother whispered to me as we snuck out of the house.
Once we reached our destination and met up with the others, we stripped down to our underwear and waded into the green water.

During the rainy season in Taiwan, the normally dry, rocky ditches or gullies, as they are called there, fill up with chest-high water. My mom and a group her friends when they were younger, (young enough that it did not matter that they were were all in their underwear) decided that it would be fun to go out and play around in these gullies. Her parents believed that she was simply playing in the rain with some friends, but little did they know that she was stripping down to her barest, frolicking along, chest-deep in the stagnant water.

The group was sworn to secrecy, never allowed to tell a soul. Arriving at the gullies, they would play tag and just splash around in the water, having the time of their lives. My mom told me how in order to get back up out of the gullies, you would have to pull yourself up by the bamboo growing on the hill. The bamboo was very sturdy and the roots were strong enough that from all the children pulling on them, they never came unearthed. This made it more exciting and the kids would swing themselves from one stalk to another zigzagging their way to the top.

Thinking back on it now, my mom cannot believe how she could have ever swam in that disgusting putrid water. There was a high possibility that they could have gotten typhoid! Yet still, she greatly enjoyed it when she was young, whether it was just the thrill of deceiving her parents or playing around in the water with some friends.

She would give this activity a rank of 5. So the next time you come across some stagnant water-filled gully, why don't you just strip on down and give it a try!