Ekodi goes fishing

its another tale from my fairytale village of wondersmall, its a nice story for kids

Ekodi story 2

This is the story of when Ekodi goes fishing.

In the village called Wondersmall there lived a young boy Ekodi with his family. They lived in a hut on the grass plains of wondersmall village where they kept animals in their farm and also had a garden where they grew tomatoes onions  and other vegetables.

It was saturday morning in Wondersmall village and  the children were at the  table having their breakfast. Ekodi had his uickly and went out to play with his kite. Father did not notice this when he joined them at the table.

“Good morning children” Father said in greeting as he sat down on his stool to have breakfast too.

“good morning father” the children greeted

father.

“A good day today isn’t it dear?” Father said to Mother who was in the kitchen.

“Yes a warm sunny day it is and the children are all fine” Mother said

 and placed

 breakfast of bread and tea for Father.

Father begun

to eat his breakfast. The children drunk

 their nutritious

porridge too.After a while

Mother then said,

“today i'm collecting tomatoes for the market"

“That is wonderful. Remember to pick only the

 ones that have ripened well” Father said and then added,’ the people at the market always like to buy them fresh."

“that can be done dear."Mother told father.

Although the family grew their food to eat at home , they often

had a surplus of vegetables which they sold at the

village market. Father

 and mother often went to the market with their fresh ripe tomatoes to sell.

Mother then asked her children," how many of would like to come help mother?"

“im coming with you momma” little sister Sawani

said first.

"

I will need some boys though to carry the basket while Sawani and i pick the tomatoes...anyone?" mother asked them. But all

 the boys were

 silent.

“Atleast two boys” Mother said but the

boys were

 still silent. Father then said disappointedly.

“Come on children, two of you can help mother, its weekend and theres no school."

he then startede to count

them with his fingers.

"How many are you,..one,. two,..three,  four. Four sons and only two are needed at the garden."

He then looked at his fingers wondering who he hadnt counted because he had five sons.

" Hmmm….i've counted only four yet your supposed to be five boys"

“you’ve not counted Ekodi” Ambi then told him.

“Ah yes Ekodi, hmmm where is Ekodi right now, shouldn’t he be having breakfast?”

“That young son of yours was quick today and finished his breakfast early” Mother said

"he is a bright and energetic boy" father said laughing.Yes, Ekodi makes five sons” Father now finished counting his fingers.

“He should go to the garden”Osano, Ekodi's fat brother said.

“Yes he should be the one to go with sister Sawani

 and mother” Ambi said, but Father then looked at his children and said,

“Ekodi is always helping in the house during the week when you boys go to school,

let him play atleast this once, and besides I have something for Ekodi to do today. Sawani is a good girl she likes to help mother,  you boys are older than Ekodi and Sawani, you must lead by example. Today boys its your turn. I’ll pick David and Ambi to help mother with the basket”Father decided.

“ohhh!!!” the two boys that were chosen moaned.

 sadly. Osano and tom giggled.

“Next time it’ll be you two ” Mother said

 to Osano and Tom who then

stopped giggling.

"David and Ambi be good boys come with me” Mother said

“There now you’ve heard your mother.  David and Ambi finish your breakfast and get the tomato baskets”

“Yes father” the two boys said

 and started

 to finish their breakfast uickly.

 

 

CHAPTER 2

“Wee,…wee fly kite fly” Ekodi was running outside with the kite. David and Ambi came out of the hut after finishing their breakfast to carry the basket to the garden; they saw Ekodi.

 

“Wee,…wee” Ekodi was shouting and running on the grass playing.

“Hey Ekodi is playing there,he should be the one helping mother with the tomato  basket”. Ambi said

but sister Sawani was outside too and said,

“thats not true, father and mother say you should be the one to help with the basket today” Sawani said.

“hey Ekodi come back here” David said but Ekodi didnt hear as he was running and playing with his kite at a distance.

Ekodi ran further ahead and went to play in the grass fields. Mother came out of the hut and found the boys had not yet gone to the garden, she then told them,

“What are you waiting for boys, get the baskets and lets go to the garden” . David and Ambi looked at each other

“Ohh!!!’ They said knowing they had little choice but to do as they were told.

 

CHAPTER

“Fly kite fly” Ekodi played with his Kite for some time

“Its good that Ambi and David are helping mother” Ekodi said later when he saw Ambi and David with Sawani helping mother at the garden. Ekodi then saw Uncle coming to work in their small farm. They kept pigs and chickens in their farm.

Ekodi went to their farm and greeted Uncle as uncle entered the farm.

“Hello uncle” Ekodi said.

“hello Ekodi, how are you doing?” Uncle said.

“fine Uncle” Ekodi said.

Ekodi's Father came out of their home and went to the farm.

“Ekodi you are very quick today, you  had breakfast early” Father said laughing and touching his sons head.

“I wanted to play with the kite father”Ekodi replied.

“Hello uncle, a good summer day today isn’t it?” Father asked.

“yes it is” uncle replied. he held the spade in his hand for working in the pig sty. He looked at Father then and said,

” Have you told Ekodi yet?”.

"not yet i was looking for him this morning" father said

“Told me what papa” Ekodi asked.

“hmm” father smiled and told Ekodi," well Ekodi, yesterday I spoke to uncle here who knows our seasons very well, he says currenlty it’s the season we can catch a lot of fish by the river "

“The river papa?” Ekodi asked.

“Yes’ father said.

“you mean the river with the water and the wet sand and the swimming fish that is behind our village?” Ekodi asked.

“yes and today is a good day to go fishing” father told him.

“Fishing in the river” Ekodi wondered to himself in a low voice.

“and we spoke yesterday with Mother. She says you can come with me Ekodi” Father said

“come with you papa, oh that is , that is….." Ekodi wanted to say great. But he then realised how the water was wide and so deep,

"But i am afraid of the water, its so deep”Ekodi said.

“That is okay son, I too when I was young like you i

 was afraid of the water, but it is quite safe, you could even catch a fish of your own” Father said.

“I don’t know papa” Ekodi was still not

 convinced.

“It’ll be great fun Ekodi you can learn a lot, about how to

fish and also how to raw a boat” uncle said

‘you mean you can let me, I mean teach me how

 to catch fish and also how to  raw the boat?” Ekodi asked

 excitedly.

“Yes learning to fish is good, if your strong enough you can easily raw the boat,

lets go and get the

 rawing stick

and fishing stick and walk to the river where the canoe is"

“Yeeaaa!!"

Ekodi shouted and jumped happily. They started to walk to the river.

They got their fishing items in a shed close to the river. Together they went to the banks of the river behind Wondersmall village and father put the fishing items into their canoe.

 They pushed

 the boat into the water and Ekodi jumped

 in.

“Oh oh steady” Ekodi said

as the canoe wobled on the water.

Father entered

the  Canoe and used

 the paddled the canoe further inside the river with the paddling stick.

“Wow this is fun” Ekodi then said after some time.

“Yes it is, hold on, there is a lot of water here and rocks” father told his son as they entered some rapids

“Splash, Splash!!” the water rose and fell around the canoe.

“Wooooow wwoooow woow!!” Ekodi was nervous.

But they soon enter calm waters again.

“here it is more calm. Give me the fishing stick” father said Ekodi picked the fishing rod and gave it to father. he then held the paddling stick while father  begun to fish.

“Wow this is fun” Ekodi said. Father then got the fishing stick and begun to fish, he then started to teach his son,

"We catch fish, using this fishing stick Ekodi, we put some worms on the hook so the fish in the water smell it and come to eat it, when they bite the worm they get hooked to the fishing stick”

“sounds simple father, is that all papa?” ekodi asked.

Not at all,“once you’ve caught the fish we pull it out of the water and throw it inside the bucket in the boat" his father said pointing to the bucket in their canoe. Father stood with the fishing line in the river waiting to catch some fish. Suddenly he felt a pull on the fishing rod.

“Ah there's a big one, thats a big fish” he said as a fish taged at the fishing line hook that had some worms on it. Father then pulled out the hook with the fish and put it in the bucket. Father did the same again putting the hook inside the river and he was able to catch two fish.

Father then showed Ekodi one of the fish,

“Be carefull Ekodi, you see at the sides of this fish I am holding there are fins, these are what the fish use for swimming in the river. The fins are very sharp and dangerous too because the fish use them also sometimes for protection” father told Ekodi

“i understand father" ekodi said.

"how do the fish breath under the water father, like us humans?” Ekodi then asked

“No Ekodi not like us, they breath under water by using their gills which are at the sides of their head” father Ekodi told him

and showed him

 the gills of the fish at the sides of the fishes head.

“that is interesting” Ekodi said.

 

As the canoe went down stream they

saw from afar men with nets. They were

casting their big nets

far into the  rivers water. Ekodi did not know why they were doing this, so he asked

“What are they doing papa?"

“Those are fishermen son, they want to catch a lot of fish so  they are using big nets which they throw into the water.” Father said

“As many fish as we have caught?” Ekodi asked

“ha ha ha ha,.." his father laughed,"

"no Ekodi much more fish than we have caught” Father said.

They watched as the men caught a lot of fish in their big nets

"wow, that is a lot of fish”Ekodi said as they pulled out their nets with fish from the water.

"yes Ekodi" father said. Their canoe moved further down stream.Father then told Ekodi

“here son learn

to fish with the fishing rod

, you might catch plenty of fish too” Father told

Ekodi.

Ekodi and Father held the fishing stick(Rod) and father threw the stick string and hook into

the waters.

They waited for some time, while Ekodi held the fishing stick on his own. He felt

 like the greatest boy in the village doing this and couldn't

stop smiling. He was very happy.

“Anything Ekodi” Father asked after some time.

“no nothing papa“Ekodi replied

“stay and hold the rod a little longer” Father told Ekodi. After a while, Ekodi exclaimed

“Ah it is pulling papa” as he felt a weight from the river pull the rod.

“hold it, let me help you” father said.

They pulled the rod together and a fish came out of the water with its mouth on the hook of the fishing rod. Ekodi later caught three more fish. They had stayed long in the river catching fish,

soon the sun begun

 to set.

“okay Ekodi lets head back home” Father then said

“ohh!, cant we stay and fish always?” Ekodi pleaded.

“ha ha ha ha , not always son, just for now, here put the fishing rod down and help me raw the boat so we return home” father then said.

 

CHAPTER

They rawed the boat together until they returned home. Ekodi carried the bucket

 of some of the fish he caught and when they

were ashore ran to tell mother about what he and father had done.

“ Mother, mother look we went fishing” Ekodi said.

“you did Ekodi” mother was pleased.

“yes with father and we caught many fish, look” he then showed mother the bucket of fish.

“that is good” Mother said,” so you know how to fish son”

“yes I do father showed me how to fish” Ekodi said

“is that so dear?” mother asked Ekodi.

“yes, Ekodi is a real good fisherman , he also knows how to raw a boat, better than his dad” father said.

“wonderful, ha ha ha ha” mother and father both laughed happily. Ambi, Osano had seen Ekodi and Father come from the river with the fish. They wanted to know what had happened since they had never been to the river before,

“wow Ekodi you really went fishing. How was it.” Ambi then asked Ekodi.

“It was scary at first but then I got used to it. It was fun then” Ekodi said. Tom, David and Sawani heard him and came to listen to what Ekodi was saying.

“And you caught fish did you Ekodi?”Ambi asked.

“yes I did plenty of fish. Also i learnt how to raw a canoe and I saw a lot of fishermen catching a lot of fish too, more than this” Ekodi told them.

“Wow that was great” the children said.

The two boys , Ambi and Osano then ran to father. “father, father, can we go fishing another day too” they asked him.

“hmmm lets see, did you help mother with the basket of tomatoes?” father asked the boys

“yes we did”the two boys said.

“yes they did, they were good boys too” mother said

“okay then, next weekend, I and uncle will take you all to go fishing, ” Father told them.

“yeeeh!,   yeeeh!,  yeeeh!” the children jumped and shouted happily.

“ha ha ha ha” father laughed happily too.

THE END.

 

 

 

Author's Note

let your kids enjoy a little bit of our village life in tororo. we often keep cattle but i chose pigs as the farm animals to show diversification in our local agriculture