Fly High

CEBU, Philippines - I just looked at kites being displayed on the fence of the elementary school where I went to, in some crowded streets, or under the shade of the acacia tree that me and my lola used to pass by on our way to a cave in Guadalupe.  My eyes feasted on the colorful papel de hapon kites.  I wished I could have one of those. I did not have money back then.

Nanay (that’s how I used to call my lola) told me to just watch and learn from the rich kids in our neighborhood.  Of course, my kite is not like the papel de hapon-made kites displayed on the streets.  We did not have money to buy papel de hapon, the bamboo for the frameworks, and the lambo (thick line).  My kite was a simple diamond kite. 

So, this was how I made my first kite:  I started with the tiny sticks I got from a broomstick. I located the thicker ends of both sticks and put them one over the other (four inches from the tip).  I joined them using a rubber band.  This served as the arching horizontal framework of the kite’s wings.  Once done, I placed it down and laid the cut out plastic from the plastic bag on the ground and made it look like a diamond instead of a square.  So now, I’m looking at a diamond shaped plastic with all of its four points—north, south, east and west.  I took a third stick and vertically placed it on top of the diamond with the thick side to the north and the thin side to the south.  I took another rubber band, broke it into two, and used the first half to tie the north tip of the diamond shaped plastic 1 and ½ inches from the tip of the thick side of the stick.  Before tying the south tip of the plastic to the thin side of the vertical stick with the other half of the rubber band, I made sure the stick made a little arc or bow against the plastic because that’s how the backbone of the kite should be.  As soon as the backbone was perfectly placed, the wings’ framework had to be attached next.

The joined thick ends of the wing’s framework (which I have already made in advance) must be placed across and on top of the vertical backbone of the kite (find the center, ok).  So I punched two holes on the plastic, both on the upper left and lower right quadrants or angles made by the two intersecting frameworks and fixed it with a rubber band.  Once done with this, I bent the right side of the wings’ frame to make and arc towards the east tip of the diamond plastic and tie it with a rubber band.  I did the same on the left side.  I made sure the arc did not go out of the sides of the diamond by securing the arching stick to the plastic with a rubber band or thread.  After doing all this, I flipped the kite over to reveal the “plastic side’ so I could fix the thread by tying it on the intersection of the backbone and the wings’ framework and on a point about two inches above the south tip.  Then, I hang this thread on one of my fingers and look for the best spot to tie the main thread or line connected to my Alpine spool (normally about four inches from the center of the cross made by the vertical and horizontal frames).  Then I checked for balance on both wings.  When the left side of the kite went down while I held the balance thread, I tied a plastic on the right (east tip) and added more to balance the two sides.  If you don’t do this, the kite would keep on looping to the left side and would continue to behave that way until it would crash back to the ground.  As soon as I got the perfect wing balance, I tied the remaining of plastic to the tail. Without the tail the four forces of aerodynamics (lift, drag, thrust, weight) wouldn’t be complete.  If it’s not complete your kite won’t achieve full balance in flight or worse, it won’t fly at all.

My kite was done.  I asked a close friend to come with me to our rooftop. He held it for me and moved back as far as there were still tin roofs to stand on as I released the ordinary thread from my spool.  At the count of three, he released the kite and I pulled the line.  Sometimes we we’re lucky.  As the wind blew fast, my kite also reached heights.  But sometimes we waited for hours for winds to arrive.  Of course, we prayed silently.  We whistled to summon the winds to come near the kite. 

If you make your own kite like what I did, fly it like what me and my friend did that summer. You will learn noble things money can’t buy;  things that will help you believe in yourself even when nobody seems to believe in you.  Things that will help you understand that no matter how hard up you are, you can always dream and chase that dream until you get tired. 

Keep believing, genius.  Fly high!