I (DeAnna) feel blessed that the neighborhood children call us by name and are comfortable with us. I’m amazed at the ingenuity of the children. We see them make all kinds of toys to play with. A stick, nail and plastic lid quickly becomes a car. Two sardine cans, bamboo and nails become a car you can steer. A bra in the road soon becomes hours of teasing among the boys. Little black plastic sacks that are at pretty much every stand become kites. Our moldy VHS tapes became many different imaginative things. The list goes on and on.
The other day I saw two little boys with a piece of pressed board that had a checked pattern painted on it. They had this board resting on their legs as they faced one another. The checkers were bottle caps they found on the ground throughout the neighborhood.
D squared + J squared = Anderson 
Thanks for sharing these observations.
These creative, resourceful children (who can devise hours of pastimes for themselves without an electronic device in sight) seem content, don’t you think? Which begs the uncomfortable, good-for-thought question: why send them toys? Is that to make us feel better or for their benefit? How durable are they and what happens once they break? Toys, gadgets, are not what most of my young Cameroonian friends (or their parents) request. Surprisingly perhaps, it’s money for school fees, back packs, shoes, textbooks…
On a related but different topic, yesterday I read an article where Stuffmas was contrasted with Christmas. It saddens me to see that Stuffmas has been imported to Cameroon and it gives me pause for thought as I remember what you describe so well in today’s post.
Absolutely amazing – when kids are free to use their imaginagion, anything is possible.
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