Toys ‘R’ Them

There are very few toys available to children here. One of our 'grocery' type stores has a shelf of toys, but for the average child here a toy from the shelf is not a reality. So wheels are the most common toy that we see. Children will roll any size wheel down the street with a stick. Our neighbor boys also have 4 small wheels (cut out from the sole of old flip-flops) that they are very creative in using to make cars out of juice boxes, cans, or anything in the garbage. We have seen boys playing games with old batteries (which are very common to power radios and flashlights when there is not any electricity in the home). Girls seem to have less options available to them for play. But of course they have songs to clap and jump to. We have also seen them make a hop scotch frame in the sand. There are two ways to make marks in the sand, one is to pour water lines, which usually results in being yelled at because water is too precious to do such a thing. The other option is moving the sand - either building up or indenting.

For our own children we brought some basic versatile toys. We have about a suitcase, but most of the time I feel like these toys are too plentiful because our children are more than happy to play inside all day long. The children in our neighborhood cannot imagine what our children would do inside all day long. So we have shared some toys with the neighbor children. Unfortunately, they have a different understanding of how to care for toys than we do. But the elements are also very hard on toys too. The hot items toys that we are able to share with our neighbors easily are matchbox cars and any ball that can be used for soccer. Needless to say we are down a couple balls and matchbox cars, but we have enjoyed the time playing with the neighbors.