The children in my neighborhood are rather poor and I always find it interesting to see how resourceful they are in creating games or finding things to occupy their interest.

Of course this can often include things that are rather mischievous.

The young boys like to fight. Nothing serious (most of the time) but they grab one another and wrestle their opponent to the ground and chase their friends from one end of the street to another. Typical of young boys all over the world I’d say. The young boys also like to pick on one particular, be-speckled kid named Omar. He inevitably responds by crying and some adult inevitably makes the perpetrators apologize.

The girls like to chant as a group. A chorus of their bird-like voices carries a long distance. The girls also like to take chalk and write on the doors of their neighbors. I’ve had pictures drawn on mine, various words like “father” and “mother” and some nonsensical words. Someone once wrote “Non-believer” on my door. I didn’t particularly appreciate that. After all, how do they know what I believe or don’t believe?

Soccer is often played in the streets. Much to my annoyance when it’s right outside my door because the “thunk, thunk, thunk” sound of the ball hitting my wall reverberates throughout the house. And the boys’ voices are always rough, loud and aggressive. But all I have to do is ask them to move a little bit and they almost always comply (with someone grumbling mightily but acquiescing nonetheless).

Kicking empty, liter-sized plastic bottles that litter the street is great sport and amazingly loud. Kids will kick them up and down the street until all the air is gone and the bottle becomes a flat, sorry imitation of a cylinder. They also like to pull apart Styrofoam and other packing materials that occasionally find their way onto the street into little bits that make me cringe on behalf of the planet.

Yoyos were popular in the summer and games of tidily winks come and go. Top spinning is also great sport and the kids like to slam the metal cover to my utility gauges against the metal bit to sharpen the point on the bottom of their top. Card trading turns into a fury of bargaining and shouting. And every year when elections are held and leaflets literally paper the street, the kids take great joy in grabbing a handful from the adults (who have been paid to distribute the leaflets) and then throw them hither and yon or stuff them through the doors of the houses on the street.

I live across from a public fountain and spraying your friends with water from the spigot is great sport; especially when it’s hot outside. Kids also like to take a mouthful of water and spit it through the keyhole in neighboring doors. Knocking on the neighbor’s door and then running away before it is answered is full of fun, too!

All-in-all the children don’t have many toys to amuse themselves. At least I haven’t seen many aside from a kind of rubber punching ball sold at carnivals back home. I remember one boy coming to me with tears in his eyes because his ball had a hole in it and was now a rubber blob that was unusable. I walked down to the neighborhood store and bought him a new one. The look of surprise and delight on his face was priceless! I saw him proudly carrying that ball with him for about 1 week. I guess it, too, became a rubber blob before too long. Then it was time for him to start kicking plastic bottles again or jump on the discarded wrappers of cookies and other junk food to try to elicit a loud “pop” from the cellophane. Another amusing sport.