I was sitting in the van at CP (the soccer
field up in the village) after playing some games with the kids who came to
watch the other children play soccer. We had started with naming games, (you
say ‘Giraffe’, I say ‘Giraffe, elephant…’ etc.). Then I moved to the van so I
could call my Mom. While talking to her, my kids and village kids tried to
regain my attention in many ways. It started out subtly, with children moving
closer to the van, leaning on it, patting it, sneaking up one side to look in
the mirrors, staring at me. Then it moved to asking me if they could come in,
one little boy crumbling a big handful of sand/rocks against the side of the
van and lots of little taps on the van while they talked to each other, one eye
watching me talk on the phone. There was a water break and I was inundated with
children climbing into both vehicles looking for water, so I stepped out so I
could hear my mom, handing over the keys so they could get in. Then, when I was
back inside, it progressed to a few little boys reaching up to put a
grasshopper on the windshield right in front of me. I laughed at that one! All
I could see was little hands and fingers, a grasshopper (who didn’t want to be
there) and lots of little faces peering up to see if I would scream or laugh.
Finally I told my Mom I had to go and came back outside.
They informed me “We
want a game!” so I had to come up with something. All I could think of was “Red
Rover” which after a few explanations and practices, really took off. They
loved it! They especially loved ramming through the littlest guy’s (Zach)
hands… he was definitely the weakest link, but he sure toughed it out. Big kids
were pulling him back, knocking him over, hanging on his hands. It got to the
point where he was such a target, the other kids wouldn’t hold hands with him. Finally
I moved him to the side so only half of him was open to injury. (In Malawi,
when I taught the kids Red Rover, they changed it to “Land Rover” which seemed
to make more sense to them. Not here, they just went with the whole ‘Red Rover’
idea.) I think I got called back and forth from side to side about 5 times in a
row before I said “Not me again! Choose someone else!” and they laughingly
chose someone else. It’s always more fun when you can get the adults to play I
guess :)
Then I taught them Freeze Tag, which was a
lot of fun. Some of them had trouble with the idea of actually staying in one
place, so they would run a few steps with their arms out, finally stopping. It
doesn’t take long for kids to catch on to games and their rules, no matter what
the language. The last game of Freeze Tag was ended by a flood of soccer
players running back to the truck – time to go! On the way back Papa Jojo and I
had fun “racing” each other… as much racing as you can do on bad roads, anyway.
The good stretches provide some fun and we sort of let each other pass from
time to time and honk at each other – the kids love it when they think we’re
racing! They cheer and laugh and on the way back they started singing a song I
taught them this week. They especially loved the last line where you yell
“Woooo!” at the end and jump. But in the van, they substituted banging on the
sides and yelling for jumping. I could not stop laughing – their enjoyment of
life educates me continuously!
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