Amusement

Here are a list of ways kids amuse themselves:

1) The classic bicycle and stick – the ones you see in depression-era photographs in the west, where kids push the tire with the stick and try to keep the tire rolling for as long as possible.

2) Marbles, especially in one neighborhood more than any other one. The kids were so engrossed in the marbles that they only screamed “Mazungu! Mazungu! Morning! Morning!” one time, and then continued with their game. I can’t figure out if this one group of houses are the only ones who can afford marbles, have obtained marbles, or like marbles.

3) Making mud pie, or the Rwandan equivalent. Little tiny toddlers, after the rain, were thoroughly mixing just the right amount of water, mud and sand into empty sardine cans – the only canned goods other than tomato paste for kilometers around. They take sticks and mix and mush and then poor them onto the ground and then into another sardine can, to be ready by lunchtime. Or before they get bored.

4) Pulling a string attached to anything plastic, such as a tiny plastic wheel that fell off of a broken toy truck, or a broken toy truck with a missing wheel.

5) The universal and fantastic bubble wrap. I have no idea how that got to Rubona. Perhaps from some shipment to Agahozo-Shalom? But one small child was showing the others how to pop the bubble wrap and everyone was very excited. Including me.

6) These big massive ten-meter steels beams that are making their way into rural areas and stabilizing buildings are popular to peer through. I saw one one-year-old squat down, the adorable way that one-year-olds do, and cup his hands, looking through the steel beam to the other side. He seemed absolutely engrossed..

When kids don’t have a toy at hand, or when they are too old for toys but not quite old enough to hide their boredom, kids gather around anything that is slightly entertaining. The fact that some kids are crowding around makes more kids crowd around, until the existence of a crowd itself seems to be half the entertainment. Sometimes this is a white person (including me). But it is not that white people are incredibly more entertaining than anything else– it is just yet another focal point to crowd around (the crowd can reach over a hundred) until the next best thing comes alone. I was walking to the market when a very young toddler, eager to keep up with the other kids following me, was almost run over by a bike. The child fell and started crying. The child seemed fine and did not have any scrape, but the throng of children quickly crowded around the man and his bike and the child who had fallen, and this scene was now the place to be.

There are a few residents in the area with mental illnesses. One boy, who sort of walks staggeringly back and forth in a zig-zag, kind of chasing children, was chasing children who were chasing me. I am not sure if he had a mental illness or was drunk or both. The fifty or so kids, in their blue school uniforms (girls) and beige uniforms (boys) all gave loud, fearful laughs and gasps whenever he staggered near them, and then ran as a group to the other side of the road and then, to keep things interesting, started chasing him. They were laughing and mocking him and afraid all at the same time. Adults looked on, curious, but there was nothing quite to do, and I don’t know if they could do anything to help this boy. The older residents with mental illnesses are not mocked as much, from what I have seen – the older men and women are given a certain respect, regardless of their mental state. At times a child or young adult will let me know that a particular older man or woman is not to stable, so that I know that. They will perhaps laugh a bit while explaining this, but it never seems cruel the way I saw these children laugh at the boy, and is never directly mocking the older person.