Water artwork on hot tarmac.
This was in Mishta, a town just out of Tareem with largely farming land. And famously known as the town of Habib Omar Bin-Hafidh’s grandfather – Habib Salem Bin-Hafidh Bin-Shaykh Abu Bakr Bin Salem.
We had gone there to visit a young friend studying in the branch campus of our school, who was finding things difficult.
He was more of my friend’s friend. My job was to arrange the transport really. The other guy arranged for us to bring pizza which was cooked by another student. And cake by yet another student.
On the way back we saw this local boy.
He had tied a string to a 5 or 8 litre used cooking oil container and I suppose made holes at the bottom. As the water leaked he would move it or swing it around to create the pattern on the tarmac road.
The children here do have toys in the same meaning as how we understand toys for children. But I don’t see plenty of it. Meaning, a household having plenty of toys for their children. Including well to do homes.
Their attitude towards buying and consuming is just plain different. Fortunately different.
For a few factors I suppose, from my observation:
– Much of their playing is with humans, not toys, at least toys in and of itself.
– Learning through play includes learning what to do with what is available.
– Lack of advertising or media ‘encouraging’ parents or children to buy/acquire.
– Or fulfill what they’ve been made to feel and believe is lacking.
