Children Are Fun!

          Every now and then Chuck has to take a break from being a serious adult and be creative and playful. In the above picture, Dr. Chuck is pretending to be Pinocchio with Moengoemeh and Precious. Who is the real Pinocchio?

	Moengoemeh is!
	Precious is!

          Chuck sees all these things that grow that ask to be used in some way. The people here grow gourds that they use in different ways. One gourd that they grow is what we would call a dipper gourd. They don't bother to pick or use those that don't mature. Chuck makes airplanes out of them. He puts a paper propeller on the round end and then slits the neck and inserts a paper tail in the slit. Generally he uses construction paper. He makes a small hole in the top with a nail and inserts a piece of dental floss that is tied to a toothpick into the hole. When he pulls it back, the toothpick catches. The kids love it and so does he. When he hangs it outside the wind makes the propeller go around. We talk about flying to America on it. Everybody laughs.

           One gourd that had no neck on it he made into a flowerpot. He cut the stem end off; painted it and put sand in it. It is quite a handsome container for holding flowers. The problem with that is that the poster paint he used is not water proof. The only way to really get the dust off things at this time of year is with a damp cloth. Poor Esther found out the hard way when she dusted it with a damp cloth. That was the only time she did that.

          Chuck has the kids bring him the loofa that grows here. After he removes the outer shell and seeds, he puts them on sticks, paints them each a different color with poster paints and puts them in containers. One time he put some in a clay pot with soil in it. It looks like a pot of blooming flowers.

          Our airstrip at Zing just begs for a kite to be flown. Chuck loves to fly kites. When our kids were young he made them. We brought some clear plastic trash bags with us. He cuts up those to the size he wants, ties reed sticks together with either dental floss or crochet thread that we bought from the Bays. Then he stretches the plastic over the frame, tapes it in place, puts a bowstring in place, and tries to fly it. He has had some success and a lot of fun.

          By the time a child is three years old, particularly girls, they are carrying babies on their backs. They also have started to carry small containers of water and other things on their heads. Childcare is a fact of life here for girls. I'm always amazed with how much really little children can do. They all learn to work early. Life is not easy. Even though they have responsibility, they also get the opportunity to play too -- especially the boys. Yes, it is a man's world here.