Tuesday 23 July 2013

Kids in the Hood!

As some of you may know I have been living in the compound behind FreMo while I have been in Africa. Part of living in a community is being present and participating. During my time at FreMo I have tried to get to know the children in my neighbourhood. They are characters, a here are some of them.



This is Emma and Terri. Emma seems to be the leader of the gang, or at least the one that will discipline the others if they are misbehaving. She is also willing to have a conversation with me, without asking for anything. Terri is a character and a girl with attitude. You will see more of her.


These new additions are brothers, obviously as they are dressed the same. I didn't see them often. The 5th person in this photo is Barbara. She is also a cheeky one and doesn't talk to me much, even tho she seems to be friendly. She does't got to school, so probably doesn't have alot of English.


Emma, Terri and a couple of others who weren't around often. Basically bring out your camera and the children flock, calling out Mzungu, Mzungu!!! By the end of my time at FreMo I managed to get some of them to call me by my name rather than Mzungu!!


These boys were really only around on the weekends. I think they just stayed inside after school. Either way, they were always playing soccer when I saw them. The used the driveway next to FreMo and the last time they played there, they caused a huge dust cloud!


Ball skills... not bad when you notice that his feet aren't on the ground!!


This young man was always very polite. He even came around to my room to wish me farewell. What a sweetie.


Have you seen this ball? It's an accumulation of black plastic bags which are everywhere. They are tied up with string. 


Terri and Barbara... good friends.


Terri taking Barbara for a ride. The girls ran this suitcase up and down the driveway for hours. 


Terri with another of the neighbourhood kids.


All feet together....

All hands together....


The younger bunch. You can see Terri with attitude on the left in light blue, Linda is next to her and the brothers have made another appearance. A mechanics yard is next to FreMo and the kids often use the cars waiting to be fixed as a playground.


This cheeky trio were often at my door. I tried to teach them to sing 'Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree', but they just didn't get it. I should have started as soon as I arrived. So left to right, Barbara, Linda and her sister Wendy.


Wendy, Barbara, Emma, other and Linda making the T sign for me!!!


These characters lived up the street. I caught these photos on my way to buy fruit. When they saw me I was surrounded!!! It's Sunday morning and they are all still in their pyjamas. The one with the green shirt started to cry when she got too close to me... I was the one who stood still, she came to be, and then got frightened.... too cute!


Boys. They love car things, wheels of all sorts, and here is a typical play thing fashioned from a car tire.


My tire is bigger than your tire!!


You've already met Clever Johnson if you are a regular reader. Here he is again, with the above car tire wheel.


Clever again.... making car noises.


One of the boys up the street. This is a bicycle wheel without the rubber tire. He uses a stick in the rim  curve to push it along. He was very quick which made it difficult to get a good photo.


Boys of all ages....


Here they are at The Safari Park Hotel... the wheels are table tops, and these men ran down the path with these rolling really quite quickly and they kept them going with just the occasional tap either side to keep them rolling straight. I thought it was fabulous!

Enjoy!!

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