Made In Mozambique

For the adults reading this post, what do you remember about your childhood?

Do you remember the games you played? Did you play with dolls? Did you make them or did your parents buy them? Did you grow up in the 90's like me, and play computer and Nintendo games like Super Mario Brothers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Did you ride a skateboard or play baseball? Did you ride  your shiny bicycle around in your neighborhood past curfew? Did you use Monopoly money to play “cashier” with your best friend? Did you have friends or a sibling to push you so high on a swing set, that you thought that your feet would touch the sun? Did you have an imaginary friend with whom you completed puzzles? When you received another action figure or board game for Christmas, did you throw your presents in your toy pile or did you leap for joy? Did you receive hand-me-down gadgets? Did you  make your own toys?

Christmas is almost here and I know that the cost of presents can add up very quickly. Every year, there are new toys and games for sale. Of course many children from the U.S. play games or participate in activities that don't require purchasing items, like hide-and-go-seek and truth or dare. But with clever advertisements on television, many children get hypnotized when they see the flashing images of other children having fun and singing along with the new “must-have” toy in their hands.

I'm currently living in one of the poorest countries in the world and many families don't have televisions. Many of them don't have to worry about their children tugging their arms to buy them the latest gadgets after seeing advertisements on TV. And even if they do have televisions, many Mozambican parents can't afford to buy video game consoles or even books to keep their children entertained. Some parents can't even afford to buy balls for sports. One thing is for sure, I've never seen children create games out of everyday items like I have here. Maybe you all will find that their games and home-made toys are as fascinating as I do.

Here's a ball that's been made out of rags, plastic bags, and twigs.

Here are my neighborhood kids playing a game where two people on each side have to throw a ball, while the person in the middle has to try to dodge it.  If one of the throwers  has to run after the ball, the person in the middle has to fill a beer bottle with sand.  The participant in the middle has to fill the bottle up 6 times in order to win.  If the ball hits the player in the middle, then the that person is out.

Here are children rolling a tire with a stick.

Other games include:

• Hopscotch using charcoal.
• Dodgeball using a small, handmade ball.
• Sliding um chanelo, a sandal, on the ground to see who's flip-flop slid the furthest.
• Soccer. It's probably one of the most popular games here. Some children save up money to purchase  soccer balls and others have parents who buy them for them.  In my community, most of the kids make their own balls.
• Children tie pieces of plastic strips together and then they tie the ends around two poles or around two people's legs.  The person in the middle sings and jumps in and out of the elongated circle of plastic ties.   The goal is to spin and hop without touching the plastic boundary.
• Hide-and-Seek. One person counts and then searches for the children who've been hiding. Here it's called "Banana".

This girl made a flute from the stem of a papaeira, papaya tree, and a strip from a plastic bag.

 Checkers and chess are popular board game here. The children make the chessboard out of cardboard and draw squares on them. Then, they use bottle caps.  For checkers, the bottle caps facing up represents one player and the ones facing down represent the other. 

Abdul is playing with his toy car that he made out of a small plastic bottle and four bottle caps for the wheels.  

I think that it's awesome that the children have fun with these hand-crafted objects. They can entertain themselves and make something out of items that I throw away everyday like cardboard boxes and plastic bags. Some children find a stick and a piece of string and then tie scraps of white pieces of paper on to the stick. Then they run up and down the dirt road while the string of “butterflies” chase after them.

The games and toys these children enjoy don't collect dust on the shelves after being played with a few times, because even scraps are appreciated. Many of these kids aren't living in a land where they'll wake up on Christmas morning to glittery boxes and bows underneath a decorated tree that "Santa Claus" dropped off in the middle of the night. Their parents aren't spending money from their savings account to buy a limited edition toy. The Mozambican kids that I have met are happy to play with something they created themselves. Their world is a playground where fun is free.

I hope you all enjoy this holiday season!

Black Magic at the Licungo River

 The sun is out and I'm wearing short sleeves and a smile on my face because it's not too hot. As I head towards the bridge, the people in my community point their fingers and their eyes get big as if they saw the moon on fire. People crowd the bridge to get a view of a slinky reptile in the Licungo River.  They've spotted a crocodilo, a crocodile.

I found it odd when I first moved to my community over a year ago, that a crocodilo would be so fascinating. Later, I learned that the people from this region believe that the crocodiles are humans in disguise who are out to devour people. According to legend, someone can see a witchdoctor to ask for whatever they wish. They may wish for more money or that their children be successful. Some may actually cast a spell so that a crocodile can eat their enemy alive. When the individual requests success or something else along those line, their wish cannot be granted unless they're willing to sacrifice an innocent person. If the person agrees to continue with a magia, the magic, then a random person who happens to be taking a bath in the Licungo River one day may find that it is his or her last bath.

A few weeks ago, a crocodile killed a 5-year-old girl in the Licungo River. One of my neighbors was explaining to me that this probably happened because someone requested something and needed to sacrifice a victim to execute the spell. I asked if people could only possess crocodiles. “No”, she replied in Portuguese, “A human can possess snakes and other creatures as well, not just crocodiles. It just depends on the region of the country the magic is taking place and what kind of animals like in that area”. 

Still doubtful that this was a widespread belief here, I asked a Physics teacher if he believed that the crocodilos in the Licungo River were actually human and if he believed in black magic. He verified, “They're certainly humans. I'm the type of person who has to see things to believe them, but I believe in black magic now. One day I was with my friends near an open field and we saw people on a flying saucer. We saw the home-made flying disc crash...” I interrupted, “Wait, why were people on a flying saucer?” “People like traveling without having to pay for a plane ticket, but they need black magic to help with that. This time, the black magic backfired on them.”

Many people in my community are Catholic, Christian, or Muslim, but the ideas around black magic are very much alive here like the hungry crocodiles in the Licungo River.

I thought I'd share this belief with you all because I find it fascinating.