Kids

I usually refrain from photographing strangers, but sometimes I can't resist.

Kids here play on the beach differently than my brother and I played on the beach. I see no boogey boards, plastic pails, inflatable tubes, or goggles – the toys that were so integral to my daily life in Hawaii. The children on Lake Malawi mostly imitate their parents: they concoct soups of rocks and sand in old tin pots, they bathe the younger ones, scrubbing with plastic bags, and the boys throw out fish line with whatever bait they can procure, tugging for hours with no reward. I have yet to see a single sand castle or sibling buried to his neck in sand.

Babies taking care of babies

And then of course there are the scores of unsupervised children who are in fact taking care of other children, and not simply playing house. Maybe AIDS is to blame, maybe poor education, or lack of access to family planning... What is undeniable is that there are a whole lot of babies.

I’m just glad to see that where life is harsh, kids are still giggling in the waves.

And when the sky is blue,

big brother, it’s blue for you.