Zambian Creativity

Zambian children are creative and brilliant at improvising. In a population where 80% of the adult population makes less than $2 per day, necessity is the mother of invention when a child wants a toy. Children magically turn wire and plastic drink cartons into car or truck push toys. For checkers they use the caps from soft drink bottles. 

As I took my walk today I saw Fred and Nathan huddled over this table and I wondered what they were doing. As I got closer I could see they were playing a game of pool. Played with 16 marbles, the object is to see who can get the black one (actually blue) in last. Whoever accidentally pockets the "black" marble loses the game, like our game of "eight ball". The bumpers of their pool table are made of garden hose, or hosepipe, and their cue stick is a, well, stick! When I asked who was winning, Nathan replied that they didn't know yet~I guess they have to wait until the black marble's fate!