Got to make your own fun!

All children love to play and children in the Congo are no different but they are much more creative than the average child . . . . by necessity.


Anything tied to a stick can become a toy when combined with imagination.

While stopped at the bank (yes we have banks in the Congo but not like any bank you have ever been SERVICED by), this young boy asked for something to eat. I gave him a bag with melted Nerts packets and a toy from out of a box of cereal. The toy was just a pretend gameboy and you would have thought i had given him a million dollars. He loved pretending it worked.

Now I have seen sand paintings but these children make you feel like they have an open pallet as they draw pictures in the sand.

These children were playing a game that seemed like "Jacks" but without a ball. They were using bottle caps.

Often you will find children and adults playing well used board games.

Anything can be used as checkers or chessmen, buttons, washers, rocks, bottle caps etc.

At Camp Luka we watched these boys play a game that appeared to be much like gambling using gum wrappers or some type of folded up paper. Maybe it was a Congolese PoKyMon.

Fooseball is big here and you can play for 50 francs or sometimes for nothing if you have a friend with a game. Mom and Dad like to play also. The games are usually set on the side of the street for all to watch the fun.

The best toys are the homemade toys you see that the children have carefully crafted with much detail

These boys have made a train out of sardine cans and plastic bottle caps

A great creation made of card board boxes and tin cans.

This car is a unique design of cardboard and plastic bottle caps

A boat is fashioned out of bamboo and wire. Very unique!

Now this is clever. the car is made of wood, tincan lids and plastic.

But look closely. Did that plastic use to be a flipflop?

A little girl is fixing dinner for her friends using her kitchen set or is it tea and crumpets for the ladies?

Plastic cartons and small tin cans! It works!

A kite can be sticks and a piece of plastic from the garbage if you add a string to it.

Football or soccer is big in the DRC. Where ever there is a patch of dirt it won't be long and sticks will be stuck in the ground for goal posts and a game is under way. A cloud of dust and tangled bodies and then their appears a ball flying out of the dustcloud The soccer balls are often plastic bags wound up tightly and wrapped with string or ribs from large leaves. The games the same, the rules haven't changed, just the gear is a bit different. How much does it cost to play little league football in the USA?

The Village Junglegym is big enough for everyone to play on.

But Farrell's favorite has to be the home made guitars. We have seen many of them .

This one is made out of a plastic bottle.

This guitar is made out of a tin can.

Life is good when you have an imagination, and you can make your own fun.