who needs a babysitter?

half of m°poti's population is children under the age of 15. i believe this is the case in most parts of africa. and about half of the children in m°poti like to come and hang out on my porch. i really dont mind the, being around actually, most of the time i enjoy their presence. its when theres more than ten of them at a time or when they stay the entire day or when they fight with eachother or when they start to ask for things that i am forced to put my foot down (at least i try) and tell them they have to leave. its hard to do this because i don't like being mean and because the majority of them dont speak much, if any, french.

with so many kids around, ive made some interesting observations:

§ kids as young as 3 or 4 will be expected to help around with chores such as fetching water, carrying things from the fields, taking care of younger siblings, running errands, among other things. a lot of times i'll have these petits offer to help me do things around the house.

§ kids move around a lot and most dont end up living with both biological parents. a lot dont live with even one. there are many reasons for this, including ° limited resources, so sometimes parents cant afford to keep their children (which gives rise to child traficking) and they have to find someone else for them to stay with or the parents (normally the father) live where they can find work, ° death of parents, ° poligamy, ° other reasons i am not aware of because i dont understand half of what's going on around me.

§ kids can sleep through anything. children younger than about 4 hang out on the backs of women or young girls throughout the day. naturally, they'll fall asleep every once in a while and sleep through dancing and singing, water falling on them from basins women will be carrying on their heads, all the movement of working in the fields... not to mention all the noises from animals and people day and night. i wish i could do the same.