My mother got me a doll when I was about 6. The doll was made out of plastic and had a little bath and shower. It had a little wire for water to pass through.  It was an amazing little gift and a little possession of mine. My doll had a miniature world with everything it needed. I cannot remember what happened to my doll, I had it for a while and it just disappeared. I cannot remember having any industrially manufactured toy after my little doll disappeared.

As I grew, I made do with whatever I could find around. Dressing up games were achieved using old clothes. Most of the play I engaged in were centred around role playing. I found solace in using old cassette as building blocks,  empty milk tins and cans with a thin thread were used as a transmitter for communication. With a little help from my peers and sometimes from my siblings, I learnt to make kites from newspaper and strands of brooms. Hide and seek was one of the favourites and I was great at it.

We sang and danced and made up songs for many occasions. We picked fruits and tried new tastes. We wandered around a lot under the guardian of an older child. I experimented with gardening and harvesting. Tree climbing was a game I was I disliked for I was not good at climbing and I got mocked by many of my friends. We did up-scotch under the hot sun. We learnt to make parachutes out of polyethene bags and tested their durability on windy days. Dark clouds were great signs for me, there was nothing relaxing than a cold shower of heavy pouring rain. We drew on the ground and had competitions on hopscotch games. The boys had their games and so were the girls. Most of which generated out of pure curiosity. (more…)