Ajo and I

May 1st, 2006

Ajo was my little Baouli friend; we grew up together in the village of Baomi. Ajo and I were happy with simple toys: tin cans to pull by a string, smooth stones to roll on the ground, yellow lemons to toss in the air, leaves to float in the puddles. I remember we would play in the sand under a grass thatched roof that my father built for shade. Sometimes we even crushed wild flowers and mixed them with water to make our own special perfumes. Other times we weaved together blades of elephant grass through bamboo shoots to make our necklaces. We even caught the ants that scurried up and down the trees, by setting bottle lids of sugar water under their trunks! We had so much fun in such simple ways, Ago and I!