They taste like squares.

As a follow up to this post just beneath this one about the family next door -

I went to play tennis with three of the kiddos this morning.  We went to the neighborhood park at the local elementary school across the block from our street.  I think all four of us had such a great time playing around, running around, joking around, and getting super HOT at 11:00am and 97 degrees.  I taught them how to properly hold the racket, how to entertain themselves for hours against the hitting wall, and how to play mini tennis using the cracks in the side walk as boundaries.  Later, I watched them as they slid down the railings along the steps with 'No hands! Woohoo!' and raced them in a couple relay races.  We also talked about our favorite foods and favorite sports.  The twins like soccer best, and Nande likes field hockey.  (One of my roommates who lived here last year, too, played field hockey for Princeton and I think she has had a great influence on them.)  Mwari's favorite food is ice cream; Ngola's favorite food is pizza; Nande likes quesadillas, but Mwari thinks, "Ew. They taste like squares."

(What do squares taste like?)

-

• The elementary school is closed because there was a fire five years ago.  The rust and decay still abound.
• There are puddles of glass from broken bottles everywhere. (My mama instinct was very over-protective of the kids in their sandals and crocs playing and running in/around the glass. They said, "Mama Kelley, we are fine. We know how to play.")  
• I saw a couple dime bags on the field that we raced on. 
• Here's the neat thing about all this: the kids are still kids, and they're outside playing.  On most of these hot summer days, most kids would be inside playing their Wii. These kids play video games, too, but they are happy to entertain themselves for hours at a time hitting a ball against a wall and chasing each other around a field, even if it does have glass.  They are happy kids.