In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark.”
Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures.
Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times.
Little girls in towns and villages in South Africa still play Diketo – skipping and scooping a handful of pebbles inside a circle marked on the ground. Once it was a game young girls played by the river as they fetched water but now even little girls in Johannesburg can be spotted tossing tiny pebbles.
Through the holy Muslim month of Ramadan Iraqi Kurdish men still play the traditional game of Klawane – with one image showing them hunting for a ring hidden underneath a collection of hats. The game is played after Iftar or the evening meal that ends the day’s fasting.