By Scott Cotter

It’s the one place they seem just like other kids. And it seems so, well, simple.

Put up a swing set, a slide, a teeter totter and a jungle gym and you have instant happy. Laughter fills the air and kids get to be something they should be…kids.

In Chibolya, it’s easy to see how much use the equipment gets. Weld on top of weld holds the parts together so the children can keep playing. And they do. Day after day, they’re forgetting the circumstances outside the walls while shouts of joy fill the air. Heck, even rain won’t run them off. In Kanyama, drops fell like rocks, pounding the community and everything in it. But many of the kids ignored the weather and kept right on having a good time.  

Our community centers here are a refuge. I suppose they are everywhere. Especially when kids have no place to play.