Hi Mike,
You can’t really see the bubbles floating away here, but this was taken in a village in Zambia, enroute to Botswana game camps. As you know, I always like to travel with a few bottles of bubbles. It’s a great ice-breaker for kids and adults, both. In remote areas, kids often have never seen the bubbles before and the excitement is great fun to watch. And in cities and places where children are begging, it is a nice diversion for them (and me). I always bring enough to leave behind (usually with a local teacher, monk or some adult who can distribute it fairly).
BirdBrain
Great photos of the kids. The bubbles not only break the ice, but they cause such diverse and spirited expressions on their faces!
Are the children here are delightable as the children there? I wonder. These photos are wonderful. Is it work that takes you to these exotic places or do you choose adventurous vacations? You are so fortunate.
I totally agree with BB. Bubbles the best! Nearly 100 years ago, when teaching emotionally tattered first and second graders in Oklahoma, I learned very quickly that bubbles brought smiles of wonder to even the most traumatized child.
And I totally agree with La Rad re your exotic destinations. Do you ever wish you had a person to tote your extra bubbles? I believe I know someone who might fill the bill!
Looks like fun, but five pictures only wet my appetite and left me thirsty for more.
I have to agree with the previous commenter with the punny (or should I say chistoso?) name. Are there no more pictures? And what were you doing in all of these exotic countries?
My work gives me lots of excuses and opportunities to travel…and I’ve only recently really started to take advantage of it. (Thanks to a VERY supportive husband!) And yes, I am very, very fortunate indeed…. I manage a bird and nature tour program for the Audubon Soc. See my website at http://www.massaudubon.org/travel !
Could I borrow your photographer(s)? Those are super photos especially #’s 3 and 4. In # 3 I love the bubble drop on the wand, the cropped just-enough-of-you, the girl with the smile and her taller friend not quite looking at the picture taker. Then there’s the perfectly out of focus background which is true in #4 where the receding savannah informs us we aren’t in Paris. Matt tells me you have a Bubble Lady photo on the wall in your office…I hope “learning to blow bubbles” is up there.
These photos are just wonderful. “Learning to Blow Bubbles” is my favorite (too). And it’s not just the photos, it’s the activity. Bubbles are certainly more accessible than what we thought of to bring to Nicaragua the first time — a game of “Set”. It was fun to push our Spanish by trying to explain how to play, but bubbles need no explanation.
Hil might want to take bubbles with her to Oberlin. I imagine a similar look of wonderment on the faces of her Ohio classmates as we see on those children in Assam.
No, I suspect Ohio residents are quite familiar with New Englanders’ treatment of them as unsophisticated folk — she’ll have to get a rise out of them another way.
“Unsophisticated?” I was thinking simple primitives.
I was trying to avoid insulting the people of Assam, who certainly aren’t simple and may prefer not to be considered primative.