"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein

Today could not possibly have been more fun. We had a library day, so we brought all of the neighborhood kids in for a reading activity and then an activity. Today, we told the kids the story of Caine's Arcade, which you can watch here (and definitely should because it's amazingly cute):

Then we had them each make a game or project out of cardboard. Kids games were funny, clever, cute and messy-- everything you want in a good cardboard game. Below, check out some of the games kids created.

Two girls from Khalla make
a dollhouse.

A maze made out of cardboard!

Sheker's soccer field (and
matching outfit

Maybe not the best picture, but my
personal favorite project, Hassan made
a yoyo out of curled up ribbon.

Seeing the kids so excited about the projects that they made totally made the chaos of Library Day worthwhile. Kids were so proud of their projects and they were looking forward to going home and playing their games with their siblings. Many of these kids don't get the opportunity or encouragement to be creative, so seeing what they came up with was inspiring. And to see them playing and goofing off and laughing is always a reminder to me of how resilient kids are and how similar kids around the world are. The only real moment where we were forced to really look at where these kids came from was when kids started coming up and asking if our center director had been kidnapped or arrested or killed. She has been on vacation for the last week in Jordan and just got back in town yesterday, but kids noticed her absence around the center and their minds didn't immediately go to vacation, because their parents have never gone on vacation. Their minds went to arrested or kidnapped or killed, because those are the experiences these kids know. But after numerous reassurances that our center director was alive and well and right upstairs, kids were back to playing with their cardboard creations in no time.