Squishing Ants with Sticks and Plastic Toy Vomit

One for my favorite things about my kid's school is the banana tree that grows by the front door. When we first visited, I was all excited about it, showing my kid the banana tree flower and how the bananas grow out,  themselves like giant green flowers. The kid, was less excited than me, he just wanted to play with the plastic toys in the playground. Okay, fine. No botanical teaching moment for you, then. Astro-turf and faded plastic playground equipment wins over the banana tree. Too bad.

Speaking of plastic playground toys, about a year ago, I was riding my bike along in Vancouver and noticed a park filled with discarded toy cars, kitchenettes, wagons, push toy cars, bicycles etc... I could have counted at least 50. At first, just like a kid, I was all excited about it; isn't this a good way to extend the life of the toys that parents bought for their yards, but that their kids outgrew? ("Extend the life", I laugh as I write this.)

But now, I'm angry. Why is okay for people to dump their plastic junk in public parks? What happened to bringing your own ball, jump-rope or bag of marbles? Are we seriously using our tax dollars to have the city remove all this crap because some parents went bananas at Toy-r-us?

For the last month, I've been living in a hotel with my three year old kid. There is no playground here. We've had to invent our own fun. We water the plants with the gardener's hose, we give high-fives to the leaves that dangle from the trees on the sidewalk, we poke holes in the grass with sticks, we decorated the parking posts with chalk drawings, and we kick the ball around the parking lot.  We are outside, not really in nature, but we do what we can.

To have access to a playground we have to wait until we move to our condominium. The playgrounds are different kinds of combinations of plastic play pieces all set on astro-turf and most often in the blazing sun. Of course the kid loves to climb and play with the equipment, but once the fun passes, there is nothing else to do. The condominium keeps everything so clean, that finding a stick or a leaf is impossible.

If you've had a read from, "Last Child in the Woods, saving our children from nature-deficit disorder." you would be reminded that we have all been de-natured and removed from the wilderness of nature. Where are the ravines, the abandoned lots, the undeveloped plots, the places to build forts? 

No ants to kill, no bugs to flip over, no dirt to play with-no nature here

 When we first arrived here, it was 40C out, so we drove to what I call "Plastic Land" at a local mall. I felt so dizzy looking at all the bright colorful toys, I had to sit most of the time. My eyes had no place to rest. It seemed the kids felt the same way, unable to choose let alone walk without tripping over something. It was unreal, like a giant cartoon character had vomited all over us. I had this funny feeling that somewhere in there, a freaky "Chucky" was lurking...

Plastic Land at the mall-no nature here

Side note: (I'm not saying that there is no place to have access to nature here in Rio, far from it. We are grateful, that we are right in front of the most beautiful beach and we've visited some beautiful parks filled with weird plants, trees, flowers and wild animals. I'm just noticing how plastic toys seem to be pilling up in some places.)

Sometimes, when I visit friends and I see that their kids have more toys than we do, I feel a little guilty, like I'm depriving my son of fun, but it passes. If you have any that same guilty feeling, take a look at Micheal Wolf's installation project, "The Real Toy Story". He traveled to Hong Kong to photograph toy factories and the workers who make their living making dolls and trucks. (I couldn't help but notice that they are often wearing masks, which tells me the materials they are using are probably toxic.) Returning home to California, he collected thousands of toys from garage sales, flea markets and second hand stores and created this monumental installation surrounding his images of the factory workers with plastic toys. The result, a more "artistic" vomit than "Plastic Land" at the mall and what an impression it makes! Imagine taking kids there....

Photographer and Artist, Michael Wolf, The Real Toy Story