ORPHANAGE GAMES
Our games and amusements at the orphanage differed considerably from normal children’s games. We had nothing, and any rubbish that we happened to find in the yard or on the street when we went to the bath house or somewhere else became extremely valuable. We picked up everything: buttons, pieces of wire, bent old nails, washers, screws, bolts, pipes, bobbins, discarded blades from safety razors, pieces of cardboard and paper. We collected everything we could, just in case. We hid what we collected in secret places in the yard and the wards. Then we invented some “dream” toy made of these random objects, and played with the things we had made. For example, the elder boys made their favorite mayalka4 out of goat hide and lead from discarded batteries. Only the dudes played
