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Friends Hanging Out
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Friends Hanging Out Mopti, Mali

Children are children, no matter where you go. It's the one thing that makes us realize we're all cut from the same cloth. These children play and socialize in ways we're familiar with, but the behavior of their older siblings demonstrates that the development of social behavior here is governed more by outside factors than by family or community influences. When tourists, educators, and others from abroad arrive to observe or to help, their transient presence has the unintended side effect of teaching older children lessons that aren't in their own best interest. For example, free money can be obtained by begging, looking ill, or demanding it in exchange for picture taking. As children become adults, such tactics no longer work, and they find themselves unskilled and usually unemployed. One tourist commented, "How can giving them money be bad? Look how desperate they are!" But, even the natives will privately admit, "They Kids/Children are happy to receive anything. At least give them pencils and paper so they can have the tools to learn to function in life."