Every morning Cecilia adds her pink, furry
Hello Kitty bag to the neat row of bags outside her little preschool classroom here in Port-Gentil. With the majority of expats in town working in the oil industry, her classmates include many Gabonese children as well as kids from every corner of the globe. No one blinks an eye at names such as Pelenatita (a girl), Keziah (a boy) or even MacArthur (used as boy's first name and pronounced as if it were traditionally French).
When it comes to children's tastes in school bags, however, international marketing seems to win out, and there is much less variety. The majority of girls at the school carry pink bags, usually with a smiling
Dora the Explorer (or
l'Exploratice in these parts) looking out at you, while many others seem to prefer Barbie -- an American classic.
Of course Barbie seems to meet all the aesthetic requirements necessary to please most 4-year-old girls world-wide, but I stopped dead in my tracks the other morning when out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of someone I'd never met before.....
Religious requirements aside, it seems tastes really don't differ much do they?
When it comes to children's tastes in school bags, however, international marketing seems to win out, and there is much less variety. The majority of girls at the school carry pink bags, usually with a smiling Dora the Explorer (or l'Exploratice in these parts) looking out at you, while many others seem to prefer Barbie -- an American classic.
Of course Barbie seems to meet all the aesthetic requirements necessary to please most 4-year-old girls world-wide, but I stopped dead in my tracks the other morning when out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of someone I'd never met before.....
Religious requirements aside, it seems tastes really don't differ much do they?
