Learning to use a carrying pole

I spent an hour watching this little lad playing with his mum's carrying pole while his extended family sold their fruit nearby. First of all it was a tightrope, then he took off his shoes and tried to balance them each end - and very hard it proved to be. Finally he became a quasi-Dick Whittington off to seek his fortune holding the pole over one shoulder with a large bag at the other end.

Returning the same way a couple of hours later, I saw him extinguished, sleeping exhausted on his mother's back in his embroidered-velvet bao or carrying cloth.