Leadership Wired Blog   How did you spend summertime as a child?
Perhaps you have memories of vacationing with your family,
playing baseball or softball, attending summer camps, or
swimming at the pool or lake.  Eight-year old Khadim spends his
days at a brick kiln, working to pay off a small debt inherited
from his deceased parents. However, he is charged room and board
in excess of his wages so that regardless of how hard he labors,
the debt is sure to grow. From dawn until dusk, Khadim lugs
around heavy clay bricks. First, he totes them out of the kiln
so that they can bake in the hot sun, and he then carries them
back into the kiln once they’ve dried. He tries to keep pace
with his adult co-laborers, but he is only a boy and often falls
behind, drawing angry shouts from his overseer. By evening his
tiny limbs ache, and he collapses into bed (a dirty, tattered
floor mat) only to repeat the cycle the following day. This is
his life. Khadim carries bricks—all day, every day. The arrival
of summer does not al