Having recently been to Africa, I was amazed at the widespread use of mobile phones.

Me to. Even modern ones were everywhere! The phone the boy is holding is my old one which at the time was about 5 years old for me. Many of the Tanzanians had better phones than me at that point. This boy however was in a remote village I was teaching in that was about 4 hours from Moshi the more "civilised" part of the region. He was really amazed by it.

Are the batteries to shock him into going up the right path?

haha no =) I wanted to make sure I had extra for my camera, he found it a lot easier to go over the maze rather than actually go through it! =)

Then his (or her) soul is saying "What is this thing you're sticking in my face?!"