Kids everywhere in the world are extremely creative at making fun games out of nothing. A ball of string or a broken cup can provide hours of enjoyment if put in the hands of an imaginative child. They can delve into self-made realities based on simple ideas and have a great time messing around with it. Adults often look down at these activities as foolish and childish, but that’s what makes them so great, they are foolish and childish. I think we would all be a little happier if we cultivated our inner fool and inner child a little bit more.
As I have said before, I have a lot of free time around here, so I inevitably spend a lot of it watching little kids play. One thing that I have noticed, and supported with memories from my past, is the stage like progression of different games. Games get played in fads. For a few weeks, all the kids of my village will be totally engrossed in a single activity. And then one day, they will get bored and move onto something else. It moves in cycles and sometimes comes back around to old past times, but there are always some new twists on what they do.
I think this is just human nature. We become obsessed with things, but then wear them out and eventually move onto other things. It roughly follows the economic principle of diminished returns (of enjoyment). The first time you do something fun it blows your mind and you crave for more, by the tenth time it starts to become a standard routine, but by the hundredth time it has lost all its luster and drags you down into a obsessive hole of boredom. When I was little I would play Mario Kart for three hours everyday for a week, then the next week I would play ping pong instead, then the next week I would play basketball, and so on. During the period of play I would be engrossed in the activity and think about it all the time, nothing else seemed to matter. But by the time I was flowing into the next thing, I had entirely forgotten my love for the old activity. Unbeknownst to my conscious mind, the activities in my life were based on stages and fads. I have continued this in my adult years, but the fads have changed their context. Now I will drink whiskey for a week, then drink beer the following week, then wine for the next.
What has interested me so much about the games in Chuuk is that they are created from almost nothing. The children don’t have TV’s, or video games, or sports fields, or Barbie dolls. The objects for their games come from leftover garbage and jungle scraps. They make do with what they have. One of the most popular games (for a couple weeks at a time) is played kind of like the American game of Jacks, but the Chuukese kids use rocks as the jack pieces and limes as the bouncy ball. They play steal-the-bacon with a chunk of breadfruit in the middle. Sandcastles are made with broken coconut shells. Rounded rocks are used as marbles to play an extreme jungle version of classic marble games. Empty oil containers are cut in half and circular nuts from a bushy tree are used as wheels to make toy cars.
The only “toys” that they really have are rubber bands. Rubber bands are pretty cheap and are sold at the little stores in Chuuk, and ultimately the kids find ways to get their hands on them. They have made dozens of games with the use of rubber bands. The most common are group jump rope challenges and a flinging game that reminds me of POGS. They make bets with the rubber bands and ownership is always changing hands.
No matter what their surroundings are, kids are kids. They will always want to be goofy, be entertained by simple things and use their imaginations to turn their worlds’ into fantasy land.
I sat down to right this blog because of a hilarious situation I just saw with two of my little sisters, Kimbo and Orinta. They were playing BINGO and betting their rubber bands. Kimbo said that she won, but Orinta checked her card and saw she was cheating. Instead of arguing with Kimbo, the little girl just blew a huge green slimy snot rocket into her hand and wiped it on her sisters face. Kimbo was shocked and stood in silent disbelief. She acted like she was walking away, but then plugged one nostril and snorted a gooey glob of snot on Orinta’s hair. Then they ran around laughing in circles for the next five minutes snotting on each other and rubbing dirt in each other’s hair. Kids will be kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment