Games We Play

SUBJECT: Games we play
AUTHOR: Carlos Gates, Age 11, lives with his parents, one brother and two sisters, and cousins in the village of Kaikan, Guyana, near the Venezuelan border.
DATE: May 13, 1997

Whenever there is a full moon on Saturday night, the children from the church come over to play games. Some of the games we play are bouncy-bouncy, watermelons-melons, the rooster and the chicken, the farmer in the ring, one-two-three, black magic (a guessing game), and poison.

Saturday night games with my friends

Bouncy-bouncy is a game where the kids stand in a circle. Usually a whole bunch of boys stand in the center while we sing a song. When we get to the part of the song that says "bouncy-bouncy" each of the boys must pick a girl from out of the circle and they bounce (jump) up and down until the song ends. Then the girls go in the center, and the cycle is repeated.

Watermelons-melons also is a stand-in-a-circle game. The group sings a song which has the words "Watermelons melons. Melons watermelons." twice. Then "Jump it, turn it, and give it a little shake." During this time everyone jumps, turns around, and shakes their hips.

The rooster and the chicken is similar to the watermelons-melons except that the song is different and the jumping and turning is a bit different. In the farmer and the ring, a boy stands stands in the center and must choose a wife. The wife then must pick a child. The child picks a nurse; the nurse a dog; the dog a cat; the cat picks a rat. And finally, the rat takes the cheese.

One-two-three involves each person picking a partner, and those left over must get in the center. Everyone starts counting to 100 in a song. During the song, before reaching 100, those in the center pick a partner, then the displaced partner goes into the center and must quickly pick

[Reading a Book]

Reading with my cousin Kristen

another partner. This goes on until 100 is reached. Those without partners get stuck back in the middle and the game begins again.

Black Magic is a guessing game where a person is sent away while the rest of the group selects some special item like a shoe; a tree; a hammock; a canoe, etc. The the person comes back and the director must question him, pointing to random different items and asking "Is this it?" Finally, the director will point to a black item. When he does that, the person doing the guessing knows that the next item pointed at will be the right one. Of course most of the persons in the group cannot guess how it is done.

In the game of poison, the group stands in a circle, and five small sticks are distributed around the group to hold in their hand. Then one persons stands in the middle, calling "stick..stick..stick". All of a sudden, the person in the middle shouts "poison!" Anyone left holding a stick is out, and must step out of the circle. That way, the circle gets smaller and smaller until only a couple is left. Of course as the number in the group gets smaller, less sticks are used.

Your friend Carlos

You may write to Carlos at: gates@andrews.edu

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Last Updated: May 13, 1997