BNP Sportsfest: Palaro ng Lahi Part II

This month’s playdate is Palaro ng Lahi Part II. The Christmas season has been a sinful month, what with all the dangerously appetizing feast laid on the table for the holidays and the long-awaited vacations we’ve all worked hard all year to secure. Because of this, we thought it’s time we straightened our acts a bit and give our idle bodies some much needed exercise. Gyms are a little too expensive and too stiff for us, though, so we opted to do something more fun instead — and of course what would be more fun than playing at work? Nope, we don’t mean fancy adult games like golf and all that. We’re talking about the good old games we used to play in our childhood. Games like the ones on the list below: Ubusan ng Lahi For those who are not familiar with the game, no, we’re not bloodthirsty people out to wipe some clans from the face of the earth. “Ubusan ng Lahi” is actually a game where a group of players chooses an “it” that will be tasked to eliminate the players one by one by tagging them. Any player tagged will then become an “it” himself or herself. He or she will then chase the remaining players together with the original “it” until no one else is left. The fun thing about it is since you’re busy running for your “life,” you don’t usually see who gets tagged, so you can’t let your guard down when you’re around the other players. We caught most of the players this way, but one of our main illustrators was too cunning to be tricked so he was left as the last one standing and duly got his well-deserved bragging rights. Chinese Garter Few kids who grew up in the Philippines before the year 2000 onwards are not familiar with this game, especially the girls, so no introductions were needed for this one. We simply proceeded to dividing ourselves into two groups by doing a “maiba-taya” with most of the girls ending up in one team and most of the guys ending up in the other — much to the latter’s dismay. The guys did try their best to keep their pride and managed to clear the first couple of levels without much trouble, but the latter challenges proved to be a little bit too much for them. In the end, the girls claimed the victory amidst the guys’ lighthearted boos. Dr. Kwak-kwak Dr. Kwak-kwak is a game that that is played by having a group of players loop their arms into complicated twists so that no one can tell how the loops ended up that way anymore. It then becomes the task of the “it” to figure out how to “untangle” these loops until the players are back to how they were when the game started. For people who seldom get any exercise, we were worried for a minute that our limbs would not be able to take the punishment … oops… we meant challenge… but surprisingly, our aging bones turned out to be unwilling to go down without a fight, so we were able to successfully finish the game in spite of the complicated mess we ended up finding ourselves in. Saksak-Puso Playing Dr. Kwak-kwak allowed us to rest for a bit while the “it” figured out how to “untangle” our arms, so when the game finally ended, we were ready and raring for another fast-paced round. This time, we chose saksak-puso (come to think of it, why do these games sound a bit too violent?) to satisfy...

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