Patriot's Diary # 33: To be a child again...

Last year I went through a series of amazing changes in my life. I finally got to know who Rose really was and got a new lease of life! I came up with three mantras in life to keep me going regardless of the odds. The first one that just re-ignited me was,’ Let the child in you live’. If you want to know the other two you can email me and I’ll let you know. Now, what I love about children is the free spirit they have, the joy, the laughter; and that is the kind of laughter I have, explosive, limitless; I feel alive!

Growing up in Kenya is one grand experience mostly because of the outdoor games. The only down time was the homework and the curfews that screwed everything up. I always used to hate having to go home and leave my friends playing outside late into the night and I had to be in bed.

There is a number of games most Kenyan kids play; but the highlights for me are, ‘Shake’, ‘Kati’ and ‘Blada’. There was a marble game that we call ‘bano’. It is like the marble version of pool only that you were to use one marble to hit another marble to the furthest point! I never really played that game.

There was ‘three sticks’, it was pretty simple, you had three sticks (duh!). The sticks are placed together at varying distances and the winner of the game is the person who could jump the furthest; kind of like triple jump with sticks and no sand pit. I liked that one primarily because I had long legs. But I never got far, let’s just horizontal jumping wasn’t my forte. ‘Rounders’ on the other hand was the Kenyan version of baseball. I guess that makes the name add up.

Now back to the ultimate games ‘Shake’, ‘Kati’ and ‘Blada’. ‘Shake’ is the ultimate team game. It was pretty simple, there was a grid drawn on the ground, most of the time we played on estate roads, and there were two teams. One team’s role was to ensure that at least one member of the team makes it to the end of the grid without being touched by the team that will be on the grid. The team that was on the grid, had members aligned horizontally on the grid that shuffled left to right and an individual in the center who shuffled up and down.

‘Shake’ is a game of strategy. The aim was to capture as many members of the opposing teams in a grid lock, tap and eliminate them. At times the team in the grid would have a strategy where everyone lies on the ground and reaches in to eliminate members of the team. I can remember when the team leader, normally the person in the centre, said ‘lala’ (lie down) we dropped to the ground and eliminated the enemy…muwahhahahahahahaha (I couldn’t help myself).

But the challenge for the players in the grid was to ensure they never left the grid while tapping people out! That always caused uproar; when there was that final team member slipping through everyone’s fingers only to be eliminated by the silly sellout in the team on the grid who left the grid. That was always almost tantamount to gaming suicide. No one would ever want you on their team after that.

Then there’s ‘blada’. The ‘blada’ was pretty much a cut up piece of tyre rubber into one really long strip tied at both ends. This normally requires three players. Two players act as pillars where the rubber strip is wrapped around their legs and one player is required to jump in a certain pattern into and out of the rubber strip.

Like any game there are levels. So with each successful jump the rubber strip inches up the two individuals. So it starts off around the ankles, inches to the calves, knees, hips, waist, under the armpits, shoulders and finally the neck. This was mostly a girl’s game. You need to see it; girls would tuck their skirts into their knickers and make some really funny head and hand co-ordinations to psyche themselves up.

And the ultimate of ultimate games was ‘Kati’ which is Swahili for center. This is a three player’s game. It was a simpler version of dodge ball. Two players were pitchers, who were to hit the player at the center with a small rubber ball. The aim of the game wasn’t just to eliminate; it was to hurt the center player. This is the game you’d play with your arch enemy as a kid! I can feel it now, eat dirt all you teasers and meanies.

However, if the player at the center was good at playing catch you were screwed, because if they caught the ball and hit any of the pitchers; they scored more points and you’d be stuck throwing the ball. I was always hit on my bum; I have no clue why to date.

Now I want to play! Catch you all later; I am off to find some playmates for the re-match of the decade!