Let’s chat on the games that were played while on property. Some came from the staff and others from Dan (Aussie) who used to be a youth group leader. In his words, you get super creative when working with children and have no money for a budget.
First we played Bibbity Bibbity Bop hosted by Sim. At first you were confused and a little bored with the game and then it kept changing, adding more and more rules. With a lot of people willing to play and put themselves out there, came a hilarious hour of laughter, action and strategy. This game is impossible to describe so if you have played it you know, if you haven’t then let’s get a group together and play soon.
Another game that we played was Ninja. A group of people starting with all hands touching in the middle and then as you count down from 3 to 1 everyone jumps backwards and gets into a Ninja pose. Someone starts and the goal is in one move to hit another competitors hand. The people on either side of the starter get to make one move to avoid the hit. It’s a game of quick reaction, paying attention and again on the strategy as you can make a move to hit another hand or you make a defensive move and back up. Fantastic game that we played both on property and in the line to head to the top of Angkor Wat. Unfortunately for both ourselves and the other people around us inline, the guard came to us and asked us what we were doing. Apparently she did not appreciate our ninja skills and made us stop playing. We got a lot of laughs and smiles around us which was a win in itself and we never did really find out why the guard was upset since we were out of the way from the thoroughfare.
Some of our best/random Ninja poses outside the main building
Next game was Sheep Baa and probably caused the most laughing of the six of us that played than any other time during the week. Sheep Baa is a game where you can’t show your teeth and then you are doing ridiculous things to try and make other people laugh by just saying Sheep or Sheep Baa so they show their teeth which puts them out of the game. Fantastic all around and as the others, will be used in my group again.
Lastly, during the example of a traditional Cambodian wedding ceremony, we played a game of which I never learned its name. Joel’s daughter set up the game and showed us the rules. Imagine an invisible square box that is marked just by 4 markers for each corner in the middle of the room and a lead person next to the box. You have 2 teams on each side of a large space and the lead person has a branch in their hand. 1 person from each team goes against each other. As the lead counts down from 3 to 1, they drop the branch in the box. The competitors race for the branch and the way to win is to get the branch out of the box without getting tagged by the other person. There are different strategies to getting the branch – grab quickly and get out quickly or be the tagger or both get in the box and see who grabs for it. Definitely a great one for a camping trip in a clearing, well they are all actually a great opportunity for a camping trip!
We had the distinct pleasure of being at Hariharalaya over New Years which was an interesting way to clear out all that happened over 2017 and start fresh in 2018. Taking time to think of the positive moments of your year was very beneficial to help reset and focus on what is done and what we can look at for next year.
I cheated a bit and took a picture of the final sunset of 2017 from outside our Hut looking over the rice fields outside of the center.
The night activity on NYE was Estatic Dance. If you have done it, you know, if you haven't you don't. That is about all I can say about that.
After the dance experience, we knew that we were going to have a silent day on the 1st. Hariharalaya likes to take Day 4 as a silent morning and voluntarily longer as desired. This gives you time with yourself as they believe that you need to be able to be happy with yourself in order to be happy in life. It is an interesting experience to be around 30+ other people and not talking. I spent the morning writing in order to create this journal as well as a visit with a visiting Acupuncturist. Apparently I need to work on my right kidney as it is weak while my left kidney is doing just fine and the recommendation to how to adjust it is to eat ginger between 5 and 7pm as that is when the chi is in the kidneys. As I am not the biggest fan of just eating ginger, I wonder if ginger beer counts? Before lunch I went to arts and creativity and spent time adult coloring which is suprisingly calming and yet still stressful as you know how to keep inside the lines because you are an adult but there is a level of perfection you want starting out that quickly goes away to hit the calming mode again.
Not too shabby if I do say so myself
After lunch and the silence was lifted, some people decided to keep the silence going while Lauren’s crew headed out for Day 2 of service to another local village.
