![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mari4212So this week at Easter College is Intramurals, dedicated to all things sports and games. And most of the games are ones that we'd recognize back home in the US. But every so often I get reminded that this is the Philippines, and even some of the games are different.
One of those is a game some of the seventh-graders were trying to teach me: a jumping game that involves a large loop made out of rubber bands braided together. Two people hold it around their bodies while a third person jumps in and out of the loop in a specific pattern. Not hard when the loop is right above the ground, or even at knee height. I stopped being able to get my feet around it when the loop hit waist height, and simply stared in shock as one girl went until the loop was chest-high.
Another is a formal relay race the different grade levels were playing against each other: the eggplant relay race. It involves tying a Japanese eggplant (think like a zucchini in terms of size and proportions) to a string, then tying the string around the student's waist until it dangles between his/her legs. Then the student tries to swing the eggplant via pelvic thrusts until it moves a matchbox along the gym floor a certain distance.
...
...
Yeah, the phallic symbolism there isn't even subtle, guys. I told one of the other teachers that this game didn't exist in the US, and she suggested that I could introduce it. I didn't exactly know how to say that anything that would cause even little old church ladies to start sniggering with the innuendo is certainly not going to pass the high school students test.
As it was, I considered it an achievement that I did not die of laughter while watching the game, and even managed to contain my giggles until I was back in my room writing about it.
One of those is a game some of the seventh-graders were trying to teach me: a jumping game that involves a large loop made out of rubber bands braided together. Two people hold it around their bodies while a third person jumps in and out of the loop in a specific pattern. Not hard when the loop is right above the ground, or even at knee height. I stopped being able to get my feet around it when the loop hit waist height, and simply stared in shock as one girl went until the loop was chest-high.
Another is a formal relay race the different grade levels were playing against each other: the eggplant relay race. It involves tying a Japanese eggplant (think like a zucchini in terms of size and proportions) to a string, then tying the string around the student's waist until it dangles between his/her legs. Then the student tries to swing the eggplant via pelvic thrusts until it moves a matchbox along the gym floor a certain distance.
...
...
Yeah, the phallic symbolism there isn't even subtle, guys. I told one of the other teachers that this game didn't exist in the US, and she suggested that I could introduce it. I didn't exactly know how to say that anything that would cause even little old church ladies to start sniggering with the innuendo is certainly not going to pass the high school students test.
As it was, I considered it an achievement that I did not die of laughter while watching the game, and even managed to contain my giggles until I was back in my room writing about it.