mga laro ng aking kabataan (games of my childhood)

[  Thanks to Darius Marquez of the Palarong Pinoy sa Wellington games committee for the info! ] BEFORE SOCIAL media, before the Internet, before video games, in fact before any kind of electronic games, all we had was our creativeness and ingenuity.  That, and each other.  Pinoy kids played piko (a sort-of hopping game), habulan (tag), patintero (a territorial tag team game) and all sorts of physically-oriented games that didn’t require batteries, laptops, computer consoles or controllers.  All we had was our imagination. That, and a little piece of wood and string.  With the Yoyo, a wooden disc around which string was wound, you could do all sorts of cool stuff, like “rock the baby,” “walking the dog,” etc. Patintero was played with teams of at least 2 to 5, with one team guarding the middle line, and two other teams trying to cross the lines from opposite ends.  In practice, it looks more fun than it sounds. Sipa was/is basically hitting a game piece (called a “sipa,” a washer with colorful threads attached to it) with you foot as many times as you can without the sipa touching the ground. These and many other games will be played, with an adult, children and men’s/women’s divisions, at the Palarong Pinoy sa Wellington weekend starting 22 October Saturday at the ASB Sports Centre, Level 2 in Kilbirnie, Wellington. Although teams from Pinoy communities all over Wellington are expected to send teams, everyone, Pinoy or non-Pinoy, is invited. See you there!