Fun and games

Although Gambians work hard and are very busy they do make some time for fun and games. Life and ministry here is tough. So, a little fun and some games is a great way to strengthen relationships, laugh at yourself and work on language. This week there was finally a small break in the rain and I was able to go visit with a group of ladies who I have not seen in months. For once, they were kind of taking a quiet day at home and they asked me if I wanted to play a game with them. I have seen Gambians play a dice game on a gameboard, but they move so fast that I have never been able to catch the rules. However, this day they pulled out their phone and there is an app and an electronic version of this dice game. So, I jumped in to be the fourth player not having a clue what to do. They helped me a little, but they did not want to slow the game down so I just randomly pushed buttons and somehow made it work and we definitely had some laughs. It was fun learning the words they used for game pieces, moves, etc. What we might call the piece that moves along the board they call a doom “child”, what we might call home base they called ker “the compound”, what we might call capturing another players piece they called rey “to kill”, moving pieces along the board is dox “to walk”. Some words have been adopted from English so coming in last or first did not change. The good news is next time we play I hope to keep up a little better since I downloaded the app and the tutorial so I can figure out what the heck I am doing. Check it out if you want to experience a little Gambian fun and games: https://ludoking.com/