I'm a Youth Development volunteer, so I tend to play a lot of games. Conversation clubs are a million times better when the kids are actually engaged in the task, and nothing motivates people quite like the chance to win a competition to gain some arbitrary prize (usually just glory or pride). So here are some of the games that I have learned while here in Azerbaijan that are awesome to play... so share them with people!
Ninja: Learned this one my first week in-country from Sean, a fellow AZ7 YD, during our orientation. This is a great group game, especially when there are a lot of people. Everyone stands in a circle, and whoever is the leader of the group will start. Everyone must bow to each other and on the count of three must assume a ninja pose. The leader starts and in one move must try to hit someone else's hand with their hand. If he/she was successful, then the person who was hit is out. However if he/she missed, they must stay in this same position and it will be the next person's turn to move (the person to their right if going counterclockwise). You must hit the person above their wrist for them to be out, anywhere else and it doesn't count. It is important to remember that you are only allowed to move it is your turn, or if you are dodging someone's hit. It sounds complicated/confusing but once people get the hang of the game its pretty simple and can move quickly. Obvi the winner is the last person left standing.
POW!: This gem I learned a year later again during orientation, this time from an AZ8 YD named Jake (knowing all sorts of random games must be a prerequisite to being a youth development volunteer in Azerbaijan!). Everyone stands in a circle, with one person in the middle. This person's job is to point to random people in the circle. The person who is pointed at must duck down, and the two people on either side of this person must make a gun with their hands and scream POW! at each other. The slowest person to do this is out (i.e. if you don't duck quick enough and one of the people at your side POW you, you are out). The leader should pay attention as he/she is the one who will be making the executive decisions as to who POW-ed first, etc. Eventually it will be down to two people, and at this point they must stand back to back. The leader will tell them a secret word which when uttered in the middle of a random story by the leader, will be the trigger for the duel. When the two remaining players hear this word they must shoot each other, and whoever POW-ed first wins. This game is awesome, especially when you start varying your ammo (instead of making a regular gun sign, kneel and make a bazooka and POW your enemy that way!).
Wizards, Trolls, and Pixies: Learned this one from my sitey Löki, an AZ6 YD extendee, yesterday in our english convo club. Divide the group into two teams. Designate two ends of the field/room/whatever space you're in as 'safe havens' for each team. The point of the game is to capture all of the players from the opposing team. First each team must get together and decide which character they will be for the round, they can only pick one (i.e. If wizard is chosen, everyone on that team must be a wizard). After they decide which they will be they must line up in the middle of the space, about 2 meters apart or so, on either side of a line down the middle. There should be a referee/leader who is not playing the game. This person will stand on the sideline. On the count of three the two teams must take one leap towards each other and act out the character they have chosen. (Wizard = stand tall, extend your hands and wiggle your fingers. Troll = hunch over a little and make claws/growling noises. Pixie = crouch down and either make elf ears with your hands or whatever else you think a pixie would do.) Wizard beats troll, troll beats pixie, and pixie beats wizard. Whichever team chose the dominant character must try to grab someone from the other team and pull them to their safe haven. The losing team must try to run back to their safe haven before this happens. Whoever is captured automatically joins that team for the next round. If both teams chose the same character, nothing happens and you start over (go back to your safe haven with your team and decide on another character for the next round). You keep doing this over and over again, until eventually one of the teams fully absorbs the other team, thus winning.
Mangy Cats: I don't remember who I learned this one from, probably from an AZ6 volunteer. Materials needed: 8 little squares of paper for each person playing as well as a writing utensil. Everyone must number the pieces of paper 1 through 8. You will have 45 seconds to write a short phrase or sentence on the piece of paper labeled 1. Once the time is up you must pass your entire stack of papers to the person on your right. Now everyone will have 45 seconds to read the phrase/sentence, and on the paper labeled '2' draw a picture depicting the phrase/sentence. When the time is up, everyone must stop drawing and pass their stack of papers to the person to their right. Again in 45 seconds you must look at the picture and write a phrase or sentence describing the picture. You are not allowed to look at any other sheets of paper besides the one that was handed to you. For example, if I received a picture on paper #4, I must quickly look at it and write a phrase/sentence on paper #5, without looking at papers #1-3. When I pass this on to the next person, they must only look at my sentence on paper #5 and draw a picture on paper #6, without looking at papers #1-4. It sounds complicated but once you get started it goes by pretty smoothly. This is an especially good game to play in a beginner's english convo club because the students get to practice forming sentences and describing pictures.
Climbing Triangles: Another PC game, don't remember who I learned it from but it was most likely an AZ6 PCV. This is a great party game, perfect for big groups that can be divided into several teams. People play this with varying rules, I'm going to describe my favorite way of playing the game. So first you need a bunch of paper. Everyone playing must take 3-5 pieces of paper (depending on how long you want this game to last, more clues, more time), and write down a word/phrase/sentence on each piece of paper. These all get folded up, collected and thrown into a hat or bowl. Divide the group into teams whichever way you want (i.e. everyone in 2 teams or several teams with 3-4 people per team, etc). The game consists of three rounds, the first is a Catchphrase round, the second is a one-word catchphrase round, and the third is the charades round. Pick a team to go first. They will have 45 seconds to guess as many clues from the bowl as they can. One person picks a clue from the bowl, and tries to describe it to their teammates without saying any of the words in the clue. If the team guesses correctly, (I play very strict rules, the team must guess the clue EXACTLY the way it is written, even if there are grammatical errors), the next person on that team gets to pick a clue from the bowl and describe it, etc etc until time runs out. If the describer says a word from the clue by mistake, that round is over and the clue must be returned to the bowl. Once their 45 seconds are up, the next team gets to play. This 'catchphrase' round continues until there are no more clues in the bowl. You are not allowed to pass, so if you are stuck on a clue you just gotta stick with it and try to get someone to guess it. After this round, you tally up all the clues each team guessed correctly and write these down. Fold up all of the clues and put them back in the bowl. The second round will start exactly like the first except this time the describer is only allowed to say one word. For example, if the clue is "I'm bringing sexy back", the describer can say 'Justin' or 'Timberlake'. If the describer says a word on the clue, or says more than one word, they forfeit the rest of their time and play moves to the next team. Important to remember: saying "oh God!" or cursing count as words, and if you say them you are not allowed to then say another word. After this round is over, tally the clues again, fold them, put them back in the bowl and start the third round: charades. The describer is not allowed to talk at all and must act out the clue. After all the clues are done, tally up the score and whichever team guessed the most throughout all three rounds is the winner. One more important thing to remember when playing this game is that it is wise to pay attention even when it is not your team's turn to hear what they are guessing, since the clues get recycled for the following rounds. This is my favorite game to play with other PCV's. It gets hilarious, especially when people write clues like "Nike shoes are keep children happily payed."
I know this post was ridiculously long, my bad, I didn't realize how complicated it would be to explain these games in writing. But for reals, you should play these games, they're awesome.
So anyway I spent a nice Thanksgiving here in Zaqatala, at my sitemate's house in the village. Us Zaqatala folk were joined by a few other PCV's from regions nearby not only in honor of the holiday but also as an informal goodbye-dinner for my sitemate leaving Azerbaijan in the morning. Our extensive dinner consisted of a roasted turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, regular stuffing and cornbread stuffing, Georgian lobio, Thai pumpkin soup, nar (pomegranate), a turkey gravy-turned-mole, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and a cherry & plum pie. (My pants definitely fit a little more snug after that meal.)
