“Did you know the average person spends four years of his life looking down at his cellphone?”
I came across this YouTube video titled “Can we auto-correct humanity” and it reminded me of one of the main reasons my siblings and I decided to create the “Number 1, award-winning”, Kenyan Board game. 8 years since we launched the 50/50 board game and I say that with lots of pride.
Growing up in Langata my siblings and I spent our school holidays outside playing all sorts of games with our neighbours, climbing trees, and rooftops, taking walks around the estate and having actual conversations on literally anything and everything. Other times we would play board games. Some like chess and drafts we would create from carton boxes and bottle tops while others like Ludo, Uno, 30 seconds and Taboo we bought and kept for years until we start replacing pieces with anything you found around the house. We would replace Monopoly money that disappeared or had worn out with normal paper cut out in the same size and coloured to almost resemble “monopoly currency”. We would replace tokens with anything from buttons in different colours to using badges and toggles from our Brownie and Scout uniforms.
Robert Brault said “The perfect family board game is one that can be played each time with fewer pieces” And he was right. For every letter lost in our game of Scrabble, we found ways to create sometimes up to 7 letter words, replacing lost tokens with makeshift pieces drawn with black markers.
Those were some of the best days of our lives (insert sand through the hourglass). When we would actually sit down and communicate over hours of laughter and competition. When we would have time to notice small things like a new outfit or a pimple on your sister’s chin or the tiny strands of hair that we are now calling a beard on your brother’s face. We had such memorable times teaching our parents how to play as well and enjoyed hilarious moments over a game of Scrabble waiting for 10 min for my mum to come up with a word only for her to proudly write “YOU” and explain for another 30 seconds what “YOU” she is talking about.
And when we were not playing we would just Sit. Talk. Listen. Laugh. Love And Learn.
For the first blog post on Game Nights 254, here’s to having actual conversations in 2022!
