SU Alumni Invitational Games
Silliman University Founders Day was observed by alumni in San Diego with the traditional picnic at the Embarcadero Marina Park on the shores of San Diego Bay. The event included sharing of a wide variety of Filipino food while recounting tall stories of the good old days at Silliman.
The staple for special Filipino occasions, the lechon, enhanced the quality of the spirit of camaraderie that graces all Silliman alumni gatherings.
Featured at this year's Founders Day event was the Silliman University Invitational Games. The Games borrowed from the wisdom of children that proclaims, the best way to build lasting friendships is through the playing of games.
Games chosen were those that were played back in the Philippines when the guys were in short pants and gals looked forward to wearing makeup.
Teams were formed representing alumni chapters of Southern California and San Diego.
The teams competed for the Silliman Spirit Trophy.
A plaque in the form of a flame that kept the Silliman Spirit alive all through these years in our new home so far away from home.
The first game was the Bulong Pari, translated in Hollywood speak as The Priest Whisperer. The game is of the social mixer genre, popular in the social scene back when Silliman was founded.
The Alumni form Southern California quickly mastered the nuances of the game and decisively won the game
The next game was the Sipa or Takyan. While everyone remembered how to play the game, it was with great amazement that the coordination skills required deserted the players.
It used to be that counting up to double digits was the norm, but now the maximum count was in the lower single digits. Like in one and done.
It was celebrated with great merriment when Laarni ended the game with single kick followed by a hard earned catch of the sipa.
The Hula Hoop was then attempted.
Once again the players steps forward with the thought that hoop spinning skills would be retained. But alas, the Hoop that used to stay in the middle of a Coca Cola shaped waistline now headed straight down to the ground in a Pepsi shaped waste line.
The Pitik Bulag was supposed to be contested. However the game facilitator was lost for words to convey the rules of the game. Somehow the player's educated logic and mature experience blocked the message which players in short pants picked up with no problems.
Thus by mutual agreements the game was abandoned to be resurrected some other time.
The last game played was the Lastiko, a game of the treasure hunt genre.
Once again the modern world posed challenges.
Clean white sand instead of plain old dirt used to hide the rubber bands was less than ideal. Bamboo barbecue stakes in lieu of coconut leaf ribs (tingting) posed unforeseen problems. It took a bit of adjustments to get the game going and all the treasures (rubber bands) snagged.
Game playing proved to be exciting and lots of fun.
Silliman Alumni lived up to the message displayed at the play center of Silliman, the Gym, which said "the GREAT SCORER writes after your name NOT won or lost, but how you played the game"
By American standards of competition, San Diego excelled but by Filipino standards of hospitality, the San Diego chapters were poor hosts. That is San Diego kept the Silliman Spirit Trophy at home for the year 2012.
Fun and laughter was clearly in abundance throughout the games. Success is proven by the fact that the Southern California contingent invited the San Diego alumni to defend the safe keeping of the Silliman Spirit Trophy at the next Southern California Alumni picnic in 2013.
The hope is that the competition for the perpetual Silliman Spirit Trophy will be the incentive to continuously enhance the ties that bind Silliman Alumni together regardless of how far they may have roamed.
It is with confidence that we think that at the close of the SU Alumni Invitational Games, that the GREAT SCORER wrote after each Alumni's name "Well Done".