Bored Games

When I was little we used to play board games and read books. TV only had 4 channels, mobile phones didn't exist and computers were just beginning to emerge but most people didn't own one. We would hang out at friends houses, ride bikes or head over to the local park and get up to all kinds of things but none of it required technology and most of it involved quality time with the people you were closest to!

Re-reading that, it almost makes me sound really old. I'm not ... it's just that the world has moved on a generation or two and times are different. Luckily for my girls, life here in Dodoma is a little bit like hitting the rewind button and sending them back to the days of my childhood!

As the years have passed, I think even I got a little out of touch with joys of board games ... relegating them to the 'bored' games category. Outdated, cheesy, something you do with your family but only at Christmas and only then because 'that's what you're meant to do'!! I know that's not the case for everyone but it's a particular type of person/family who play board games regularly ... and guess what? Living where we are, doing what we're doing, we are now officially that type of family!!! 

In our preparations for life out here, one thing we spent a little bit of time looking into, wandering down the aisles in toy departments comparing, asking friends about, looking on Amazon, was for good board games. Not the first thing you necessarily think of when talking about packing up to go overseas as a missionary but something that we have found has been the basis of much fun and laughter and the source of many new friendships and memories already ... and definitely many more to come!

Here's some of the games that we've been enjoying, in no particular order, both traditional and a little different ... Pictionary Man (see photo!), Scrabble, 221b Baker Street, Blokus, Bananagrams, Cluedo, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, the list goes on.

I honestly can't recommend a good 'old-fashioned' evening of board games enough now that I've rediscovered them. It's a regular occurrence for us now and if the tears of laughter that I experienced on Saturday evening are anything to go by ... then long may they continue!