SILLIMPIAD
On two occasions, SUAFers had a Sillimpiad or Sillimpics, which consisted of competition on traditional Filipino “sports” like “takyan”, “sipa”, “hula-hoop”, etc. The first was in 2012 during the picnic at the Embarcadero, and the second was in 2014.
Aug. 11, 2012 Picnic at the Embarcadero
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 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 playing games. The chosen games 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 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 from Southern California quickly mastered the game’s nuances and decisively won. 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 a single kick followed by a hard-earned catch of the sipa.
The Hula Hoop was then attempted. Once again, the players step forward, thinking that hoop spinning skills will 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 in words to convey the game’s rules. 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 agreement, 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 were less ideal.
Bamboo barbecue stakes instead of coconut leaf ribs (tingting) posed unforeseen problems. It took a bit of adjustment 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 the Gym at Silliman, 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 2012. Fun and laughter were 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 safekeeping 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, the GREAT SCORER wrote after each Alumni’s name, “Well Done.”
—By John Olivar
SEE PHOTOS BELOW.
Aug. 9. 2014 – Oceanside Beach Sillimpics
The Games of the Sillimpiad.
August 9, 2014 was a bright and breezy day along the white beaches of Oceanside
where SUAF @ SD hosted the second version of the Sillimpics. The Sillimpics is about the Silliman Alumni chapters of Los Angeles and San Diego playing Filipino games that we played when we were in our pre teen years in the Philippines.
Each chapter chose 5 members to play 5 different games and the group that best
revived long lost skills would be awarded the “perpetual trophy” symbolic of having the
most fun while playing.
The first challenge was for the team to accumulate a sum total of 25 spins with the Hula Hoop. Everyone was flabbergasted that what was so easy to do before is now extremely difficult as most everybody had what we now call a “Pepsi” waistline.
However Gigi Ohland of LA must have retained the desired ” Coke” configuration for
she spun the hula hoop more times than everyone else combined and won the game for Los Angeles.
Score La 1 SD 0
The next challenge was the Takyan or Sipa
Eroded skills was again in vogue. The effort to get TWO counts far exceeded the
results.
Once again the Los Angeles contingent had a member, AKA Angelina J.(Gigi Ohland)
whose takyan skills came roaring back and led her team to victory.
The highlight of the game was Dr. Joel Gamo hitting the takyan and diving for the catch to try and seal the victory.
But it took the calm hit and catch by Christine Patulin to claim victory for the LA
contingent.
Score LA 2 SD 0
Next up was the game called Gabi at Araw
The game must have been popular with Filipino grandparents as most were not familiar with the game. But an explanation in terms of playing the role of Prey or Predator
helped.