Analysis of Maasai Dutch Blitz

Sweet victory, any way you can get it!

When immersed in a culture different from my own, I'm constantly aware of the differences. Perhaps if I were to stay for 25 years, eventually I'd forget about the contrasts, but I'm not so sure.

The nuances of one's childhood culture are deeply ingrained and pervasive. I will always be someone who grew up in a household of Mennonite traditions and values with the perspective of the Swiss German Pennsylvania farmer in my blood. I will always have a strong work ethic, the value of doing things well and quietly rather than for show, the values of frugality, efficiency and fairness.

Yesterday we played Dutch Blitz with a group of our Maasai colleagues (a traditional Mennonite card game perhaps from the days when playing cards was sin by association with gambling).

 I had no idea how they'd react to the idea of a card game. Turns out they were eager to try and soon we were slapping down cards and everyone was smiling and laughing. The whole point of the event was to create some space for play and light-heartedness together.

We'd spent the morning reading scripture and doing personal reflection about the past year in preparation for the new year: an intentional time for processing the difficult news that their HIV/AIDs project was not going to be re-funded by MCC and the repercussion of that on their lives (some would most likely be seeing their job/income of the past 8-10 years coming to an end- a huge deal in the local economy). Then we'd had some celebratory banana bread, passion fruit and shaai before launching into a game of Dutch Blitz.

Here is where cultural nuances began to emerge. The game of Dutch Blitz in my cultural view is about ordering things as quickly as you can, speed, efficiency, playing by the rules and winning. It quickly became evident that our Maasai colleagues approached the game from a different set of values.

Despite many attempts to help one player "learn" the rules, soon efforts eased off because we saw that he didn't care much about the rules and simply wanted to play to win via his own methods. Eventually, the lack of efficiency of his own methods did not help him win, as the rest of the game players became more skilled. But, this did not stop him from continuing to work hard at ordering his cards under the table and looking at us out of the corner of his eyes with his ornery grin. All we could do was laugh, shake our heads!

The other two players knew of his methods, teased and laughed, but did not put up much fuss, allowing him to continue in his behavior. Interestingly, when he didn't win, he wanted to challenge everyone else on the rules and methods they'd used.

Another player started out following the rules, but soon could not increase their skill level fast enough to win, so they started making up rules in order to find the cards needed to play and found a successful win or two using that method. Humans are creative by nature, and we saw quick and intelligent people using creative methods left and right!

The third player followed the rules and became more skilled, but never truly held his colleagues accountable for their alternative methods despite it being so obvious right next to him and it kept him from winning as often as they did. It didn't seem to bother him much though, since he was having a delightful time regardless. At some points, though he himself did not fudge the rules,  he would call out to the rule free neighbor for help in finding the right card to meet his need.

Fairly early on, I realized that if I emphasized my own cultural value of rule-following then I would only steal the joy of the situation, so I let it slide away into the background, playing as hard as I could with the rules, while letting the others enjoy their own interpretation.

The energy for playing was high and we let them play till they were spent- close to 2.5 hours! The entertainment value of things is much higher in a place where people do not have so many options for entertainment (no electricity-TVs, computers, most folks are illiterate- little to no reading). People can sit in a 6.5 hour meeting, missing lunch, listening to a preacher preach, surrounded by their neighbors and relatives and call it a good day.

Our cross-cultural Dutch Blitz was fascinating to watch and very entertaining. All in all, so much laughing and happy banter was going on that the original purpose of the game was thoroughly met. At one point, there was even a burst of spontaneous singing. To our delight, the players even commented how good it was to laugh, play and forget their troubles for a few hours.

Afterwards, they went on their way, singing, laughing and generally much lighter then when they had arrived. And Doug and I were left to analyze the culturally educational event we'd just been through. It seems Dutch Blitz played Maasai style was a hit!