And the fun continues. Our sponsored children are creative beings, inventing games or tweaking rules of established sports to accomodate their resources.

For example, in the Philippines, children in a few of our projects love to play the Slipper Game. It’s just like baseball (or kickball) but instead of a ball, a slipper is used. The batter kicks the slipper for a hit and then runs the bases.

In Swaziland, many boys make intricate cars out of old wire and discarded soda cans. They wire the cars to a long stick (or more wire) and use this to push the cars around. It’s the best way to race cars when your race track is a dirt road!

In many countries in which we work, children play a version of jacks using whatever they can find. In Cambodia, this may be pieces of tile or rocks. Instead of bouncing the ball, the player throws one piece into the air and tries to scoop as many pieces as she can.

Marbles is also a popular game in many of our countries because marbles are widely available and fairly affordable.

Many children enjoy jumping rope, complete with the chanted rhymes we all remember from grade school. In Kenya, another jumping game called Maama is popular. Children compete by jumping one leg as long as they can – the last one jumping wins!

Yet one of the games that has captured our imagination in the Mission of Mercy offices is Sepak Takraw. Also known as kick volleyball, the game is hugely popular in Cambodia, the Philippines, and India.

Sepak means kick, and Takraw is the word for the small, hand-woven rattan ball that players try to kick over a net using only their feet, knees, chest, or head. Like soccer, no hands allowed.

It sounds simple, but each serve involves incredible flexibility -- the serving player must keep one foot on the ground. The rallies involve high-flying acrobatics (like what you can see in the header of this post) and incredible accuracy.

Here is one quick video that illustrates the speed and skill required in Sepak Takraw – and this video helpfully slows down a rally so you get the full effect. Pretty amazing, huh?

Do you know what games your sponsored child plays? In your next letter, find out what they like to play. There is so much to learn and much fun to be had! (If you missed our previous posts on games our children play, you can find them here.)