Duck, Duck, Pig?

One of the first days I was at my school here in Kilometro 16 back last May, the Kindergarten teacher asked me if I would show her students a new game. As the resident Peace Corps “Elementary Education Expert,” I felt obligated to oblige her. I decided to go with the old classic, Duck, Duck, Goose. How can you go wrong with Duck Duck Goose?

As I organized the kids in a circle and started explaining the rules, I realized that I didn’t know the Spanish word for “Goose.” I continue explaining: “And you walk around like this and touch each person on the head and say duck, but for one of them you must say...” All I could picture was a pig running around in my head, and before I knew it, pig (chancho) had come out of my mouth (just the word, to clarify). And so it was willed that the children of Kilometro learned Duck, Duck, Pig instead of Duck, Duck, Goose.

I haven’t thought much of that incident until today, when I heard some kids (third graders) playing Duck Duck Pig. They are STILL PLAYING EXACTLY THE WAY I TAUGHT THEM. And THIRD graders this time, not even in the grade I taught the game. Duck Duck Pig is clearly catching fire here. Kind of made me think about Malcolm Gladwell’s tipping point phenomenon. Some things are simply destined to catch on due to human nature...digital watches in the 70s, big fat hair and crazy socks in the 80s, hush puppies in the 90s, and the in the 00’s. http://www.webdesigntk.com/hosting-reviews/bluehost-vs-ipage/ Clearly we are only just in the year 2011, and have 9 more years to go in the decade. But I think it may be written that the 10’s are all about Duck Duck Pig, at least in Paraguay. For all the other PCV’s who read my blog, you heard it first here: volunteer Mike Dooley invented Duck Duck Pig (Pato, Pato, Chancho) in May of 2010. When you hear kids in the schools playing it, make sure they know to whom they must pay homage.