August is an annual ceremonial month for Indonesia. Exactly on the 17th of August, Indonesia celebrates the day when the nation declares its independence from the Dutchs. It is the month where we regained our land sovereignty, the month where Indonesians unite for their rights of freedom. Every August, communities all across the archipelago has their own way to celebrate this day. From vivid parades to formal flag raising ceremonies, the streets are packed with national spirit festivity.
On a warm Saturday morning, 24Slides office in Indonesia celebrates this annual celebration. The big theme for this month’s Play Saturday is commemorating Indonesia’s Independence Day, and what’s a better way than to spend this celebration by having splendour games!
This Independence Play Saturday was prepared by Sigit, Vuzza, Ery, and Reno. Four games were prepared, including Flip Tic-Tac-Toe, Rubber Face Marathon, Eating Oreos, and the last fun was Scavenger Hunt! There were six teams consisting of ten up to eleven people participating in all of the games, and boy they were enthusiast for fun!
It was a day full of happy (and weird) faces 😛
The fun begins with Flip Tic-Tac-Toe. This game was played by every member of the teams taking turns to flip the cup and complete the tic-tac-toe 3×3 grid. The player needs to complete a line in the grid with cups, but in order to move the cups to form the line, they need to flip the cup from its tip to the bottom part of the cup. Each player takes a turn and have 15 seconds to successfully flip a cup and move their position in the grid.
Everyone was enthusiastically supporting their team members while at the same time in a rush to flip the cup using the time given. Some of the players were excellent players, but some other got frustrated when the game quickly got tense and competitive. By the end of the game, group 5 won for being focused and at speed.
The second game played was rubber face marathon. This game was only played by the male members of the team. To play this game each member was given a rubber band and they had to successfully move the rubber band which was initially worn by the head and using facial movements, hands not involved, had to move the rubber band until it reaches their neck! The team with the most amount of rubber band successfully moved from head to neck wins!
Everyone put on their best goofy faces! Meanwhile, everyone else not playing had the golden chance to capture their teammates funny faces. All of us were being entertained with crazy wild facial expressions that the players made. It might have been frustrating for the players, but it was definitely hilarious and super fun to watch. Group 1 had the most rubber band collected and made them the winner of the game!
To give everyone a chance to put out their funny faces, we also had a special game for the female members of the team. This game was called Eating Oreo! To win this game, the player had to eat oreos, and it wasn’t that simple. The player had to eat the oreos placed from their foreheads and move it carefully until it reaches their mouth and then munch!
Right from the forehead down to bite, it was definitely a challenge. Some dropped their oreos uncountably, some didn’t move, holding still their faces and maintaining balance. Eventually, team 1 won with the most oreos eaten!
It wouldn’t be a celebration of independence day if we had not played an all team member games. The last game played that wrapped up Independence Play Saturday was Scavenger Hunt! All of the team members joined to play Scavenger Hunt. This game tested the team’s familiarity in recognizing spaces and corners around the office. To reach the finish line, the team needs to find clues placed in hidden spots in the office. Each team was given three clues that they need to find. After successfully gathering all three clues, they need to rush back to the committees and hand out their clues. If only it was that easy to find clues, unfortunately it wasn’t. Having to move around places with ten people in each team, there’s a big chance one team member might wander lost, so everyone in the team was hand tied to each other. With all 10 people hand tied, they had to move simultaneously and stick together! Afterall, we did promise a game that will keep us closer, right!
“United we stand”
The office got crowded with packs of team hunting and crouching looking for clues. Everyone was curiously guessing and wondering what the clues meant. Some were quick to guess the hidden place, and some took really long to guess until they gave up and let the committee give them extra clues to find the hidden spot. Some went into their workmate’s desks, upper floor and down, even looking through the plants! After being twisted and tangled from one place to another, finally group 1 reached the finish line first and the others soon caught up.
The games ended and so did this year’s Independence Play Saturday. We all enjoyed and embrace the fun we had throughout the weekend. It was definitely a cheerful celebration where we get together to commemorate the nation’s historical victory.