The Emotional Trauma that is Domino

I'm on the afternoon shift this week, which means doing a two-hour evening activity with the kids before they go to bed. It's three or four teachers versus five or six groups of kids, and this week I've been on 'Domino Games' with Rebecca and Zak (both American). The gist of the game is that we give them a shape and the teams have to race to build it. We start off simple, with line, circle, heart etc, then have a freestyle round at the end where the best design wins. I just never considered how emotionally draining this was gonna be. Monday was just chaotic as we hadn't properly sorted out how we were gonna play the game. Most of the kids were just bored, and so were we. Tuesday was better. The rules were sharpened up, everybody knew what they were doing, and it was very almost fun. I usually try to help each team in turn at some point in the night, especially the underdogs who've had to start from scratch halfway through. I was helping one such team when one of the girls inadvertantly started the thing falling; trying to stop the tumble before it got too far, I stuck out my foot to kick a few dominos out of the way. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful in this, but worse, all that most of the team ever saw was my foot in the middle of their toppled dominos. I tried to explain, but they were having none of it. I barely escaped without a lynching, and I wasn't allowed back in their corner all night, and still every time I come across that class in the school they stop and growl what I'm sure are Korean expletives at me. Wednesday. On Wednesday we ran the whole gamut of human emotions. We had tears, and jubilation, and laughter, and frustration. I must stop myself from getting so involved though - there's always one dozy kid who starts the whole thing toppling before it's finished, and it's all I can to stop myself screaming out along with them. In fact, I'm torn between sympathising and doubling over in hysterics as they all throw themselves on top of their designs in an attempt to cut off the tumble, which invariably only makes matters worse. And tonight. If yesterday we had the tears, tonight we very nearly had the bloodshed. I was stuck the whole night patrolling a DMZ I was forced to construct on the border between teams eight and nine. A boy from team nine (accidentally or otherwise) knocked down team eight's first attempt at a straight line in round one, and though he apologised, I have never seen such a bunch of sore losers in my life. I spent the rest of the session simply as a buffer between the two teams - every time I left for a second a fight would break out, or one team would start lobbing domino missiles at the other team's constructions. I issued more red signs to these kids than I have in the previous three weeks. I had taken my camera with me, planning to take a few snaps of the kids playing, but they were such a bunch of swines I didn't feel like taking any pictures in the end. I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.