“Dama” 19 December 2015

“Note to self: Never play dama with a math teacher!”  - Journal/Text Message by Me

I’ve been here long enough to know better then to assume the way I grew up with something is the way it is everywhere else in the world. I stand corrected one more time. In order to make sure others’ do not fall into the same assumption, I’m going to explain how something I thought was standard-- isn’t, how my view is changing, and what mathematicians have to do with any of it.

As a kid on rainy Oregon days, middle school staff would sometimes have to make the decision to have indoor recess. Often this involved having the lunch duty people divide themselves between the gym and the neighboring multipurpose room. Sometimes teachers would have to open up games in the classroom for recesses not associated with lunch time. One of the common games to play was checkers. The red and black board was quickly set up and black would always go first (“Smoke before fire” as the saying goes). While Thomas could always win with chess, I was amazing at checkers. I don’t remember who taught me the rules, but I learned them quickly. Sometimes we would start with three rows and other times two, it all depended on who was playing when.

Checkers. If I had reliable internet I would look up the history of this game.  Instead all I have is my computer’s dictionary that states “check·ers (n)a board game played by two people, each using 12 pieces (checkers). The object is to jump over the opponent’s pieces and remove them from the board. (takes a singular verb) (Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.) and the dictionary app which adds “1. a small, usually red or black disk of plastic or wood, used in playing checkers; 2. Also called, British, droughts; 3, a checkered pattern; 4. A person or thing that checks.” Neither which are very insightful as to the origin of the game, why red and black are the usual colors, and why the rules are established as such. If any of you have time, I’d love to know what you find out about it.

Here in Tigray, Ethiopia “checkers” is called “dama.” The board used is drawn on the back of a piece of cardboard or an old piece of wood. Occasionally I’ve seen chess boards being used, but in Selekleka faded cardboard sketched out with a ruler and colored in with a black marker is what we use. When asking the hostess of the tea house for the board she will come with a stack of various bottle tops. One person sets up their three rows with the labels showing and the other turns theirs up-side-down making unmatched caps not matter at all. The winner of the game before goes or you can flip a coin. Play starts; however, there are some differences in rules that must be observed and planned for.

1. If you can jump you have to.

 1b. If you don’t jump your opponent takes your piece.

2. You can jump backwards without being “kinged.”

3. Once “kinged” you can jump anywhere along that line. So if there is four blank spaces between you and opponent you can still jump them without penalty.

Overall it looks the same, same board, same number of pieces, same objective. However, once one sits down and watches the differences start to come to the surface. The first time I played (a week or so ago) I was given lots of advice and reminders about the rules. Tonight I played against Tesfay, a math teacher. Unlike other math, Amharic, or physics, teachers that I played against before (and pulled out some wins) strategy was clearly Tesfay’s strength. The best I could do was tie once and lose the other four games. My trouble is in the first rule partnered with the second. By pulling your opponent to jump one of yours you can sometimes open up options to jump 2 or 3 of theirs. You can also jump forward and backwards so you have to be aware how your opponent’s tiles move in a different way.

I tried to play checkers on my iPad afterwards and was quickly flummoxed by the different rules. Something I was once a champion at (we did have competitions in Middle School), I’m now baffled in two different sets of rules. What I do know, is that learning and correcting assumptions is one of the best lessons that Peace Corps has taught me. Things I’ve known for so long are being challenged. I’m seeing things in a new way both about life and myself. By rereading journals I can see how far I’ve come as a teacher and person, but also acknowledge that I still have a lot of learning left to do. I hope my assumptions continue to be challenged and refined.