Games I Played in Elementary School
by Oliver Carlos
When I was in elementary school, specifically in Grades 3 and 4, the favorite games played after classes were Mataya-taya and Moro-moro. Both were running games. We played them on the grassy lots just outside the main gate of Maquiling School Inc. (MSI). For us kids who didn’t have a sundo, we played until sunset, and then we would walk home all soaked up in sweat. I wonder how many children in the present generation still play these games. Or how many of them at least know these games. I observe that kids today are more into computer games and they rarely break a sweat.
In America, Mataya-taya is known as the tag game. A “taya” is like somebody with a contagious disease and everybody runs away from him. When the taya touches another player, that kid becomes the new taya, and he would chase another player so he can escape from being a taya.
Meanwhile, Moro-moro is a team game, and a more advanced variant of Mataya-taya. It develops speed, agility, and craftiness in war tactics. A good number would be 10 players per team. Each team would set up a base, usually a tree or just a pile of school bags, positioned on the opposite sides of the field. The game starts with all players touching their respective bases. Then a player from any team would go into the center of the field. He is called the unang babad. Then a member of the opposing team would chase him to tag him like in Mataya-taya. If he gets tagged, he becomes a prisoner and he’ll go to the enemy base.
The other players would then launch from their bases one by one to chase opponents who left their bases earlier than them. Whoever left base early would be the taya. And so there would be many tayas running around the field, and many chasers running after them. A player can run back to his base, touch it, and then gets rebooted as a chaser instead of a taya.
As the game progresses, prisoners would pile up in each base. They would hold hands and form a long line stretching from the base into the field. They do so to get their freedom. When a free teammate touches the outermost prisoner, all of them in that line of prisoners become free and return to their home base. The game ends when all members of the team become prisoners of the other team. Most of the time, it takes more than an hour for the game to finish. Sometimes it doesn’t get finished at all.
When I played this Moro-moro game, I enjoyed the time when I was a free runner, but I hated it when I become a prisoner. Once a prisoner, I can’t do anything but just wait for a liberator to come. I prayed that he’ll come the soonest time. I would stretch out my arms as far as I could, so the liberator can reach out to me and set me free.
The feeling of a prisoner in the Moro-moro game is similar to the feeling John the Baptist felt when Herod put him in jail. He has been there for so long and so he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask him if he was the Messiah or the liberator he was waiting for. Jesus gave this answer:
“Go back to John and tell him about the things you hear and see: The blind can see. The crippled can walk. People with harmful skin diseases are healed. The deaf can hear. The dead are raised to life. And the Good News is told to the poor. The person who does not lose faith because of me is blessed.” (Matthew 11:4–6, ICB)
We all long for some kind of freedom because we experience several types of bondages. It may be financial, emotional, work-related, bad health, or a combination of these. Whatever it is that limits your freedom and makes you poor, the good news is that Jesus came to be your Messiah. You just have to put your faith in him, just as the last sentence of the passage says.
Sometimes God’s saving action takes so long in our standard, but in his perspective, his timing is perfect. Miracles will happen in his own sweet time. In some instances, your prayer will never be answered your way, because God has something better. The most important thing is we don’t lose faith in him. Just like in the children’s game, continue stretching out your hand to him, to the one whom you trust to rescue you from your woes.
