Former European Football Player Plays with Youth in Burnay 

by Lorraine Allig, Jan 2016

In a small village like Burnay people rarely see foreigners come there who can talk and laugh with them. But on the 2nd day of January 2016 a former European Football player from Auckland New Zealand Joseph Martegani, assisted by Matt Alesevich, an Amrerican journalist, conducted a one day workshop at Burnay Elementary School. It was attended by the Burnay Youth Organization (BYO) with some kids and some boys from the Don Bosco High School.

At first the participants are very shy, hiding themselves and finding it hard to speak to them. But after some funny games they don’t hide themselves anymore.

The activity starts with a funny Introduction game. Instead of saying the name of the sitio (settlement) where they live, some say “over there”, “below there” and pointed at a direction, then laugh at their own words. Joseph, who has been traveling to almost all of the countries in Asia to conduct youth camps, introduced a lot of games which he learned in the countries while travelling that make the youths actively participate and enjoy the day. According to him “When you do these games they are very funny and you can laugh, you have fun, but if you analyze it a little bit they are very interesting games - like the circle game. "Some people don’t want to go to the center and some are really learning about their identity.”

The games are truly interesting, exciting and when you are playing you can almost forgot that you are playing with foreigners. Just like the "Have you ever" game in which one of the youth says “have you ever changed your pants” then the others agree and stand up and transfer to another seat. But some remained in their seats which means they never changed their pants! That game is really different and it is a game that involves honesty but actually while playing the game a lot of lies are said by the participants.

If many of the games are simple and funny there is also a game that is challenging and probably the hardest game. That was introduced by Matt Alesevich who holds the map for the game. “It is a trial and error process” says Megahn a BYO member. While playing the game you would concentrate to memorize every move and then analyze where to go next. From more than 10 individuals who played they go a lot of rounds and even consumed the allotted time for the game before one of the players step to the finish line.

One of the longest game is the 21 game “We spent like half an hour trying to get to 21 but then once done then a minute afterwards we did it again, straight away and without problem” said Rendt Gorter afterwards. When they give the instruction it really looks simple even the actions are simple but when you do it actual it is not really simple.

Even though they just played a lot of funny and challenging games those games also has a purpose which is “to develop cooperation in leadership quality like self-esteem, self-confidence, activity workshop communication, team building and problem solving” says 50 year old Joseph.

At the end of the activity the youth enjoyed all the games and they also learned some lessons “The lesson I learned from the sports clinic is sportsmanship. With the games introduced by the speakers and played by us, I can say I enjoyed and it is so interesting because it harness and develop my skills and talents. It was also a memorable activity for me as I get to socialize with the youth and speakers” says Reisha Bantiyan the vice-president of BYO.

Joseph has already been in the Philippines 6 times before and went to places like Davao, Baguio, Cebu, Palawan and some part of Manila to conduct a youth camp. He also went to Bicol just before coming to Ifugao and conducted a 4 day camping for his last activity. Joseph is working with the Brighten Foundation Youth Program from New Zealand and he is here because Rendt Gorter invited him to come here in Ifugao. It is nice to hear that he finds our village “very peaceful and relax lifestyle” and the people here are “friendly and easy to talk to.” Before he ends the conversation he left a message for the BYO saying “I enjoy my first meeting with Ifugaos. I hope to come back and meet more people.”