"Steemit Engagement Challenge S6/W1 – Dung Beetle Races"

^{Made with Canva - Freepik image}

My Steemian friends!

Something in life we cannot change is being children. It is a process that we must all go through, birth and growing up.

The experts, like the American Psychological Association, concluded that if you have found memories of your childhood you will experience better health even when you are “old” one day.

A prescription for those who are suffering from poor health is Steemit each and every day. On Steemit we are constantly reminded of our childhood, like in this contest.

Visiting our grandparents on the farm was always something we as kids were looking forward to. Our parents took us regularly for weekend visits and of course, those school holidays.

Now we were a big family as my grandparents, on my mom's side, had 5 children which gave us plenty of cousins to play with.

Games on the farm were so much different. I can remember us playing “kleilat”. A game where you will take a stick place a lump of clay at the end of the stick and then you will launch it at your opponent.
Man oh, man! Did it sting when that ball of clay hits? I often had blue marks after a visit.

Kleilat is however not the game I want to tell you about today.

“Dung beetle races!”

The game often left us rolling with laughter and a game for sure not famous worldwide AND played outside.

Before I get to the game let me first tell you a bit about dung beetles.

Dung beetles are insects that eat droppings of other species like the cattle my grandpa was farming with. They are the world’s strongest insects.

What they will do is to roll these droppings or dung into balls and then they will roll them to their chambers where they will store them for food or even to lay their eggs in. You also get those who will simply just live inside the dung or even dug a tunnel underneath it where they will live.

All you need to play the game is a “willing” dung beetle, dung, a stick, and an opponent. As kids, we were looking for those “rollers”. Once we have found one the race is on.

How the game is played is very simple.

Once you have your dung beetle rolling some dung you will each get a turn to help it to roll the dung with a stick. You will then measure with your feet the distance that each player got to assist in a certain time.

The one who helped the dung beetle the furthest is the winner.

The rules are a little bit more complicated.

• Pick someone to measure and keep score and time before you start playing
• To determine the positions of play you pull sticks
• The player who pulls the longest stick gets the chance to play first and the one with the shortest stick play last
• You must find your own stick you want to roll the dung with
• You are not allowed to play the game standing up
• If the dung beetle falls over or loses interest you are out
• You are not allowed to make sudden movements, nor noise when someone else is playing
• If you give up you are out!

What makes us roll with laughter is that often you had to try and steer the dung beetle and the dung in between other heaps of dung, rolling and crawling to avoid it.

Most of the time it was pure luck if you were the winner as insects cannot be trained within a few minutes.

Some tips and techniques I can share.

1. Keep your fingers cross that you go first as the dung beetle lose interest very easily
2. Watch and learn from your opponent
3. Make sure your stick is long enough to roll the dung and keep you clear from other heaps of dung
4. Keep other dung beetles away from your dung beetle or you will be out in seconds
5. Move as slowly as possible
6. Keep your mouth closed at all times even if you feel like bursting with laughter
7. A washing peg works well to keep your nose close

We loved this game as it was totally unpredictable and it always ended up with lots of laughter and a swim in the farm dam.

^{"eeny meeny miny moe"}

I wonder… What will today’s kids think if you tell them to find a dung beetle so that they can roll some dung?

My childhood memories are for sure keeping me healthy! Are yours?

^{I invite you to support @pennsif.witness for growth across the whole platform through robust communication at all levels and targeted high yield developments with the resources available. Click Here}