Svrachi Dol and Degeneration

Illian, Palma, 11 kids from Petar Parchevich, and I hiked to Svrachi Dol, a rest area of covered picnic tables, drinkable spring, and stone fireplaces built by a group of volunteers from Chiprovtsi—a very cool example of local initiative and volunteerism. Along the way we picked up trash and chatted about plans for Earth Day.

Rest time at Svrachi Dol

While taking a break in one of the shelters we played Degeneration, an awesome game Raf, a volunteer in Bregovo, introduced me to after the 20 Day of Service Project. I’ve played it in Bulgarian with a group of 6th grade girls, in English with my very mixed (in ages and abilities) adult advanced class, and in a funny English/Bulgarian mix during a na gosti with volunteers and Bulgarians.

The rules of play are super easy. To play, you need to have medium sized group of people (even numbers are best), scrap paper, a pen, and something to watch time on. The best number is 6 or 8 participants partnered into three or four teams of two. If there is an odd number, pair people up to make 3 teams. Each person should write different words or phrases on three scraps of paper. Without showing anyone, these should be folded and placed in a hat or bag in the middle.  

There are three rounds. In the first round, a player draws a slip of paper and tries to describe the word to his teammate/s to guess without using the word itself (kind of like Taboo). Each team has 90 seconds to guess as many words as they can. Each word successfully guessed is worth 1 point and the paper on which it is written is left out of the hat until the end of the round.

Then, the paper slips are placed back and the second round begins. The second round proceeds in the same fashion except each turn lasts only 60 seconds and now NO words are allowed, only actions, like charades. The third round is also 60 seconds, and allows only one word explanations.  During each turn, a player can ‘pass’ if they don’t know a word or don’t have faith in their partner’s ability to guess. This is placed back into the hat for the next player’s turn.

For example, if my word is airplane, in the first round I might say, “I flew in this to Bulgaria;” in the second round I might put my arms out and make flying motions; in the third round, I might say “Lufthansa.”