“Haya haya, karibieni nyote kwa mchezo mzuri, mchezo wa nguvu chakachua Ngoma ya Wazee, huu ni mchezo wa pesa mchezo wa raha”. This is how we used to start the Pata potea game in various towns after spreading our new sportsman box. Don’t know why we were superstitious but the box and the cards had to be new everyday.
The crew was usually made up of four, The one spinning the cards otherwise known as Dereva, two assistants who were always lucky coz they always won, they were known as Mvery coz they used to peep into peoples pockets and verify if theres money or not and lastly there was a kisuguu, his duty was to look out for kina Pamba na wenzake, once sigted he would intercept and sort them out before they spoiled the game. We were a team, a well oiled machine. Anyone could hold any position depending on the kind of luck on any particular day. Kama wewe dereva umekaa hapo ukiwika for 20 minutes nahaujakata kitu lazima deree mwingine aingie kwa sukani.
Chakachua ngoma ya wazee ni mchezo wa karata tatu, mbili zafanana na moja tofauti, kazi yako wewe umekaribia pale mchezo uko ni kutambua the different card.
“Fungueni macho vizuri na kaa macho yako sio nzuri tumia carrots, card ya kushinda ndio hii naiweka chini pole pole, hii haishindi nah ii haishindi, card changanya card terema card zunguka, nani atanionyesha card ya ushindi nimpe pesa”
Card zaanguswa polepole kila mtu akiona na unaulizwa nigani yakushinda, Mvery mmoja deliberately anakosea nawewe kwa tamaa yako unasema umeona iko wapi, deree hana budi ila akupe note ya tenga, and then he asks you if you have your own 1k note, nawewe kwa sababu ya tamaa ya pesa ya haraka you produce it very fast, all the time the mveries are looking at how much you have alafu kaa uko loaded the mvery would say “behewa” guess you know what a behewa is, yes you got it , it’s a railway wagon for carrying goods.
Once the driver got that sign the stakes would be raised from 1k to 20k, ata card inafunguliwa uone ndio hio and your greed would take over, ukitoa pesa, (and mind you, the driver doesn’t have 20k) dereva anacheza karata tena na kadi yakushinda inanguswa na magicians trick inakua sio ile unafikiria.
(part 2 coming up after xmass):D:D:D:D