Jewish Home Bingo Night

Picture from bingogamesfree.com

It's been a while since I last played bingo and if I'm not mistaken, the last time I played it was when I was in primary school. After about 10 years not playing it, At the Jewish Home's Bingo Night, I "re-learn" how to play it with the elderly there. It is slightly different from what I know. The one I used to play w/ my friends was something like we got to write the number from 1-100 on the 10 x 10 boxes, and we we'll take turn calling a number and whoever manage to cross the first bingo (a vertical/horizontal/diagonal) won.


They play it slightly different over here. Each player will be given a pre-written card w/ numbers and on the middle part of the card is empty and it's called free space. And as for the turns, there will be one person sitting at the front picking up a number from the numbered ball in the bingo ball cage. Whenever your number was called, you can cover or marked your number and whoever got the first bingo (crossed) won. They also play it various other ways like the winner need to get and X (diagonally) to be considered a winner, or getting a square etc. and this depends on the creativity of the organizer. For those who still don't have a single clue of what I've been saying, you can refer to this video. 

Bingo Ball Cage
photo from us-bingo.com

Even though the prizes was just like a bottle of hand sanitizer, cotton candy (yes cotton candy), a dollar bill, or even just a plastic bangle, those things are enough to get the attention of these people. From what I can see, it's not the prizes that they were after, but the satisfaction of winning against others. The warmth of their laughter, the sulking faces for losing, attentive faces listening to the numbers. Seeing those faces from people around the age of my grandpa and grandma was adorable. 2 hours trip from my house worth the visit and i'd be very silly if I choose not to come. Some people said that they don't want to come here because they don't know what to talk to these elderly. I ain't talking to them about the chaos in middle east, or economic crisis in the states, or earthquake in Japan and Haiti or theory of relativity; just simple conversation of how was their day, did they sleep well last night, did they had good lunch, what are their plan for christmas. These people weren't expecting Einstein or Galileo or Bernanke or Obama to discuss things. They just need a COMPANION with whom they can tell their story to, someone who are willing to listen, someone that can make them laugh, someone who could fill the emptiness in their heart for not  having someone that still care about them. Even if you don't have anything at all to say, your presence is enough to make them smiles. Trust me, seeing a smiling faces is all you need to be happy for yourself. Just give it a try and let me know if I'm wrong. Cheers :)