The Name Game

Here we are at Muncho Lake, British Columbia – 30 guests, the TrekMaster (Alone – his wife broke her knee just before he left to come here!), and us. We have been together for three days and are starting to recognize some faces and putting names to them.

We have all been wearing name badges so we get to cheat by looking, but it’s not the same as knowing peoples’ name. So what to do? Enter Rick Steves.

As you may know, three years ago we went to Italy on a Rick Steves tour. Rick is known for his PBS series “Europe Through the Back Door” and runs an incredible tour if you like his style of touring. One of the things we learned on that tour was the “Name Game.”

The game is simple. Everyone stands in a circle. In this case I started. I said, “My name is Jeff.” The person next to me said, “My name is Don, and this is Jeff.” The person next to him (his wife) said, I’m Diane, and this is Don and Jeff.” And so on around the 30-odd people.

As you can imagine, the people near the end started to freak out, but everyone had a great time and we have now put names with faces. We don’t all know everyone, but we know a whole lot more than we did the day before. The Trekmaster said we would need the name badges for a couple of weeks. I think a few more days should do it.

I can’t wait until I have them singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat!”