cake wars

Sorry for the recent lapse in blogging. It never ceases to amaze me how busy I am at work. There is always more that can and needs to be done; there are always people running up to me in a hurry letting me know that they needed something ten minutes ago; and, of course, there is always a little bit of ridiculousness.

But today I woke up early (6 am) just so I could have a chance to write this entry. So, today’s topic – drum roll please – my birthday! In all honesty it was a little strange celebrating my birthday an ocean away from home and throughout the day I couldn’t help but reminisce about where I was last year (Rob and Morgan – I was thinking about y’all in particular). But all that aside, I had a birthday that I will never forget!

Every Friday all of the GRS coaches meet at a recreational center in Galeshewe for a Development Session. The Development Session is a combination of sorority meetings with soccer practice and class. During Development Sessions coaches are given announcements and information about upcoming activities. During the DS (getting lazy now) coaches have the opportunity to discuss different things such as how being a Skillz coach has changed their personal life and how much they get paid (usually they want to get paid more and, in their defense, I definitely think the work that they do in the community is invaluable).

My birthday just happened to fall on Friday this year so I had the pleasure of spending my birthday with 40 very crazy coaches. At the DS all of the coaches sang me an enthusiastic ‘Happy Birthday’ and then proceeded to give me a cobra kilo. I hate this kilo. For a cobra kilo to work, one person (in this case it was me) stands in the middle of a circle of people and after a bit of clapping and shouting everyone on the outside of the circle jumps on the person in the middle and starts jabbing them with their hands in a cobra-esque hand motion. It tickles a lot and there is no escape when you are in the middle.

The coaches also bought me, not just one, but two birthday cakes! At the end of the DS after I had finished handing out transport money the coaches all surrounded me, presented me my birthday cakes and then proceeded to take some of the frosting and start smearing it on my face. According to them, rubbing cake frosting all over the birthday girl is “tradition.” After about 15 seconds of them smearing frosting all over my face, I decided I would fight back. I grabbed some frosting and smushed it all over Coach Nthabi’s face. At this point, an all out cake war erupted.

The aftermath.

I have never had such a great time playing with food in my life! Image 40 adults running around tripping people, tackling people, jumping on people – all while throwing and smearing bits of cake all over each other. I can safely say I have never had a birthday experience quite like this one, and I think it’s a “tradition” I am going to bring back to the States with me.

I have one more birthday story to share. It might not be the best thing to include on my blog, but to all those who might say this story is inappropriate, all I have to say in response is that you need to lighten up and let someone have fun on their birthday. All right – disclaimer done – time for the story!

Friday night I invited some of the coaches over to the intern house to teach them how some (not me of course) American college students drink. What does that mean? It means I taught these coaches how to play the drinking game Kings. Some of you may know how to play this game, but for those who don’t, allow me to enlighten you. In kings, players sit in a circle and take turns drawing cards. For each card that is drawn there is a rule that must be followed. For example, when a four is drawn, all players must touch the floor. The last player to touch the floor is kindly asked to take a drink.

The coaches loved this game. They loved it so much that when the deck of cards ran out they just kept turning them back over and playing again and again. The best part about playing with the coaches was the creativity that they showed when one of them drew a king. When a king is drawn, the person who drew it gets to make a rule. In the States, rules that are typically made are things like, “you have to chirp like a bird before you say anything” or “no pointing.” If rules are broken, the perpetrator is kindly asked to take a sip of their beverage. The coaches I was playing with however came up with some of the most unique rules I have ever heard. My favorite was, “everyone stand on one foot for five minutes.” So random, so unique, so great!