Nothing like a little sparkler-flame action on a cake!

Last week, my host sister Lara turned 7 years old. Two events of the week are worth noting. First, the trip to the bakery to purchase a cake; and second, the birthday party at the house.

On Tuesday evening, we left our house, and as we made a left turn onto the main street, Rami began to shout Rawan Cake…Rawan Cake! My host parents told him that we were going to Cado Cake. Well, that did not sit well with Rami as he then shouted Cado Cake muqaziz (disgusting) and began to cry. He cried the entire way to Cado Cake.

We arrived to Cado Cake and upon seeing the delicious looking desserts, Rami’s tears turned into a large smile. Lara and Rami began looking at the various books of different types of cakes. Rania, my host mother, was looking with them and helping Lara pick out a cake for her birthday, while my host father paced around the building, occasionally looking at the books.

I stood there reminiscing about my childhood when my parents would take my sister and I to the bakery to pick out our birthday cakes. We would look at every single picture of every possible cake for what seemed like hours. My sister and I were so intrigued by the tremendous amount of cake options that it became very difficult to make a decision. Lara struggled to make up her mind and I could tell that David was getting impatient and wanted to get going. I’m sure my parents acted in a similar way – hoping that the cake of dreams would be chosen and we could move on with our lives. What big decision we had to make as children!

I looked with Lara and Rami at some of the pictures of cakes, and found some of them to be very similar, nearly identical, to ones that I recall from my childhood. However, a few stood out, like the cake with images of Marlboro cigarettes or the AK-47 machine gun. I had a few laughs looking at those pictures!

On Thursday evening, we had a birthday celebration at our house for Lara. Several of her friends and their mothers attended the event, in addition to Peter, my host father’s brother, and Tata (grandmother), my host father’s mother. The evening was absolutely fantastic and it was such a joy to watch Lara and Rami and their friends playing various games, like a version of hot potato and musical chairs. The food that evening was delicious – pizza from the local bakery, homemade Tabouli (best I have ever had!), and various desserts, including the pink Princess cake!

At one point everyone gathered around the table in order to sing Happy Birthday to Lara. Rania picked up a lighter and then lit the candles. Recalling the various birthday celebrations that I have had as well as the ones that I have witnessed, I thought we would light the typical candles. However, these candles were more like a sparklers and flares combination. We lite all the candles and I thought for a second that our house would catch on fire! We sang Happy Birthday in English and then in Arabic.

Just wait, it gets even better. After singing to Lara, the candles (or in this case the sparkler-flares) were extinguished and removed from the cake. Then Rania placed another candle with the number 4 on it on top of the candle. At this point I was really confused. Everyone then immediately began singing Happy Birthday again! Yet, this time it was for Rami (however, his birthday was in August!). I have realized that if Lara gets something or does something, then Rami must as well. It made me laugh that all of Lara’s friends and their mothers began singing to Rami without any forewarning by Rania or David.

All in all the evening was quite wonderful. I think Lara had a wonderful time and it was definitely fun to partake in a birthday party for kids – something I have not been a part of in a long time.

Throughout this evening, I felt for the first time that this was in a sense my home and my family. I have begun to feel like an older brother to Rami and Lara, and a son to David and Rania. Today, I left for travels to Beirut and Cairo for the Eid Al-Adha break. As I said good-bye to everyone and gave hugs and witnessed the expected tears from Rami, I realized how much I will miss them this week and I think they will miss me as well. (In a future blog post, I will hopefully talk more about this).