Nuno's birthday

My student, Nuno, had his 28th birthday party on Sunday. So, after staying awake for 2 days (Thanksgiving festivities), I had yet another obligation! It was a really nice party at his family's house. He was a great host, as were his parents. They killed a pig and we had wonderful pork skewer and such. We sat outside underneath the tree in his front yard and played cards and oril (a local game kind of like mancala). My student Simon played me in Mancala 3 times and managed to completely destroy any notions I had about being good at oril! He is a great player.

There was music and some dancing, as well as the presentation of the cake. His mother brought out a beautiful cake and then it disappeared! I never even got any. The boys from the class decided to play a little joke on Nuno, so they bought eggs and flour and decided to make a bolu de cabeca. This literally translates as a cake of the head. So, you can imagine what happened. As he was posing for pictures and we were singing to him, they smashed the eggs on his head and then dumped flour on him. It was funny. The funniest part about it was that two of the guys put their eggs in their pockets earlier in the day and they each managed to lean on the egg, which broke in their pants. I think that was karma, for sure!

The day ended about 6 with me being too tired to continue. Luckily, the party was winding down, so I didn't feel too bad leaving. Another student, Arcadio gave us a ride. Apparently, Elizabeth had arranged for him to stop by his house so they could try some of his "good" grogue. In my opinion, there is no such thing as good grogue. The rum here is soooo bad. So, we did that. I didn't partake! I learned that Arcadio is a music composer. He played some music for us of his work and we got to see his name in the liner notes! That was pretty great. I have such interesting students; I learn new things about them all the time!