So, we bought this cake for my grandma’s birthday dinner. It was a lovely, colorful, sprinkle-y ice cream cake. It was delicious, but I won’t say where it’s from and you’ll see why. My older cousins are at that point where they’re all having kids, so all the toddlers LOVED the tiny fake plastic balloons that bedecked the heavily frosted surface. My grandma was beaming from being surrounded by so many great grandkids (which is suk in Cantonese).
It was very lucky that all the babies and my paw paw cannot read English because “grandma” was misspelled on the cake. Instead, it said “Gradma.” Really?? In my mind, people could have rioted during the “Happy Birthday” song. It was hilarious. But actually, no one really noticed... the fancy cake decorations/candles stole the show.
According to my mother, anything could have been written on the cake, in French, and it wouldn’t have really mattered. But, apparently the one downfall was the fact that the writing was done in blue which is associated with sadness, death and mourning instead of lucky, festive red. Otherwise, it was pretty great, yea?
As her gift, I got my paw paw a mural of three villagers hand-painted on fabric from Cameroon that I bought from the Extreme North Region, in Maroua.
Oh family and gigantic dinner gatherings… how I’ve missed you. People have asked me, "Are you going back to Africa soon?" To be honest I have no idea, I would love to go visit another country in the near future but for now I'm relishing in the fact that I'm home. A year can feel really long without the birthdays, the family traditions, the holiday celebrations. Anyways, I've been back for two weeks now. I wouldn't want to miss moments like these for anything. To a birthdays that make everyone smile, and many more.
Happy Birthday g-r-a-n-d-m-a!
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