7 PEOPLE, 1 CUPCAKE: WHAT DO BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS AT WORK MEAN!
Celebrating each other at work can be interesting! Depending on the culture, the celebrations can be wild or rather calm. I remember how frightening it was organising the first birthday celebration once we grew beyond employee No.1. The first birthday celebration brought up a feeling to do something special while completely lacking the budget to go overboard with wild ideas! Thankfully, the family at Zetu Africa is majority “thinkers” and “meditative makers” so calm birthday celebrations have become a thing.
Celebrating Carol, we had a simple cupcake baked by Lilian, (the youngest on the team), a single tiny candle, no presents wrapped and a lot of great energy. After 1 hour trying to distract her, we surprised her with a loud cheer and another hour taking turns to tell her what we love about her, and how she has made each of us better in our own lives. Tears were shed, and a cupcake was not shared! (It was shared...but this was all a polite prank).
2 days later, we caught Carol off-guard again, with a really loud cheer, a BIG birthday cake with may candles (a celebration in Uganda is not a complete without cake, for some consistent reason!) and a host of presents. It was all fun. Comparing the 2 celebrations, she did say how loved she felt with the 1st ´prank´ celebration. In this moment, I knew that our gratitude for each other matters more than our presents and big cake! Today, we celebrate Sarah´s birthday (maybe she turns 25 for the 3rd year running, lets see!).
Sharing the traditional cake celebration before a musical filled afternoon at Zetu Africa - Kampala Location.
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