I feel like I don’t really know someone until I play a game with them. Typically, my litmus test is a game of UNO. The differences in everyone’s “house rules” and the arguments that follow show me how a person thinks, and the way they play (cough cough, especially if they cheat) tells me the cost a person is willing to pay to get ahead. However, while in Cape Town, we have predominantly played Mafia, Contact, and the “Get Someone to Say ___” game, and those games have revealed so much to me about my classmates. In fact, I think these games might be my new litmus test.
With Mafia in particular, watching how people lie, how they argue, and how confidently they can stand ten toes down on their beliefs with so little information has taught me a lot. The game of Mafia that we played at Aquila was the most revealing.
I learned that Sam is not only strategic but petty.
I learned that Yasmin has an insane intuition.
I learned that Lydia is so calm under pressure that I believe anything she says.
I learned, or rather, reaffirmed, that Allam loves to make noise.
Lastly, I learned that throughout all the chaos and confusion, one thing Safa and Liana will always do is smile.
I came to these conclusions because, in one of the rounds, Yasmin and Allam immediately knew that Sam was the Mafia. How did they know? It was all because of the way he said, “What?” How did Sam respond? As the Mafia, he decided to kill himself in an attempt to eliminate any suspicion. Regardless, Yasmin somehow knew that Sam had killed himself, and the rest of us completely discounted her.
I have also loved playing Contact. While trying to gain letters for our words, I get to see how similarly the people in our program and I think. After all, I can always trust Kehinde, Lola, Nardeen, and Lydia to understand my Love Island references when guessing words.
The “Get Someone to Say ___” game that we played two nights ago made me realize how well I have honestly gotten to know the people in our program.
I know that Nardeen loves to say, “Oh, by the way!” Emaan loves to say, “Oh wow!” Lola loves to say, “I don’t like you.” Alya loves to add “even” to the end of her sentences. Sekai loves to say, “Heard you!” “Whole time!” and “Tea up.”
It’s so interesting that these are phrases people don’t even realize they say often, yet everyone else notices them. I think it’s a testament to how close we’ve all become over the course of this trip. I love our little tradition of playing games whenever we eat together. They’ve given me some of my favorite memories from this trip, and they’re games that I’ll definitely be bringing back to campus with me.