Mafia

OK. Really funny story. One of the first commandments for the missionary is to never criticize one’s host culture or government. So let me be clear that this isn’t a critique on the public’s perception of political transparency, but merely a funny story.

I taught my 6th and 7th graders to play Mafia, today. Have any of you played this game? Basically, the narrator deals out one card to each player, and the cards reveal if that person is one of two mafia, the town sheriff, or the town nurse. Throughout the game townspeople keep dying and it’s the town’s job to discover and sentence the mafia, while the mafia are trying to kill everybody off without being discovered. Wow. Describing it all, I’m feeling a little guilty for teaching the game, in the first place. But not too guilty. My kids REALLY got into it and had a ton of fun, not that that should have any bearing on its appropriateness, but still:). The humor highlight for me, though, was when one of the mafia (Diego) slipped the sheriff (Esteban) a mil (money), because Esteban had found him out, and Diego was hoping to keep him quiet. Funny- I had never before considered that strategy.