# 61 - Being Good at the Pina Chama

Pina chama (literally, warm corner) is our name for the Gush Etzion Soldiers Hospitality Hut.
In the Pina chama, men and women from all over Efrat and Gush Etzion volunteer to spoil our men in uniform - members of the Israel Defense Forces. We serve coffee, tea, cocoa and hot soup in the winter. In the summer, it's cake and coffee or chocolate milk or slush. We're most famous for our cakes - baked fresh every day by different women in kitchens all around Gush Etzion. Brownies, maple walnut, marble, chocolate chip, honey cake. We've got it all, and it's all delicious.
We're pretty busy on our  Pina chama  shifts, serving between 50 and 80 soldiers in two and a half hours. We chat with the soldiers, ask where they're from, tell them about Gush Etzion, and also clean up in between and cut cake platters. But there is some down time. When that happens, most volunteers sit down behind the counter with a cup off coffee and a piece of Gush Etzion's famous  Pina chama cake.
It is very difficult NOT to take a square of brownie or Blondie crunch cake - especially when it smells incredibly chocolatey good.
But I come to  Pina chama armed - not with rifles, like our soldiers - but with Cheerios, a banana and a pack of raisins.
I start my shift with spoons of cereal in between my servings of Turkish coffee and instant (one and a half sugars) Nescafé. On my break I sit down for my customary cup of coffee, but I eat a banana instead of a cream cake, and instead of munching, I chat. It's just about as satisfying.
And honestly, since I consciously know that all the cake and cookies are bad for me, so far I have been able to resist. I hope I will still be able to say that next year.