So I am 28 years old now, and as always don’t feel any different. My voice didn’t get any deeper and I am pretty sure I am not growing any hair where I wasn’t before, so what made yesterday’s birthday one of the best? Maybe because I realized there are just some really important things that are difficult to quantify in words. In many ways, yesterday wasn’t very much different than any other day. Sure, we had monkey bread in the morning, and the “happy 28th birthday, dan the man!” sign is still defying gravity through the magic of scotch tape on the wall but what happened after that which made it special.
Or maybe I should say what didn’t happen that made it so special.
I really don’t care that much about birthdays…mainly because I usually don’t do very much. I never really had that many friends to celebrate with, and with the exception of the party Bethany threw for me last year, generally little to nothing happened. The biggest excitement each year generally came from the fact I knew every single place in a 50 mile radius that serves free birthday meals and would hit as many as I could, but that’s it.
I let Helen and David know a few days beforehand that my birthday was coming up and I thought we should go to the Maseno Club and get a beer after work to celebrate. Helen then secretly plotted with Emmah, our wonderful cook and housekeeper to make me something special for my birthday. Emmah went absolutely all out, making flour tortilla chips and guacamole as well as a sausage quiche (which she makes with shredded potatoes and a couple of eggs) for dinner. It was absolutely excellent and was finished up with a plain chocolate cake in a glass pan as they sung me Happy Birthday. There was no frosting, no ice cream, no family, no presents, hell-we used one of the candles we use for light when the power is out for me to blow out.
It looked like it was going to be just an ordinary day, perhaps made only extraordinary by how incredibly busy we were. I only got a chance to get to the cyber café and upload my latest entries as the cyber café was closing at 5pm.
What happened between there and the cake meant everything to me.
First off, I was shocked to see more happy birthday emails and facebook posts than I have ever received. I got so many emails from people I don’t even know that are friends of friends and family members that wished me happy birthday and told me how much they enjoyed my blog posts.
Afterwards, I went to the hospital courtyard with David and some snacks to feed the monkeys with. I had some bananas and david had some “Nice” biscuits (which are coconut flavored cookies). Soon we were surrounded by monkeys. They would get right up to us and even dance around to get a tasty snack. I was able to film it with my digital camera and will be uploading it as well as many other photos and videos for the companion guide to the blog once I return to a continent with decent bandwidth to do so.
This mommy monkey was carrying her baby and enjoyed the treats we fed them!
From the monkey feeding, we walked the dirt road to the Maseno Club as the sun began its magnificent decent, casting everything in a blinding glare, our shadows stretched like giants in our steps.
Helen chatting the whole way about her day in the rural country climbing mountains with the hospital’s Pasteur James-how despite the fact he was 3 times her age, was absolutely able to run circles around her as they ascended the mountains near his home. Helen took lots of amazing pictures (a few are seen below).
The Maseno Club (on the right)
Once we reached the Maseno Club, David and Helen treated me to a Guinness and as the drinks were delivered Helen said:
“We have a family tradition that on someone’s birthday, we have to each say 3 reasons we appreciate them”
I chuckled at first, there was no way she was going to get to 3, I pulled out the camera, flipped it to video mode, put her in center frame and started recording.
Both Helen and then David said things about me in just the short time we’ve been together (9 days) which were incredibly touching and deeply insightful. I felt my heart practically sink to the floor I was so moved, so much I have difficulty writing it in words here. I am not going to tell you what they said, to put in the text takes away part of the significance-I might upload it when I come home though.
As we walked back from the Maseno Club the sun rapidly fell behind the horizon line. I had never been outside the gated hospital compound at this time of dusk but it was absolutely stunning-the picture below can’t do it justice.
It was the purples, the orange of the sky on fire, the smells, the sounds, being with my new friends as cool chill of the night blew over us when I felt a strange peace come over me. No presents, no family, no friends, no Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake and cards with checks in them and I didn’t even think about any of this. No expectations, just living in the moment, thousands of miles away from my family and friends who were thinking of me on this special day, and all I could think of was how much I wanted them there with me at that moment to see the sun set over the distant valleys.
I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be experiencing this.
Learn Swahili through personal suffering! Handy Phrases for the average Kenyan!
Uh oh, looks like that international chemical company accidently has been dumping toxic levels of Mercury into Lake Victoria for the last 25 years causing a 100 times increase in Autism in Kenya. Will they get shut down? No? How about a fine? Not even that? What?!? Our water bills are increasing to help fix it? WHY?!?!
Mwanamwali alimchezea ngoma rais
The spinster danced to the president
No comments:
Post a Comment