Sparklers, Aging and Chocolate Cake

My birthday was this past Sunday, and it just so happened that I was in Africa to celebrate :-). It ended up being a great day, save for the getting older part. Since it was a Sunday, we went to a church service, and instead of our usual church (which actually had an English service), we went to the church of a man who works for African Leadership. The service was entirely in Amharic and lasted over 2 hours. Thankfully I had one of our translators, Surafel, sitting next to me, and every once and awhile he would whisper what the pastor was saying. We then went to lunch at our team’s favorite restaurant in Addis, called Island Breeze. It’s our favorite because their pizza actually looks and tastes like pizza.

After lunch, we went to the home of Tadeus, another one of our translators, for a coffee ceremony his mother had for our team. A coffee ceremony here in Ethiopia consist of trays of popcorn passed around, lit incense, and small cups of very strong coffee with only sugar added. We sit and drink, laugh, and cough (the incense is quite strong). His mom had a candle too and everyone sang Happy Birthday and I got to blow out the candle before we left!

We then went back to our guest house for the night. The power was out, so Elizabeth, Jeremiah, Eric, Derrek, Nati and I played Uno (the only game at the house) by flashlight. Dinner was made at the house, so we had homemade soup and rice. The other team members had decorated the dining room with Happy Birthday plates, banner, and party hats to wear. We ate dinner by candlelight and they had actually found a real chocolate cake for my birthday (this is a big deal because we had some ‘cake’ on another day…and it tasted nothing like cake). They had candles and sang to me, and they had also gotten sparklers, so those were lit during the singing. Thankfully nothing caught on fire. The team wrote me a birthday letter which was also read by candlelight, and one of our translators, Surafel, had bought me a jewelry box and necklace for a present. Elizabeth also bought me a pedicure the day before as my birthday gift. We found a legit spa in Addis over the weekend, so as a treat some of the team members had massages, but considering my feet were funk nasty, I opted for the pedicure. And one of the best presents was from Emma. My phone hasn’t worked since we flew into Dubai, so for my gift, Emma let me use her phone to call my mom…I was beyond excited! With the time difference (we are 8 hours ahead of Chicago), I missed my mom the first try, but did manage to catch her at night, and was able to talk with her for almost 20 minutes. What a great gift!

I had an amazing birthday and while it was definitely weird not being at home, it was a birthday I will never forget, although I do try to forget my age…but being in Ethiopia helps. It’s the year 2001 here, so technically I am 8 years younger here than I am in America. Whenever the school kids ask me how old I am, I tell them my Ethiopian age…sounds much better than the real one! ;-)