Jackson's 8th Birthday

It's Jackson's birthday! We had hoped to go to Chemka Hot Springs to go swimming for his birthday, but he had a soccer tournament that weekend and the weather wasn't great, so we'll try to do that another time.  However, an 8th birthday cannot pass uncelebrated, so we met at AIM mall after he'd finished his soccer games that day for a late lunch and cake.  

Above: lighting the candles! An 8 candle and a big sparkler candle, so he's sitting well back!

Below: opening my gift.  I didn't have any nice wrapping paper, unfortunately. 

In Tanzania, the birthday person cuts the cake and serves it to their guests, and he's finally old enough to be able to mostly manage to cut the cake himself. 

Enjoying lunch...David and Fibi (Jackson's aunt and uncle, and my coworkers at Alpha Omega) and their son Kendrick, and Emmy sharing some fish (her favourite!) with Uncle David. 

Jackson's choice for lunch was a star pizza from Bravo.  It's a stuffed crusts with pepperoni and cheese inside, with french fries served in the middle.  It's one of his favourite things to order for special occasions! 

Birthday Shenanigans

My birthday fell on a Sunday this year, so it was mostly spent at the school.  After the morning worship with the students and my Sunday school class after, I usually stay in the library until the students have lunch around 1 pm.  Today, I was getting ready to leave as they were going to lunch, when some of the form 3 boys came and coaxed me out of the library and pulled me up to the dining hall.  

I hung out with the students in the dining hall for a few minutes; today's lunch was ugali and greens, a very typical meal here, with watermelon for dessert.  Nelson-John kept offering to share his with me; I managed to get away with only one big bite.  Here are a few photos of the students at lunch, so you can see a bit what our dining hall is like.  They all are assigned to a lunch table.  The table leader gets the big serving bowls of food from the kitchen through the windows you can see in the background of the photo above, and then scoops it out into everyone's plates. 

As you can see below, ugali and be eaten with spoon or fork, but usually it's scooped up in a ball with the fingers and dipped in whatever sauce/vegetable/meat it's served with. Hamadi, Juma and Isack are hamming it up for the camera, of course.  

Speaking of hams, of course Gabriel and Salum (below) had to be in a photo.  I swear those two can hear a camera coming out from a mile away.  I have no shortage of photos of those two!  

Above, some of the boys try to look cool for the camera.  They seemed pleased with the result, but I just rolled my eyes at them.  They are, from left to right: Leon, Charles, Isack, Baton and Kelvin, all in form 3 this year. 

As lunch ended, they pulled me outside; I knew what was coming!  It's a tradition here on someone's birthday to pour water on them.  Last year, I managed to escape because there was a water shortage at the time, but this year I was not so lucky!  Actually, I didn't mind too much; it was a warm (which is not always the case here in mid-July; it's our winter), sunny day,  I was going home right after, and I didn't have any other plans for my birthday so it was nice to have at least a little recognition.  

Mostly on my blog I tend to tell about the good things happening, but life is not always perfect.  It turned out that while I was up by the dining hall celebrating, someone went into the library and stole some money from my purse.  I didn't realize it until I got home and needed to count out some money that I had received for student scholarships, and I knew it had to be during that time because all the money was still there during the collection at church, and that was the only time I wasn't in the room with my purse.  Normally I wouldn't leave it unattended, but I didn't carry it because I knew they were going to dump water on me, and it was sitting out in plain view instead of in the cabinet because I had been packing my bags to leave for the day when they called me out.  The next day, the headmaster and the other teachers questioned many students and the day turned into a whole inquisition (the teachers had been looking for a reason to come down hard on the students about something; they felt they were still way too rowdy after being off school for three months), but we never found out who took it. 

So, the day did not end well, but at least there were some fun moments for my birthday.  Above, you can see I'm soaking wet!  These guys, Nelson-John, Kelvin, Baton and Elisha, were the main instigators. :)  Below, a cheesy photo with Charles. 

Above, the boys are STILL trying to look cool.  Below, Baton is trying to feed me more ugali.  

And finally, here's the video!  The water was cold!!  

 

The Smell of Sawdust

Today, they mulched the flower beds in front of the administration building with fresh wood chips.  I was walking by and had to stop and sniff.  The fresh wood chips had such a strong smell of sawdust.  It was a bit of a nostalgic moment; I grew up in the little unincorporated dot-on-the-map called Sawdust.  Also, my dad's a carpenter, so I grew up falling asleep to the distant sound of a table saw and router out in his shop behind the house.  The smell of sawdust always makes me think of home. :)

Also making me think of home, today is my grandmother's 82nd birthday.  Happy birthday to Carol Phillips in Marmaduke, Arkansas!  Here's an old photo of my brother and me sitting with her on the porch many years ago. :)

Birthday Cake

My birthday fell on a Friday this year.  The night before, Beth and her family and the Shorts and I went to Arusha for dinner at the AIM mall food court, which is our standard birthday celebration when we can't think of anything else to do.  I had some excellent Indian food.  

Friday was a busy day at work; we had a school baraza (assembly for awards, etc.) in the afternoon.  I had to watch over my shoulder all day because the tradition here is to dump water on the birthday person.  Now, normally this wouldn't be an issue, because students don't typically know their teachers' birthdays...

However, I made a bit of an error in judgment way back last October in Preform.  We had been reviewing saying dates in English, and I had used my real birthday as an example.  I never thought the students would take much notice or remember it that long if they did...but I underestimated them.  Several carefully made a note in the back of their exercise books and referenced it occasionally. 

And now for the last month or so, several of the boys have been doing this thing where they wander by me and whisper "July" or "the 12th" or "Friday" under their breath, just so I know they know.  So, I was watching my back (and had packed a dry shirt in my bag just in case).  However, I was saved because we were having a water shortage again, so they couldn't waste any water on me if they wanted to be able to do laundry for the week. They had a good time threatening it, though. 

After I finally left school for the evening, Michela invited me over to the Shorts' house.  She had baked a chocolate cake for me, so I got to blow out candles.  I even got lucky by sitting by Deborah-- I like a little cake with my icing, while she loves cake but doesn't care much for icing (I can't fathom a ten-year-old not liking icing, but apparently it happens), so we split up our pieces with me getting the top halves with icing and her getting the bottom halves of just cake.

So, here I am, at 35.

Birthday Parties and Errands

Another day in Arusha...we started out by running a lot of errands.  Michela and I went one way while Beth went another way to split up the list.  Michela and I went to the main market for vegetables and then went looking for a key fundi ('fundi' means handyman) to make copies of both my housekeys and the library keys.  The one we've been to before was closed, but a nice lady from the shop next door gave us directions to this one a couple of blocks down.  Unfortunately, he turned out not to be too great as the keys aren't terribly well made, but oh well. 

It was a beautiful sunny day, which was nice coming at the end of May, which is a gray, wet month here.  It was nice to be out and about without having to worry with umbrellas and jackets and such.  

After all of our errands and grocery shopping, we moved on to the fun part of the day: it's someone's sixth birthday!  We stopped at AIM mall, so the kids could go to the arcade for a while.  We stayed to eat dinner at the food court there so the birthday boy could have his chicken nuggets and fries.  He even got a special curly straw for his drink! 

Beth had brought along a small cake she bought at the bakery, and to make it special, had one very big candle instead of six little ones.  The candle turned out to be more of a Roman candle...the birthday boy jumped back in surprise first with quite a look on his face, but once he got past the shock he was impressed.  (It's a good thing the food court has outdoor seating). 

After we ate, we had time for presents.  He loves superheroes, so that was the main theme for the evening.  I found him a Spiderman color-your-own-posters kit and Avengers markers.  I think his favorite thing, though, was the Hulk mask his mom found!

Michela's Birthday

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the Njiro complex (a shopping center on the other side of Arusha) for lunch to celebrate Michela's 16th birthday.  All four of her grandparents are still here visiting, so we had quite a crowd!  We ate lunch at the food court (yay for Chinese food!) and had cake and presents.  I hope 16 is a great year for her!

I got her real presents, too, but put a few new forks in as well.  We have been joking about the difficulty of finding a clean fork with so many people around!

Michela is cheered on by her grandmother, Sharon Short. 

Happy Birthday!

Rebecca's Birthday

Veronica, Radhia, Jackline, and Rebecca

There's a tradition here in Tanzania that people dump water on the birthday person.  I know I've mentioned it before, but I had another chance to witness it on Rebecca's birthday.  She was prepared: she packed a change of clothes and a towel before going up to the school, and her friends did not disappoint her.  I think the second set of clothes might have ended up rather damp as well.  Remind me to hide on my birthday...or at the very least to not carry my phone or any papers around! :)

Rebecca's birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day again this year (tends to happen occasionally with a late November birthday), but we stopped to sing and present her with her gifts before we left to celebrate Thanksgiving at the Duncans' house.  We were in a rush, as always, so she took the gifts with her in the car to open.  She absolutely loves Agatha Christie mysteries, so she was really happy that I'd found one she doesn't have!   She also took the opportunity, since it was her birthday and she could get away with it, to wear a long, flowy flowered dress.  One of her favorite presents was a pair of high heels; she's definitely the sister most into glamour these days. 

Tammy and I decided Lewis needed some quality time with his children since he's been working a lot lately.  Or at least that was our excuse to stick him in the back. :) 

Birthday Fun

 On November 3rd, we celebrated D's tenth birthday.  Please don't tell her I'm posting pictures...

First, we went swimming; I didn't get pictures of that part.  Then, we had lunch at her favorite restaurant in Arusha, formerly known as the Fish and Chicken Restaurant.  It has a new name, but it hasn't caught on with us yet.  We had a pretty good crowd; the Shorts, Beth and her kids, Elipendo, Margaret from Karatu, and two friends from our neighborhood, Deo and Mary. 

We then went over to AIM mall, where the kids played at the arcade and we had cake that Michela had made and presents in the food court.  It was a good day of friends, family and cake! 

In Tanzania, the birthday person cuts the cake and serves it to their guests. 

Cake time! 

Tammy's Birthday Party

I arrived in Tanzania just in time to celebrate Tammy's birthday.  It was a 'big' one, so she invited several neighbors and friends to come by for cake since it fell on a Saturday.  I won't tell you how old she is, but, well, the picture above will probably give you a good hint.  J was very proud of having helped to make the cake, so she got a picture with him and it.  

Since the weather is beautiful here in the dry season--high around eighty and sunny with no chance of rain until November--we gathered on the porch and in the yard. 

It was a bit windy, so it took several efforts to get the candles lit long enough for her to blow them out.  After cake, snacks, and sodas (in glass bottles that you have to return for a discount--sound familiar to any of you who are a bit older?), it was time for the Tanzanian tradition:  dumping water on the birthday person.  Michela tries very hard not to tell anyone here what day her birthday is for this reason (it didn't work last year); I've already figured out that my birthday will fall on a school day next summer so I'll have to watch out.  With several teenagers (the most ardent upholders of the dump-water-on-people tradition, as you can imagine) in attendance, Tammy got thoroughly soaked several times over.  

Towards the end of the party, I did get a photo with my rather drippy friend.  :)