July 17, I got to spend my 23rd birthday in a small town called Matombo Tawa; population less than 4,000. With a lack of options of exciting things to do in a town where there is no electricity, my teammates still managed to make it a great birthday. They started the day by waking me up, and giving me some birthday cards and Lindsey gave me pistachio nuts (my new favorite thanks to Kelly Williams). Then, we went and had breakfast which was some little bread rolls called mandozie and tea. Amy surprised me with instant coffee packets, so my tea became a tea/ cappuccino. After breakfast, we went to the church we were working with in Tawa and I gave a message. Then, the congregation, my teammates, and all the pastors there sang happy birthday to me. After that, we went to minister from house to house, and spent about the next hour and half talking to a family of Muslims and Roman Catholics. 
After our morning was over, we went back to our guest house where we had our usual lunch of rice and beans and a banana. Kathryn wrote me a very amusing birthday poem, Amy surprised me with Chili Sauce to go with our beans and rice, and Lindsey had managed to travel for 3 weeks with Chocolate Chip Cookies for my birthday (without eating them, which if you know Lindsey you know that is not an easy task for her. Love u Lindsey 🙂 )
After lunch I wasn’t feeling very well, so the rest of the team went back out and did door to door ministry and a seminar, while I hung out at the guest house sleeping and reading.
My final and biggest surprise of the day, was the team had found a local lady who ran a very small “restaurant� to cook me a birthday dinner, with all of our African favorites. We had rice, beans, turnip greens, tomatoes, chipatie, french fries, and chicken. Then for dessert, we had something similar to a pound cake that was half regular flavored and half lemon. It wasn’t that pretty in appearance, but it was delicious. Definitely an unforgettable birthday.
