A week and a half ago (on February 15) I turned 19 in Malawi, Africa, and here is how I celebrated it…
So, many of you who have been keeping up with my blogs and Facebook posts have probably heard about a sweet family that lives two streets over. On our prayer walks each morning, we pass their house and sit with them sharing stories or just laughing and eating zageges (potatoes fried in batter, and for someone who doesn’t like potatoes I can enjoy about two.) We know the mother and her five children and granddaughter very well and i. It was the oldest daughter’s birthday, her name is Chisomo, on the 13th of February. We decided to have a combined birthday party on Valentine’s Day which was in between our two birthdays.
We prepared banana bread, popcorn, and chocolate balls for the festivities, and I brought a birthday gift as well. When we arrived, the first one to greet us was Glory, the two year old daughter of Chisomo. She had just “bathed” and was running around naked and dripping wet. Glory is the biggest ball of joy and always screams “azungu! (white person)” and runs towards us with arms wide open. After finally convincing her to get dressed, we sat down with all our friends and ate the treats. Chisomo made potato somosas for us and we had a partayyyy! They brought out the speaker and showed us all of their African dance moves. It was honestly so much fun to dance and laugh in their little living room. I will say about the only move we showed them which they liked was the robot, and let’s just say it’s so hard to dance like the Africans.
That night after we left, we made a spaghetti dinner for Valentine’s Day and had a little secret-Valentine party. It was a good way to celebrate even being so far away from home and from our Valentines. Victoria on my team had me. She gave me Mars bars, which are the best chocolates ever, but don’t exist in America, and grapes because I eat them like they are candy. We had some sparkling grape juice for our feast and made it a Galentine’s night.
Well, the next day was my birthday. Sydney and I got up to prayer walk that morning, and we visited our friends. It was so sweet because they all told me happy birthday, and then they gave me a chatange (a wrap that they all wear). It was honestly one of the best things that could’ve happened that day because they were so kind to me even though they didn’t have to be. I am now getting it made into a skirt so I can wear it at home too! Arriving home from our walk, we heard singing. The other team had hung balloons all over the house and made me a stack of banana pancakes with a little candle. It was definitely a celebration that happened all before 8 am.
The rest of the day was kind of boring. We hung out around the house until the afternoon when it was time to go to soccer ministry. I wasn’t really feeling that good all day, but of course I was excited to play. Throughout the afternoon, I was kinda in a funk and just going through the motions. I wasn’t very happy, and at this point it had hit me that I wasn’t at home getting to celebrate my birthday. But lucky for me, I have a wonderful team who made sure the party wasn’t over.
That night they locked me out of the kitchen for a while. They had made me Chick-Fil-A nuggets, broccoli, and even Chick-Fil-A sauce! It wasn’t the same as real Chick-Fil-A, but it was definitely a delicacy for being on the race. They weren’t finished there though. My teammates baked me a cake with good buttercream icing. I didn’t believe it would get done, because all afternoon we hadn’t had power. But when it finally came on, they actually made it happen! We dined on nuggets, cake, sparkling lemonade, and laughter. It was such a sweet night that made my day a whole lot brighter.
Finally to end the day, I got to get internet for the first time in a few weeks to talk to family and friends. I got to call my family and boyfriend and receive so many birthday wishes from so many of my best friends. It was honestly what I wanted and needed on my birthday to feel loved and missed. It was rejuvenating for my emotions even though I stayed up until 3 am. But the party didn’t stop there.
Saturday my team and I went to a fancy restaurant called Four Seasons. I ordered a chicken quesadilla and a brownie and ice cream. It was a night to dress up fancy and look good, which doesn’t really happen very often on the race. But you know birthdays call for celebration because they are a special occasion!
So I guess it’s been two years out of my 19 years that I haven’t celebrated my birthday with my family or friends back at home in America and to tell you the truth, both times have been a little bit difficult. It was not because I didn’t get to have a celebration or because I didn’t get to eat Japanese Hibachi or my Mom’s homemade cake, but honestly because I didn’t want to feel forgotten or feel any less special. Maybe I hold birthdays as too big of deals, but I really do just love getting to be around the family and friends that are so important to me. But through both experiences of being away from home on my birthday, I still have felt what happened both times were the opposite of what I feared or felt discouraged by. I’m not saying it was easy being in Malawi, Africa 7 hours ahead of the time on the East Coast, but I am saying I still felt love from so many miles away. This love, congratulations, and encouragement just took a little extra long for me to experience with the time difference and the crummy cell service that doesn’t effectively work until it hits 10 pm here.
I just want to say thank you to first off my team and the other team living with us for making my birthday special, for keeping my head up all day starting at 6 am, and for making me some delicious food! Also, thank you to my family and Reid for putting up with all my funky emotions that afternoon and always being there for me on the other side of the world! Also, thank you to my parents for buying me some chocolate, sparkling lemonade, tortilla chips, and birthday dinner! And… thank you to all the friends and family who told me happy birthday. Each one of you helped lift my spirits and feel so much love! This will be a birthday I will never forget that’s for sure. It’s one for the books.
