It's completely dark, only enough sunlight to barely make out what's going on in front of me. It's about 8:30 in the morning and someone is right beside my bed. Before I can even get my eyes to focus she begins dancing and singing to me.
Suddenly it makes complete sense. It's Nikki. She's dancing next to my bed dressed in her paper-made Tinkerbell costume singing Happy Birthday to me.
{She'd been promising since month one that since we would be in Africa and planning to be in tents, that she was going to dance outside of my tent covered in leaves of some sort as Tinkerbell because she's my favorite Disney character.}
She'd been waiting for the day to get here, in fact even more than me I think. She started telling me at the beginning of the week that it was my birthday week, and she would remind me daily.
All I could do was lay there and hysterically laugh to the point of tears. Most of the other girls were still in the room cracking up as well. It was insane, but a great way to wake up.
After a few pictures we all made it out to breakfast and then headed out to catch public to go to the mall in hopes of finding free internet. I had been walking around all week saying that no matter what I would be talking to my family that day.
Normally, I don't really care to make a big deal out of my birthday, it's just not super important to me, but I didn't have a choice this year.
My team let me pick where we went to lunch, so we ate at Bourbon Cafe. It's supposed to have free internet and amazing coffee, so off we went.
Once we got there the internet was down, but on the bright side Nikki went above and beyond and made me a stellar birthday card movie to watch. She'd gathered things from some friends and my parents and stalked my facebook to get pictures to go with it. It was amazing to the point of tears.
I sat at the table waiting on lunch to come (I ordered waffles and fresh fruit; I've wanted waffles the whole race) and my drink appeared. It was a peanut butter, banana, chocolate, coffee shake-four of my favorite flavors. As we waited on food and drinks came out we all just worked on a devising a plan to find internet. Courtesy of Nikki I had an awesome lunch and we headed off to the market.
After the market we went to try another cafe in town that Pastor Moises told us about. Apparently they had free internet and was connected to a grocery store, it was a win win.
4 o'clock rolled around and they turned the internet on! Immediately I got on Skype and called my family, and even though it was 8am and they were all woken up early by me and looked like a crazy watercolor painting it was so good to talk to them. Of course, I'm half a world away and the internet went crazy so we had to end it.
A little later on the internet started working again and I got to talk with my best friend and her parents since they were visiting. It was so good to see them! That was the first time Mr. C had ever sung to me, the first time Megan and I had talked in a long while and the first time Mrs. C taught me about flying. It was one of the best conversations I'd had hands down. I gained a lot of geographical/aeronautical information that day courtesy of Mrs. C. In fact, I am no longer GT because of it.
Eventually it was time to go home so we all gathered our things and headed back to the house. By the time we got home it was pretty dark outside and we had to wait on the porch because the door gets stuck and Pastor has to go around to open it.
As soon as he opens the door the lights flip on and the music starts. His entire family had gathered and put together a suprise party for me! Complete with streamers, signs, drinks and a cake. It was so crazy. I stood there speechless, I didn't even know what to do with myself. I've never had a surprise party before and now I can say my first one was in Rwanda. Talk about go big or go home.
Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and they had me light my stellar firecracker candle while they sang. I served everyone cake and the drink of their choice and we all had a good time together.
I felt so honored and privileged that they would go through so much trouble for me even though they'd only known me a couple weeks. It was such a blessing to have my birthday here. I felt so at home even though I wasn't with my family.
It was such an unforgettable birthday, complete with Coke Zero giftings, M&M's and a cupcake too!
