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[my birthday was in February…so don’t panic, its not today or anything…internet just wasn’t available back then]

Birthdays.

The older I get the less these come to mean to me. When I was little I couldn’t wait for my next birthday so that I could say I was older…like I am 7 and three quarters or I will be 10 in 3 months and 11 days. You can’t wait to get older when you are a kid. In high school and college I couldn’t wait for birthdays so that I could have sweet birthday parties; like surprise parties or gangster roller skating parties. Now that I am on the fast track to 30 I don’t care to tick away the years quite as fast.

In all seriousness though, birthdays just don’t seem quite as important. I have spent the past 8 months trying to take the attention off myself. Realizing that the world doesn’t revolve around me is probably the most important lesson I am learning through this experience. I’m not saying not to celebrate life and the years you lived…but all in all it’s just another day on the calendar.

This year I got to celebrate my 25th birthday in Pader, Uganda…a fourth of a century, woohoo! Pader is the most desolate place I have ever been, which you can read about in some of my past blogs. There wasn’t a whole lot to do there which we kind of expected. But I don’t want anyone to get sad…I still did have a great birthday. It wasn’t full of bells or whistles or people jumping out of cakes, but I spent it with the people that have loved me day in and day out, 24 hours a day for the past 8 months. I have figured out that is the key to life, spending it with people who love you despite yourself. 

Here are some pictures from my (3) birthday moments. 
This first picture was in Nairobi while our whole squad was together (we took a guess that Pader may not be a booming metropolis and decided to have a birthday dinner in the city before venturing out…so this technically was my pre-party).  A  bunch of us went to our favorite spot, the Java House, and I got to eat a cheeseburger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
 
This picture was on my actual birthday. We sat here on the blazing concrete in the extreme heat thinking to ourselves…what have we gotten ourselves into? The only treat we could find in town were stale mandazis (kinda like doughnuts) so we choked those down and called it a day.
 
 
These last 3 pictures were during my post-party. We met a few other mzungus (white people) who lived in Pader (2 peace corps, 2 missionaries) and it turns out 3 of us turned 25 within 15 days of each other. So Sandi (the girl in the picture) so thoughtfully arranged to get a cake from some store hours away and surprised us with it.

So rest easy…my 25th will be one birthday I will never forget.