Since starting the Race
I knew we’d be in Africa this month and I wasn’t exactly excited about
celebrating my birthday here. I was convinced I’d find myself a mud hut in the
middle of Africa. Silly I know but this is the second birthday in a row I’ve
been away from my family (last year this time I was living in NYC).
Enter my team. I’m not
sure if you’re aware but we have finally entered the ‘honeymoon’ phase of our
time. Most of our fellow squad mates experienced this team stage back in
Ireland. I’m currently obsessed with my teammates. So my team sent me to bed
with hopes of something to do for my birthday. What I got I never expected.
Allow me to diverge for
a funny picture. We decided it would be funny to have shirts made last month.
It’s become a family joke that we’ve gone To Hell And Back this year. In tough
moments we simply laugh and say THAB. So we found a guy to make us t-shirts to
show up in when we went rafting at the end of last month. Here we are in our
THAB shirts. On the back it has all our team names. Beautiful Feet and Mosaic
which both have lines through them and our third and final team name, Redeemed.
[We had to take one
where we pretended not to like each other like the old days].
Anywho, back to the
story at hand…
I rolled over to the
sound of a crinkle on Wednesday morning. I assumed it was just my sleeping mat
(it makes a horrible sound on your skin when you get sweaty and sleep on it,
which is every night these days). Instead I looked up to find a beautiful
birthday note. And so began the 10 minute scavenger hunt around the house. Each
clue led me to another encouraging note from someone in the house (my team or
Team Oasis who we’re living with). After the last clue, which led me back to my
tent, I exited the room and there were 23 funny notes lining the hallway with
lots of balloons. And it didn’t end there.
[23 Birthday notes leading down the hall after my
scavenger hunt].
After lunch I was told
to pack a few things and Birkleigh and Ralph took me in a cab to a beautiful
rooftop pool at a hotel to swim. As I was lounging poolside an hour later the
rest of my team showed up and asked me to come downstairs. Lo and behold I was
not just swimming at the hotel but staying there for the night. They snuck in
and had decorated my room and between the 7 of us we had 3 rooms. I basically
ran around like a small child beaming from excitement.
[View from the rooftop pool and my chaise].
My team even went and
got dinner from this cute little café down the street that actually has decent
pizza (anything resembling American food is gold these days) and brought it
back to the room where I sat in bed in the hotel bathrobe with my entire team
laughing and enjoying my birthday. Complete with a birthday tiara.
[Really excited about a bathrobe and fluffy bed
with actual sheets and comforter].
[Sun starting to set from our hotel window].
