Happy Birthday to me!

My 24^th Birthday was this weekend!  It will definitely be a birthday I will never forget, my first Swazi birthday!  Birthdays are a way of looking back and seeing how far we have come in life.  Only two short years ago I spent my birthday finishing a college paper just in time for exam week, track practice spinning in circles 20lb weight throw in my hands, and then after practice rushing through a blizzard to get ready for he Athletic Formal.  Wow, life has changed!

This year on my birthday, I had a successful event.  We are starting a youth club in my community, so the event’s purpose was to select the committee of leaders for the group.  The elected a female to be the chairperson! And they are looking forward to using this group to help organize social events, sports teams, and for community and business development.  I am really looking forward to working with this group!  After the meeting we all went down to the Butchery, where we bar-b-qued up some meat and pap and they all sang Happy Birthday to me!

Sinceni Youth Club

On Sunday, I ventured out to Simunye Country Club to meet up with other Volunteers who were also celebrating their birthdays.  This country club has beautiful grounds, grass everywhere! So green! And a sprinkler system to water the grass, hard to believe I am still in Swaziland.  I went swimming, ate a cheese burger, had a chocolate milkshake, free wifi, skyped with Patty, and a hot shower!  Successful day, I think so!  And if that isn’t good enough, I spent the night at Ryan and Addy Hall’s site (Ryan and I share birthdays).  Their family came to Simunye for Ryan’s birthday and they brought a cake, so I got my birthday cake after all!

The two weeks after Thanksgiving were really hard for me.  I was really excited and full of ideas after In-Service Training and then I got back to site and within a week everything started shutting down for the summer holidays and it was quite shocking o go back to living the hut life after spending a week with running water, prepared meals, and Americans all over the place.  So this weekend was badly needed and I am now out of that funk.  It’s amazing how little it takes to make me happy again: friends, a shower, and a chocolate milkshake.

Now I am really looking forward to some traveling, as I will be spending Christmas and New Years on the beaches of Mozambique.  It’s going to be a white sandy Christmas!