21 April 2011

Celebrating birthdays

One of my favorite things to do in Kenya is to create simple birthday parties for my friends. There isn't much of a culture of celebrating birthdays here in Kenya. I guess it gets lost in the shuffle of surviving one day at a time and just living daily life. So... I bring the party! Sometimes they happen at my house, sometimes at their house, and sometimes at a restaurant. If we celebrate in someone's house, I make cake, cookies, or brownies. Yummy!

Emily
On March 6th, after a baptism at our church, my former homegroup had a reunion. We also celebrated Emily and Kim's birthdays. There were 12 of us in my small house. We had such a great time! In fact, I was enjoying myself so much... that this photo of Emily is THE only one I took! I did make a short video, though, of us singing "Happy Birthday" to the two of them. Click here to view it.


Masudi's birthday is March 14th



Rose and I helped Masudi celebrate his birthday. We also helped him eat the "Tuesday-buy-one-get-one-free" Pizza Inn pizza! And... we each had a scrumptious Creamy Inn "Perky Peanut Parfait"!



Collins turned 20 on March 30th



 After "Wacky Wednesday" burgers at Steers, the five of us - Sammy, Rose, Collins, Masudi, and I - walked across downtown Nairobi to Sno Cream. It has existed in the same location since 1954! They serve all sorts of ice cream - a selection to meet anyone's taste preference! I was disciplined and got a bowl of fresh fruit.


Margaret, Jim, and Derrick's birthdays are all on the same week


Derrick and Jim spent a weekend with me. We had great fun on Saturday! First stop was Uhuru Garden for some Kenya history. The park was created to honor Kenya's 1963 independence.








Our next stop was Splash Water World - a first for all of us. Unknown to us, there was a special event going on. It seemed as if half of Nairobi was there! No problem - the more the merrier!

The event was to promote reading among children. The boys each got a free book of local poetry and I also bought them each an issue of a new children's magazine.



The boys liked the water slides - a first for both of them. But they spent the majority of their time in the pool - a very rare experience.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What fun birthday experiences!! The ice cream sundaes look ... divine!

Anonymous said...

omg, really? that 7up ad is STILL up at Sno-Cream? I lived there in '91-'92 and it was there! (and it looks like it's been there since the 60s!)