Birthday Celebration

I realized I may have skipped over the birthday celebration so here’s
how last monday went…
When I woke up Laquita gave me a birthday breakfast of toast with
“25” written in jelly. Then we started out the day by going to the
streets. Today our group had a late start and the first visit went
extra long so we only made it to three bases total. The first base we
visited was the one in the alley way, called “Lilyput”. When we
arrived one of the street men started dusting off this old chair that
they are proud of and was shaking off some blankets to lay on top of
it. We realized that he was doing this for either me or L to sit in.
I got appointed the throne after Laquita exclaimed “It’s her
birthday!!” .

This time around we were each asked to share something. For the
first visit, since they already new it was my birthday, I just talked
about how I have another birthday that is more important and that’s
the day I decided to start following God. At the second base I shared
the verse of “If God is for us, who can be against us” and in the
third one I prayed after L gave a message. This time they translated
it for me. I’ve been learning to speak a lot slower here but it’s
still difficult at times.
We went back to the Eastleigh center and had lunch before heading back
to Kamulu.
That night we had a birthday cake (bought by Laquita!) and some
chips (that no one in America would EVER eat- unless you like the
taste of Styrofoam) and cookies. All the girls came over and shared
in the celebration. The power went out beforehand so we had to light
our propane lantern and by we I mean Laquita did all the work while I
stood a safe distance away. L also bought me a singing candle but
this cake had some rock hard icing so I ended up just holding the
dripping candle while standing in the middle of our room as everyone
sang happy birthday around me. It was great having all the girls
together in our room but I think they were a little confused about the
occasion. They don’t really celebrate birthdays here. Some of the
girls came up to me at different times and shyly whispered in my ear
“Congratulations” followed by a hug. I thought it was sweet.
Thank you everyone back home for all the birthday wishes!