January is a difficult month. Back home in America—particularly way back home in Ohio—it is characterized by bitterly cold weather with no end in sight, sickness from all those people you hugged at Christmas, credit card bills from the presents, and darkness at five o’clock at night. My birthday is January 27th, and while I fancy myself an Aquarius and garnets look good on me, I do not like having a birthday in January.
A year ago, I met all my Peace Corps colleagues on my birthday. It is awkward to celebrate your birthday with people you’ve never met before. It is even more awkward to turn 30 with a bunch of strangers who are almost all way younger than you. The excitement and adventure carried me through, but this year I wanted to make sure that this was a really good January, to celebrate my year, warts and all.
Of course, the first day in January started well, on a beach in Zanzibar as we recovered from New Year’s Eve, and prepared to go back to Rwanda. After the ferry ride back to Dar es Salaam (where they managed to play Rocky 1-4 by fast forwarding the slow bits), we went to our first movie theater in a year, in the first mall (!) we had seen in a year. It was the calm before the storm of the 36-hour, bone rattling bus ride from hell that would start the next day.
The next weekend, a friend came to visit, and I always like entertaining people at site and introducing them to our friends here. It reminds me how far we’ve come, like how all the market ladies yell our names when they tell us to come buy their tomatoes. The next weekend I splurged and went to Kigali. While Tom came down with giardia, I had a pretty good time. We watched movies at a pretty outdoor restaurant, threw a dinner party at a friend’s place, did a little shopping, ate a croissant, etc.
The next weekend was a little further outside the comfort zone, visiting a friend in the Western Province. I honestly and genuinely like every volunteer in our cohort, so it makes me sad that I never see the people who live out west, just because they happen to be cut off by a giant rain forest. Also, all major roads are pretty much spokes that radiate from Kigali, so you have to get there first, then get on the 5+ hour bus that takes you through the forest to Cyangugu on Lake Kivu. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a gorgeous ride. Nyungwe is primeval and lovely, and you’re virtually guaranteed to see l’Hoest’s monkeys along the road. However, said road is in wretched condition, and it twists and turns so much that someone is vitually guaranteed to throw up en route. We got past biggest tea plantations, and got off the bus, and walked to our friend’s site in a small village with a District hospital. It was nice to get away from the heat here to visit somewhere to cool and rainy and green, even if it meant accumulating inches of mud on the bottoms of my shoes. We saw a new market, saw Lake Kivu and the DRC in the distance, saw some education PCVs, cooked together, drank tea together and talked. Tom would like you to know that he made chili over a wood fire and it was awesome. Peace Corps Rwanda Chili Cook-off 2010 is ON!
So, the middle of that week was my birthday. Since I was planning a big finish to the month, I wasn’t really paying attention to the day, I just hoped Tom would come, and someone might want to make popcorn and watch a movie or something. The day came, and it was nice because people wished me a happy birthday, even people who didn’t know me very well, even though I hadn’t really told people. Tom made it and took me out to one of the local bars, saying, “I really need a beer,” but when asked, he had no specific reason. It was just us for the most part, because other friends said they were working, or otherwise busy. Which is cool. People work a lot here. And then Tom started to get a lot of text messages, but he wouldn’t say who they were from. Then we got to the house, and just about every person in my organization was in the living room yelling “surprise. “ It was overwhelming how nice it was, and it took a lot of effort not to “happy cry,” because that would be weird. So, there was cake, there was a tower of crepes, there was wine and music, and pictures. I am really, really lucky to have such amazing friends and coworkers (and to live in a village where my birthday party is easily the best party in town).
So, I’m going to save the last weekend of the month for another day, because it was a great cap to the festivities, because this is already long, and because it deserves its own space, because it was really, really good. When I looked at the surprise party pictures, I realized that I was wearing the same outfit I had worn to my going away party in DC. So, I’ll be posting those before and after pictures soon. The other side of thirty is looking pretty good.
Thanks for all the birthday wishes via e-mail, facebook, texts, and calls. I’m so lucky to know all of you.
xoxo
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