Lots of you have asked how I celebrated my birthday. Birthdays are not really celebrated here so I kept it quiet from my colleagues and Rwandan friends, but on Friday I took homemade honey cake in for the staff and physio students at the rehab centre. The students were amazed that I knew how to make a cake!! They sang 'happy birthday' to me in French.
On Saturday (my actual birthday) I went into Kigali for the day. It was raining as I was on the taxi but had stopped by the time I arrived. Here they say rain on your wedding day is a blessing, so I think it applies to birthdays too! The rest of the day was warm and sunny - the first time I've been able to wear a summer skirt on my birthday.
My first stop was the post office to collect the post. Sadly there was no post for me, but there was a slip to tell me i had a parcel to collect, exciting, until I discovered you can't collect parcels on Saturdays. boo. I then met up with a group of friends I have made during my time here and had lunch at an Ethiopian restuarant. The food was very nice and they did a buffet of different dishes for us so we could try lots of different things. I spent the afternoon running errands and stocking up at the supermarket before heading home.
I went for a walk just before it got dark and bumped into one of my friends who invited me to his house to greet his family, which in true Rwandan style turned into several glasses of juice and a large plate of food and several hours of chatting. I had to walk home in the dark without a torch, and of course no streetlights, but I made it without falling into the mud pools from the rain!
On Sunday I had a lovely relaxed morning and a long lie in before a delicious lunch with my neighbours. We even had a glass of wine - a real treat!
In the evening we had birthday cake, with candles, and jelly, courtesy of my sister, before our time of fellowship.
I also got some lovely cards, gifts and messages throughout the weekend. A great birthday weekend!
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