Happy Birthday to Me!!!

March 12

I have had a multitude of fun birthdays. Each one has been different, and every one that I can remember has been made great by my family and friends. I can’t say that one birthday has been better than the others, but what I CAN say is that this past birthday was the most memorable one yet.

Having a birthday in the midst of 30+ good friends is wonderful. I woke up in the morning and stepped out of my tent, only to be serenaded with “happy birthday” by a bunch of friends as I headed to the breakfast table. The rest of the day was equally nice. We headed off to the Tsavo Rhino Sanctuary in the morning for a lecture and a game drive. Half of the lecture was done by our professor, while half was done by a Kenya Wildlife Service ranger. This made it quite interesting. Unfortunately, we were not able to spot any rhinos, but some people did see a leopard! After a long game drive, we headed to the lava flows, where the ground and all the rocks suddenly become black and you can tell exactly how the lava cooled by its shape. We stopped when we reached a big hill of black gravel, and climbed it until we reached the top, panting in the heat. The view, again, was stunning. On one side of the hill, there was a steep ravine, with a path through it that dipped and then ascended another huge hill across the way from ours. A few people were going down this path, and my first thought was not to do it since it would be so tiring and looked slightly terrifying, but on second thought I realized that it was my birthday and if I didn’t take risks to do cool things now, I never would. So I went. It was an extremely difficult climb, and I reached the top of the other peak with my hands raw from grasping at the sharp lava rocks, covered in soot and dirt, sweating and hot, but very happy.

Finally reaching the top of the additional mountain we decided to climb (I'm the speck on the right)

... and me after the hike...

In the afternoon we headed back and I finally took out my cornrows. I owe you all a picture of them; I will post it on an earlier entry. We all made a bonfire and the cooks and Molly each made me a beautiful cake. Everyone sang Happy Birthday again, and they all gave me a card signed by everyone which was really sweet. Later in the night we told ghost stories and I taught a Tae Kwon Do lesson to my Swahili teacher and the askaris. It was hilarious.

On top of all this, I was thinking of Bridget constantly throughout the day. I kept wondering how she was doing and where she was, but mostly just feeling relieved that she was ok.  That was the best birthday present I could have received.