23 Years Young!

Monday, September 21, 2009
8:18pm

Thank you everyone for making my 23rd birthday one that I will never EVER forget! With amazing cards, spectacular packages, fantastic (although some early :-P) phone calls, nice facebook posts, and a great town trip to boot, I had a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious birthday! Thank you ten million tons!
The schedule for my terrific b-day was as follows: I woke up and said heck to running (already a good start); I opened my cards while waiting for a khumbi into town after the first khumbi I got into broke down; I bought curtain fabric and then sat in an exciting meeting with Doctors Without Borders; an Avalanche ice cream dessert was enjoyed with my KFC (only fast food chain in Swaziland) b-day lunch. After that splendid morning, I did a bit of grocery shopping with my friend Lisa who proceeded to accompany me home for an evening of delicious Indian food (made by Chief Lisa), wine and cheese (prepared by yours truly), and package opening! As if that day could get any better, but it did! My birthday (starting at 1:11am Swaziland time) was speckled with phone calls from friends and family!! What an awesome 23rd! I even got to celebrate my b-day (and personally a very special long-distance wedding) with my family Saturday night, where I shared some of the spoils of wonderful generosity over popcorn and chocolates. Fun and appreciation was had by all.
Other than Lisa, no one has (or probably ever will) share in my birthday cake sent by my wonderful Dad, and selfish hoarding is not the only reason! -- Although, honestly, it may be the most prominent. :-) I can also say that it would be culturally inappropriate to share the delicious Tortuga Rum Cake (yes, be jealous, you read correctly) with my Swazi family. Alcohol is a very common and socially accepted practice in this country, but for males ONLY. For a woman to admit she enjoys even the occasional glass of wine, she instantly gains the label of the” harlot” (or drunk Gogo – which seems to be somewhat ridiculously common). To purchase my birthday wine I did not frequent the bottle store in my community, which is only a 30minute walk from my house. No way Jose! I picked it up in Matata, which is in a different region of Swaziland, where I ran a much reduced risk of running into someone I knew or would potentially work with! So to make a short story long :-P, I am selfishly but appropriately devouring my boozed up birthday cake. “To life, to life Lechiam!” (Sorry Fiddler on the Roof fans, I have NO idea how to spell that!) :-)
A wonderfully thoughtful, amazing, and beautiful birthday gift clued me into the fact that I have not shared the Swazi cultural trait of tidy appearances with you. Sweeping and mopping, shining one’s shoes, and ironing are tasks performed every morning in a Swazi household. Although their more sporadic bucket bathing (depending on the accessibility of water in your area) and unfathomable hand hygiene have shocked and appalled our American standards of cleanliness, our lack of desire to perform the previously mentioned daily Swazi tasks are met with disapproving looks and insistent Makes. As an example, this past Sunday I was accompanying my family to their church. We were a running a bit late (I actually had been waiting for about 15min) when my Make made me take off my shoes and my younger bhuti quickly polished them. This was after I had already wiped them down with a wet clothe to remove the dust that would inevitably re-attach itself to my shoes within three steps on our dirt yard to the dirt path leading to the dirt road to the church! Oh well. My polished black shoes looked really great… for five seconds. :-) Nevertheless, I absolutely love the skirts I received for my birthday. What makes them ironic and the inspiration for this blog tangent is the intended style and instructions tag. The tag reads, “To maintain the CRINKLE effect twist damp skirt and allow to dry….”. Hahaha!! Sorry Make, not going to be ironing that one! :-P I love ‘em, probably even more because of the cultural exchange taking place through fashion. Who knew I that would ever make that statement!?! Crazy!
Again, thanks a million trillion ba-gillion tons for making me feel so loved on my birthday! You are the best! Hugs and grateful, appreciative, thank you kisses!