Matsalo a me!

I had my first birthday out-of-country/continent yesterday (and as usual, it carried into my favorite holiday today!) and I have to say that it was a great time.

I learned something important about throwing parties here: if you want people to come, provide the food, and they will provide the fun and company. If you ask people to go out - no one will join you because they're all broke. If you bring cake to them, they'll throw you a party like you couldn't imagine.

Yesterday Chimo, Kourtney, Kelsey, and Sarahi joined me for supper at Spur, an international steakhouse chain. I got ribs - delicious! - and a double-thick chocolate malt. I was supposed to order my first drink, but I got so full, and then I just didn't feel like it. I'm such a creature of habit. :) The guy waiters all came out and gave me a small dish of ice cream with a sparkler in it and sang/chanted this crazy birthday song for me. It was hilarious, and lots of fun. When we got back, Caitlin and Abra were waiting for me with a cup of ice and a bottle of Wild Africa cream liquor. I took my first taste of spirits. I lasted four small sips and then decided that I couldn't handle the taste anymore. Classic. :) They felt bad for not making it to supper, so they offered to help me out with a cake problem that I had looming on the horizon for today...

I got out of class at 3pm today and went to join Caitlin, Abra, and Grady on the already-in-progress cake baking operation. The plan: bake and frost two single-layer cakes and bring them in at the last 10 minutes of choir to surprise everyone. The idea was inspired by Wazha, who told me that it's normal to bring a cake or something similar to share on your birthday so that everyone can celebrate with you. I went to choir with Sarahi at 6pm. We had a small turnout - maybe 12 people or so, but we practiced nonetheless and had a lot of fun singing songs. It was Sarahi's first time, and I think she had a lot of fun. And then during closing announcements, who should appear but Grady and Caitlin with two chocolate-frosted cakes!! Everyone got so excited, and they sang me a bunch of songs, waited for me to finish my piece of cake before anyone else could take there's, and then continued to sing songs and dance and take pictures, until finally we were all just goofing off entirely. They had me make a speech at one point - I said something about having a good semester, learning to speak Setswana with their help, and that "ke a go rata you all." :) It went over well. The party was fun, lasting a good hour after usual knock-off time, and involving quite a bit of goofiness. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

So now my birthday (which always ends up being a two-day celebration) is coming to a close. I have forgone the opportunity to legally ingest Irish car bombs this evening in the hopes of getting to bed at a reasonable hour and maybe even sleeping in tomorrow if I can. I haven't made a single plan for the weekend, so I don't know what'll go down at all, but we'll see. I'm sure I can come up with something fun to do.

Until next time!

~Botshelo