Birthday dinner

For about a week, one of my friends has told me nothing except that I shouldn't make plans to celebrate my birthday. She finally told me on Monday that I should be at a friend's house at 8:00. When I arrived, I found ten of my closest friends in Kigali and a full Mexican feast. (I must have mentioned to my friend who organized the event that I always celebrate my birthday with Cinco de Mayo.) They had made tacos, fajitas, salsa, mexican rice, guacamole, salad, sangria and so much more! There were hard taco shells, black beans, nacho cheese and spices imported from the U.S. and even tortillas and tortilla chips found by some miracle in Kigali.
I cannot even begin to describe how much this dinner meant to me. I am still amazed by the effort that everyone put forth to make the night happen. There was so much cooking involved, and the house was decorated with balloons and streamers, and so many people contributing special food items from the U.S. (even a chocolate marble cake and an Oreo cheesecake for dessert!). The food was incredible and the company was fantastic. Dinner was so much fun, and I am still so amazed by all of it. I cannot think of a better way to have celebrated my birthday.

Birthday in the office

This morning, I was surprised when I walked into my office and found decorations on my desk! One of my coworkers had hung party streamers and decorated my desk with two party hats.
After I was told that I had to wear my hat all day, we decided that everyone should take a turn wearing the other party hat and I should take a picture with each. We didn't make it through everyone in the office, but I thought I could post a few of the pictures. The first three are data technicians; the fourth manages our counseling and testing centers; and the fifth is one of our general workers, who doesn't speak a word of English and barely speaks any French, but is so sweet and so funny.
In the middle of the morning, another of the general workers walked in with a beautiful floral arrangement of cala lillies, roses and other flowers, complete with a note "from Hudson". I'm still not sure I understand the chain of people that it took for that surprise to happen (Hudson contacted someone, who asked someone else to get the flowers, who had to ask someone else how to write the note because he doesn't speak English or French, who had to have someone else draw the design on the note, who then had someone else deliver the final gift to me). I but it was a true surprise.A little later in the day, at tea time, someone even brought a birthday cake for everyone to share with our tea.
The day was wonderful and filled with so many incredible surprises, especially considering the fact that I didn't think anyone even knew it was my birthday!

Kayaking on Lake Muhazi

One of my friends recently bought an inflatable kayak at a yard sale, so today we decided to try it out. We drove about an hour east of Kigali to a place called Jambo Beach on Lake Muhazi. When we arrived, we rolled out the kayak and began to try to inflate it.
When we thought we might have enough air in it, we set it on the ground, and realized that the bottom sections weren't inflated nearly enough. Getting to those sections with the others already inflated, though, was not an easy task.
After a few minutes, when we thought it might be ready to go on the water, we all sat down in it, and I was pretty sure we would never last on the water. Just then, one of the women who works at Jambo Beach came up and told us that they had a pump we could use if we wanted. I was amazed she hadn't made that offer an hour earlier when we began trying to inflate the boat. Still, though, I was thankful that we could add some more air to all the sections of the kayak before we put it in the water.
Once inflated, we went out on the lake and enjoyed an absolutely beautiful afternoon of paddling. The weather was perfect, the boat stayed afloat and we all enjoyed a day outside Kigali.

International Food Festival

Today was the International Food Festival in Kigali and it was absolutely incredible. The event took place at the home of the American ambassador and was a fundraiser for an expatriate organization that does service work in Rwanda. Several dozen countries were represented with stands of food - China, Thailand, Tanzania, South Africa, Germany, Belgium, Sri Lanka, India, the United States, Canada and many, many more. There was so much food and it was so delicious that I think I ate the equivalent of four or five full meals in an afternoon!

Christmas in April

One of my good friends went home to the U.S. in April and came back with an entire suitcase full of goodies to share - magazines, clothes, games, junk food, books and so much more! It's been a few weeks now since she got back, but she just sent me some pictures that she took of another friend and I as we watched her unpack. I thought they were too funny not to share!