The big day has finally happened. Normally the school closes over June for the break between the two semesters, but this year the country is conducting a census so they have the break scheduled later in the year so students will be home from boarding schools for the count. This meant a rare opportunity for me to be on site for my birthday. Earlier this year we had our first parent ask to do a little celebration for a student’s birthday. I took notice and decided to celebrate my 55th birthday with the students. First and foremost a big thank you to Jim and Laverne for their generous donation that made this celebration possible. Also a big thank you to the Sunday School class that donated money for art supplies that also helped me set up an art competition to start things off in the morning.

So why celebrate the 55th birthday? Well I normally don’t have birthday parties or celebrations. Typically I take advantage of any free meals from restaurants and that is it for me. In addition to that fact, the year of my 50th birthday was when I was between ministry projects here in Tanzania so I was at home looking for my future project.

I would also like to note that last year was my 20th being involved in international mission work as either a participant on a team, a team leader or full time missionary. I am also currently 9.5 years into my life as a full time missionary here in Tanzania. I realize I am getting really old.

So I started in March planning what we would do for this party, focusing on the students. That goes against the Tanzania philosophy for a big event. Here the first focus is on the adults and what they feel they should get as recognition for their achievement for being adults. Secondly they tend to want to puff up visitors which is something I have no interest in. For example when teacher Josephine left, it was a big deal to have a party with just the adults after the kids left and spending a large amount of time having people talk about her. Those that know me also know that is not my kind of thing, but when in Rome you have do at least some of it like the Romans. So when I first proposed this idea to the staff, I was not surprised when I got a list of things they wanted me to purchase for them at this celebration. Most notably that they would need sodas and a goat to eat (please note they only kill an animal to eat here for weddings and funerals). By the time it was over I had to get them a goat to eat, special food to accompany the goat that would be more than what they get through normal school meals, their own cake, sodas enough for two each, help to watch the kids during most of the celebration so they could relax.

Enough of the staff needs for my party. Here is what I decided to get for the kids. I purchased enough 2 liter sodas for every student to get a full cup of soda, 200 cupcakes at a local bakery to make sure every student got at least one, icing in a can to apply to the cupcakes because there is no way 200 iced cupcakes would survive the trip from Moshi to the site. I did not change any of their normal daily food to hopefully prevent any stomach aches. I got games like additional connect fours and boggle games so the students in our standard grades could have some competitions (they love competitions). I also got enough art supplies over the last couple of months so we could have an art competition with a winner from each class including our preschool classes. They were supposed to draw what they loved about our school but it is obvious they got coached on what to draw because I saw a lot of the same things showing up that would be more important to the teachers than the kids. We had awards for the winners of the Connect 4 tournaments in Standard I and II, for the winners of the Boggle tournament in Standard III, IV, and V. We also had prizes for all the class art winners.

I also purchased some fun things to do that made this more like a fair environment. I got a photo sheet with the monkey and lion’s face cut out so the students could stick their face through and get their picture taken. I even got a broken smart phone that had a good working camera (the problem was with phone sim adapter) so one person could just take photos there. I got horseshoe games, sack race games and three legged race games. I also found a cute pin the trunk on the elephant game that had an elephant blindfold. The teachers had a long jump competition and a high jump competition planned. Only they had chosen three boys and three girls to compete then the male teachers all wanted to do it as well.

We set the schedule and multiple times had to go back over it. The day of no one remembered anything from the schedule and despite being told everyone was prepared to run the art competitions and tournaments, no one remembered anything about it. I also had about 8 adults I hired to help that had trouble understanding that they should stay with the event they were helping with and keep the kids participating throughout the day. They normally would work their event until the crowd dwindled a little then they went to watch something else. In the end you have to remember this is how they do it here. Everyone watches while one or two participate instead of doing your own thing.

After all the fair events I had hoped to do a talent show, but that became the kids singing in a group what the teachers told them to sing. I knew getting them to do a talent show would be difficult since it goes against the cultural expectations of group activity instead of individual performance. The kids first got their soda and cupcake then sat down to enjoy the singing of the school choir. A group of students also gave presentation speeches about the school.

After the talent portion, I gave out the awards for winners of the art competition and tournaments. Then before the students left, I had prepared a “present” for each of them. A lunch sack with a small pack of crayons left over from other projects, an art project left over from various mission teams, a pencil (because they are always asking me for one), a couple of stickers and three lollipops. I can tell you what they were most excited about: the lollipops.

The students also gave me a Maasai beaded bracelet and the staff gave me a Maasai outfit. I think I am no longer white maasai but just maasai. I did promise to wear it on Sunday to church as well and I did.

After all the activities and sending the students home then we had another party for the staff with the cake and goat. They made several people get up to congratulate me on being 55 (I am the oldest one here on site and often more than double the age of our teachers). Then we ate the special food which was a banana stew with some potatoes and everyone had their soda. I had made special provisions with some of the coke zero sugar drinks to have them taken to Kiruani where there is electricity and stored in a refrigerator for several hours. So I also had a cool coke zero. Then we did the cake. Of note it is customary for the two leaders or oldest people (man and woman) to feed each other a small piece of cake. Then the woman will feed all the other women a small piece and the man will feed all the other men. That was myself and Stephano’s wife. We did the same thing when they brought the goat in. Interestingly enough they cooked the goat whole like you might do a pig. Can’t say it looks as nice with the goat’s rear end stuck up in the air.

Overall it was a really fun day for the students, I was exhausted because my day started at 6:30 and went until 8 PM after I drove the ladies home. That was 13.5 hours of being “on” for an extreme introvert. The teachers have already mentioned I should pay to do this every year.

The next couple of photos are actually automated slideshows . They only let me put so many pictures in a slideshow so there are going to be several followed by some more videos on YouTube.