First Birthday Party...

I went to a first birthday party today. The birthday girl’s name is Ruth Neema. She lives just up the road from us and is the foster daughter of our friends Daniel & Anastasia. Daniel’s nephew, Eric, had found Ruth abandoned on the road one evening on his way home. She was only a few days old at that time.

It’s definitely not like any one-year old birthday party that I’ve been to before. I was told to come anytime between 3 - 4:00pm. So I thought, this is Kenya, I’ll show up closer to 4:00 and I did. I was the LAST one to arrive and to top it off, the pastor from their church was giving a mini sermon. The house had about 40 people in it; I was the only white person.

They immediately found a chair for me to sit in, front and centre. I immediately noticed that the room was divided in to 3 sections: children at one table, women at the couches area and men at another table. No men sat with women and no children sat with men. They were all in their own little areas.

After the pastor was done speaking, another gentleman stood up who I realized quickly was the “MC” for the party. He introduced certain people who would then stand up and give a little speech about Ruth and then about Daniel & Anastasia.

There were three people that spoke; they were short, sweet and in Swahili but I caught the jist of what was being said in each speech. The MC then says, “That is all the speeches I have for you. But I do see that we have one special guest that we have never met before.” Oh-oh, I knew it; I knew that I couldn’t get away with just showing up and sitting there. I knew they were going to want me to talk. So the MC asked Daniel to tell everyone who I was. Daniel told them of how met and left me to give my name to the people.

I stood up and said, “Mimi ni Mary!” (I am Mary!) and then joked that this was the only Swahili I knew to which everyone laughed and Daniel quickly denied. I talked about how children are a blessing, a gift from God and how much of a blessing it has been for me to see Ruth from just a few weeks old when I met her to being a part of her first birthday. I prayed for them, asked that God just continue to bless this amazing family, bless Daniel and Anastasia for the love and heart that they have for all the children in their home.

Then after that, the MC called on someone to pray and then said, “It’s time for the cake.” So they brought out the cake and a candle. Eric had the honor of holding Ruth during the blowing out of the candle (which he did) since he was the one who had found her and brought her home. We sang Happy Birthday, then the cake was cut up in to lots of pieces and those pieces were distributed around the room for everyone.

After the cake, everyone sat at their places at the tables. I sat at the table the kids were initially at but then realized that the kids ran outside to assist in preparing the plates of food. They served rice, boiled potatoes, beans and cooked cabbage.

Then came the funny part. As soon as people were done eating, they literally got up, said thanks for inviting me and then good-bye. They just ate and ran. No small talk, no helping clean up, nothing. Almost everyone left.

As soon as I was done eating, I got up and started clearing off and stacking the plates that had been left on the table by the other guests. Some of the children and women still there eating, looked at me in complete disbelief. One of the girls stopped eating to help me but I told her to finish eating and I would clean up. One of the boys walked over and told me that I would make a good wife someday. So I put plates in his hand, told him to take them to the kitchen and that way, he would make a good husband someday. : ) He gave me A LOOK and then laughed hysterically at me. I think he thought I was kidding! : )

I sat and visited for awhile, including holding, kissing and snuggling up to the birthday girl. It was a good few hours and I liked that I got to experience a first birthday, Kenyan style. I love learning new things about my friends and their culture.

Like I’ve said before, I love it here.

Love you all!
Meredith
xoxoxoxo