The thing about having a birthday right after New Year’s Eve is that people are usually kind of burned out. Thanksgiving, the December holidays, the final big bang of the 31st; by the 8th, the New Year has started, everyone is ready to move on from the celebrations and get back into their routines. So while I have been lucky to have wonderful friends and family who have been champs when it comes to the milestone birthdays, I’ve gotten used to generally having low-key get-togethers over the course of my life. This year however, was looking to be a bit of a new low. I don’t care how old you get, it’s never much fun to have a year go by without marking your birthday somehow, and alone, in a new country, it was hard to get up my enthusiasm to turn another year older.

I arrived in Tanzania the first week of January and made it to language school late on the night of the 5th. On the 7th, I realized that there were only two other students- Catholic priests from India- at the language school, neither of which were boarding there. But I did meet a friend of a friend. By strange coincidence, a friend from high school has a couple of friends here in Morogoro working as missionaries. One of them came by for tea (which we have every day at 10am and 4pm…LOVE) and we got to chatting. Shantelle is originally from Ohio, by way of San Diego, and has been studying at the language school herself for a good chunk of the past year. Of course, I casually dropped into the conversation that my birthday was the next day (hey, I’m not above soliciting a pity “Happy Birthday” when alone in a foreign country).

Wouldn’t you know, the next day I was so busy with classes and homework and just generally feeling overwhelmed, that I completely forgot it was my birthday until about 4pm! Luckily, I had a bottle of one of my favorite whiskeys, specially brought from Amsterdam, tucked away in my bag. A few hours later, enjoying a small pour and a movie, I found myself appreciating the fact that for the first time since I arrived in Tanzania, I wasn’t running somewhere, or on a bus, or desperately fighting jet lag. I was just relaxing and it felt good. Around that time, Shantelle sent me a text message wishing a happy birthday, and suggested dinner the following night. I hadn’t seen anything of Morogoro town yet, and I readily agreed.

Ingrid, Shantelle, and Anne…shamelessly recruited to celebrate my birthday with me.

A present!

So, last night, Shantelle came to pick me up, along with two friends who live on campus. Ingrid is a German woman who has been in Tanzania for three years now, working for the Lutheran church in various capacities, but primarily as a teacher. Anne, also German, just graduated from secondary school and is spending a year in Tanzania as a volunteer for the Lutheran Church in the campus kindergarten. It was great to meet some people on campus and Anne lives just one building over from me. Ingrid gave me a carved wooden box wrapped up in a bow as a birthday present, which was so sweet. We went to a local place, Acropol, which is common with expats. It had a lovely front porch and a décor that made you feel like you were on safari with Hemingway back in the day (without being cheesy, somehow). I also had my first taste of Tanzanian pizza with cut up hot dogs in a starring role on top.

I don’t have much more to share about the evening, other than it was just great to unexpectedly find some new friends and celebrate my birthday out in my new home town!