day twenty-two: my birthday (!!!)

Not everyone can say they've celebrated their birthday - on Thanksgiving day, no less - in Africa. But I can! The whole day...on my birthday... in Africa, ah!... I kept thinking about how surreal and awesome it was to be celebrating there (and I've had 25 years of celebrating birthdays in a pretty special way). Not only did I get to celebrate in one of the most picturesque places in the world, I got to see the most beautiful landscapes and views I had ever seen, go to a really neat market, go to the beach (which has never happened before, since my birthday is in November), have a cookout (!!) and wear a sundress  (rainbow, at that)...all on my birthday!

I will admit, I was nervous before I left about why I had agreed to go to Africa over my birthday and Thanksgiving instead of spending the time with my family. Instead, I got a new type of family who loved and cared for me in the most special ways and made me feel so terrific on my special day. It was better than I could have ever imagined.

I should also mention that thanks to the encouragement of my team members, I decided to celebrate my birthday from the time it began in Cape Town (7 hrs ahead of New York time) until it ended in Alabama (my home state), so effectively my birthday was a whopping 32 hours long this year!

my special birthday breakfast: triple layer mousse cake from Mugg & Bean

spending a few hours at the BEACH on my birthday! you couldn't find a happier person.

these signs were posted all around my room at the hostel when I woke up!

birthday celebration at the braai!

Lindy and I celebrating our birthdays together at the braai!

In addition to celebrating my birthday on Thanksgiving, our team also got to celebrate Lindy's birthday the next day! (You'll see tomorrow what we did to celebrate Lindy's birthday.) It made it even more fun having another 'birthday girl' to celebrate with while on the trip. 

milk tart for birthday cake

birthday girls!

This birthday will go down in history, for sure...