So I feel a little bad about this post, because my birthday yesterday wasn't really a big deal. My mama didn't find out until last night apparently, even though I figured if I told one of my brothers in the morning, the information would disseminate through the family (we've been told on multiple occasions this happens frequently with Volunteers simply because of their status). Well, it didn't this time, and my mama was a little upset that we didn't do anything special. Which isn't entirely true. I actually went to a bar in the afternoon and met a big chunk of my training class for cupcakes and drinks. It wasn't crazy as some might expect, but awesome nonetheless. In fact, a fellow trainee in my CBT was more visibly excited for my birthday than I was. We've slowly learned over the past few days that this is the kind of person she normally is, and that she's been hiding it from us until now. I'm glad my birthday could bring her out of her shell.
I also got to try the "pombe" here, which is the word for the local brew. It's actually not all that local, but it's banana beer, which is very different from normal beers. For one thing, it made my lips numb. Generally not a good sign when sipping alcohol. Maybe the fact it was 10% alcohol had something to do with that? And of course for this reason, I could not finish it. Not that I didn't enjoy it at all, it actually didn't taste too bad, but we have been warned to steer clear of the "pombe." They aren't always brewed in conditions we would consider sanitary...
So overall, yesterday was a great day. To end the day, I cooked and talked with my mama, which made me feel really good. My Kiswahili was very good last night for some reason. Probably a God thing.
Photo update: The internet cafe where I've been uploading pictures has decided to block flickr.com, and thus far I haven't been able to circumvent it. I'm still working on this issue, but if I can't find a solution soon, I may upload some photos to Facebook. I'll keep you all posted, because I have been taking tons of pictures! So many that my hard drive is just about full now, which is another problem itself.
