Today is my birthday.
I spent a majority of my birthdays in foreign soil but I suppose I can’t
really say that since I consider
America as my country. Back in
Malaysia at least when I was
growing up birthdays were not celebrated.
So I was surprised when my best friend in secondary school gave me a
present on my birthday, my first and I turned it down! Why? My mother often reminded us that we were
not to accept anything from anyone unless we truly earned it. I did not realize that one does not have to
earn one’s birthday presents.
When I
came to Wellesley College in the States my very first birthday was lavishly celebrated by the dorm
governance and my college “Big Sister”.
She took me to a Bruins game getting the tickets for free by telling
them that her “Little Sister” from Malaysia had never been to an ice
hockey game. It was during the time when Bobby Orr’s was her worshipped hero.
Since I started volunteering
over the last seven years I spent four of my birthdays in Africa. The first was in 2006 in Kampala,
Uganda when I taught in the
Infectious Diseases Institute of Makarere University under the aegis of the
Infectious Disease Society of America followed by my time in Masseno, Kenya
in 2008 when my housemates managed to bake me a cake. I did not do anything special on the actual
dates but both times I rewarded myself with hikes up Rwenzori Mountains
and the Lanana of Mt. Kenya.
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| Near the Top of Mount Margherita of Rwenzori |
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| At the Top of Mt. Lanana of Mt. Kenya |
My third time in 2011, I spent the day in Marrakesch, Morocco
wandering the numerous meandering streets of the Medina with their Berber market or souk. The square however was still medieval with
many depressing performing snakes and monkeys kept in tight cages, never to
taste freedom again.
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| The Spice Souk |
My fourth time is now in scorching hot Nsanje in the
sweltering and withering heat conducting HIV training in a health facility in
Ndamera. Today there is not a cloud in
the clear blue sky. It was a particularly hot stuffy night,night gown was drenched and stuck to my back despite the fan. I was troubled with my migraine and new muscle ache and bone pain, hopefully they are not harbinger of mysterious illness to come. Despite all that I went running around five in the morning.
Other than hanging
out with my kids on Google Plus the weekend before my birthday, and receiving birthday messages from friends
and family my birthday passes quietly. Almost everyone in Shire House is
away. Charles sent me a message that it
is snowing in New York
on my birthday just for me. I received
two letters from Cara, a package from home but alas all the contents were meant
for Kuyvina (four cat toys and a Cat Fancy magazine!) and all these took almost
two months to arrive in Nsanje. My Wellesley
class sent me a greeting with a November picture of Lake Waban,
the oak trees only bore sad looking brown leaves reminding me of a somber message on the
board in front of a nursery in Westboro: No leaves, No flowers, November (and
No Kuyvina to boot and what is a vember anyway?). Even Kuyvina is away in Limbe to be neutered;
Kuyvina Akumwa kuwawa (Kuyvina is in
pain in Chichewa)—almost an alliteration!
The Australian expat Mel (who has taken to calling me Dr. Q or mate) and
I decided to add Mavuto as Kuyvina’s
last name. It means “trouble” or
“problem” in Chichewa.
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| Kuyvina Mavuto Resting decadently in My Room |
But then I am not really alone. There is Roger who slobbers all over me with
his tongue when he greets me in the evening.
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| Roger Greets Me |
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