Birthday in Kenya

It was quite a full day of birthday celebrations. We started off at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage. They currently have 22 baby African elephants, most of whom are orphaned by poachers. The orphanage is only open from 11am-noon. The staff are world experts on hand-rearing baby elephants with 24 hour care, including sleeping in their stables. I hope Ava does not read this part because she would be very jealous of the keepers. We then had lunch at Carnivore, a Brazilian-style restaurant. Yes, I did eat meat but did not try the ox balls. They sang me not one but three birthday songs and gave me free dessert.

We arrived back at the human orphanage and decorated for the party. We had cake for everyone and a special party for the older 6. Instead of presents for me, my mom and I had presents for them, mostly school supplies, books and candy. We watched Brave with the 6. It was a very busy but memorable 16th birthday.

The birthday cakes were quite interesting. No wonder there are no fat people here, no one really knows how to bake. Not to be cruel, but the cake decorating looked as if a small child had done it. Someone needs to teach these people about cake. And cards. There are no generic "Happy Birthday!" cards. There are cards for happy 1st - 12th birthday, and then "Happy Birthday from Specific Relative" (aunt, uncle, sister, brother, etc). It was very strange. The other volunteer here, Rachel, made this work by drawing in a 1 before the six on "Happy 6th Birthday" card.

The card from the older kids was the best though. Leah felt the need to write any word she could possibly spell on the outside of the card. She showed us her excellent rhyming skills. She started with luck, tuck, buck.... and so on until she reached the letter F. My mom caught her before she wrote it completely and convinced her that the 'c' should be an 'i'. Swear word avoided.