So, I’m a bit behind on blogging, but today I wanted to share some photos from my birthday party on March 13.
Several of my Uganda friends got together and organized a party for me—complete with gifts, cake, decorations, a delicious lunch, even fake snow and confetti sprayed on me as I blew out the candles!
It was such a fun party and I felt so blessed and loved by my friends.

Before the party—showing off my pretty cake with Miriam

Eddie, Meg, Miriam, little Imran, Andrew, and Karol getting food from the “buffet line”

with my plate of food—delicious African-fried chicken, Irish potatoes, rice, sukuma wiki (collard greens), g-nut (peanut) sauce, pineapple—yummy scrummy!
Time to open gifts… Each gift was accompanied by a little speech from the gift giver. You just can’t have an event in Africa without several people giving speeches!

A wall hanging from Ruth—she bought this one because I have become “a real African woman.”

Many people gave me gifts of jewelry, some of them they made themselves. The necklace I’m wearing in this picture was made by my friend, Brenda, from paper beads. The one I’m holding up is from Dennis, the principal at our Bible institute.

Showing off all my jewelry—and yes, I wore it all for the rest of the party, even though I was seriously mismatched!

A beautiful piece of cloth from Julie

A fun banana fiber bag from Meg

Everyone singing “Happy Birthday” before I blow out the candles

Make a wish…
And drum roll, please…

Let’s cut the cake! Cake cutting is a serious event here, filled with much drama and excitement. The “honored guest” cuts the cake into small pieces and then serves everyone a piece. A side note: cutting cake can be difficult here because the frosting is very hard and crunchy and the cake itself is usually quite dry. Sometimes your first cut crumbles the cake into tiny pieces!

Serving Jennipher and little Rebecca a piece of cake

with my babies, Kianga Grace and Amani—Oh, how I love those girls!

The party wasn’t complete until we took photos with each person individually as well as a group photo. What great friends! I’m so thankful for all of them.