A Very Nigerian Birthday

On the 18th I celebrated my 23rd birthday. It was my very first birthday abroad. Having a summer birthday has usually meant celebrating with my parents. But the last two years I celebrated at camp and this year I celebrated in the heat of Africa. I had very low expectations for what my birthday would look like here. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and then be disappointed (incase everyone forgot). It started out simply enough, Kerry wished me a happy birthday and I went to work.

When I got to school the teachers greeted me simply enough, a quick happy birthday and then back to work. But at ten o’clock precisely all the teachers in my special class (about five) got together to sing me happy birthday and present me with gifts. The gifts were a large bouquet of plastic orange roses and a packet of biscuits (the Nigerian equivalent of unsweetened cookies). They started singing in Igbo and dancing the lovely and simple dance that Nigerians dance. It isn’t a dance of many moves, but it is beautiful in its simplicity and its beat. The song they sang in Igbo Oriya obuna metu ibe ya aka si ya. Ahurum gi na-nya ibu onye uwa oma . ahuru gin a-nya. Vivian, one of the teachers in my class loosely translated this as “In order to show our love for you, we should all come up and touch you”. As they sang these words, true to the lyrics every single person in the class came up and touched me. It was quite powerful really, being sung to by 30 or so Autistic and Downs Syndrome children. After the class presentation/celebration, the director, Hildegard came into the class with a basket (made by the children at the workshop) filled with even more biscuits and followed by even more teachers. At this point, there were maybe 50 people crammed into the classroom, singing to me and helping me celebrate my birthday.

I got home completely surprised and satisfied by the love that had been shown to me. But it was not finished, not at all. Kerry had stayed home from work this day and in her time planned an amazing scavenger hunt for me. The Nancy Drew Game it was called and had me search all around the compound (helped by certain clues of course) for my gifts. The first clue led me outside to the palm tree, where my second clue was waiting for me. The second clue let me upstairs to the bathroom, where a bottle of Kerry and my favorite wine (in Nigeria) was sitting in bucket. The third clue led me under Kerry’s pillow where a bottle of ground nuts (mmmm my favorite!) was hiding. Number four led me to the scale out in the living room (you see, the Nigerians have this really FLATTERING way of calling me fat as often as they can) where yet another bottle of wine was waiting. One for me, one for her! The fifth clue, which kindly calmed my fears about being fat, led me to the mango trees outside where an imaginary gift from Sebas was waiting. The next clue led me to the fridge and then again to the pantry where a book about a disabled man lay. The seventh clue led me outdoors again, to the clothesline, where a beautiful brass bracelet was hanging. Finally, the last clue led me to the amazing Nigerian birthday card. The thing about Nigerian cards is… they are tacky and strange. “Cheer up, it’s your birthday” it said. And inside, “Because you are special and kind, today will be the beginning of a ceaseless raining of favour over your head! You shall receive in abundance whatever you ask for from God as from today and evermore!” Wow. See what I mean? I am glad to see that from now on, my 23rd birthday, I will get everything I ever wanted! Kerry and I celebrated later that week by drinking the wine and eating the ground nuts. It was a good day.

The 22nd was the final day of celebrations for the birthday. I went downstairs for lunch and everyone gathered to eat. After the sisters prayed, they sang me happy birthday, followed by a chorus of ‘How old are you now?’ and ‘Many more years to come’. When it came time to cut the cake the sisters sang the Swahili song Malaika to me. I wish I could accurately describe these sisters when they are in birthday mode; they are very funny and creative. They also presented me with a gift of beautiful Nigerian fabric and yes, more groundnuts! Annette turned to Kerry and said, “I expect we won’t be seeing much of those”. That is because we will eat them all, in a record breaking short period of time.

So it was my 23rd birthday, and while I didn’t spend it in Minnesota with my stateside family and friends, I did get to spend it with my Nigerian family and friends, and it couldn’t have been better. I am lucky to be in such an amazing place and celebrating with such amazing and creative people, who clearly love me.

Daalu!