For those which are curious as to a H-town, birthday this is how it broke down.
I woke up to homemade chocolate cake (which L could get all ingredients of locally), a bottle of prosecco (imported on the sly from Dubai) and one of those happy birthday stringers (imported openly from Nairobi). This was served on a tray which we mostly use to take our 24-hour security detail tea in late in the evenings sitting on a low stool I mainly use as an otomon (made from raw camel leather tied to unfinished wood).
My staff came in early to wish me happy birthday, but also to continue our two day marathon security planning for possible al-qaeda attacks which will be targeted against....well, we're not quite sure who is the target or whether they are even possible to attack anything. But nevertheless, we are forced to plan for it.
A some point in the day, I have been offered a massage. The offeror's hands had, five mintues before the offer, been hydro-peroxide-and-q-tiping a cat's ass. Literally.
This evening we will attend a BBQ which will likely be of a local goat or lamb variety. There will be other food there - mostly imported from Dubai where all of our delicies arrive from. The drinks will be supported by many attendees (booze potlucks being the operative social norm), as well as a couple of cases of bad beer (which L likes) imported in Land Cruisers driving over dirt roads from neighboring Ethiopia. There will be music which will be from someone's iPod amplified by whosever computer speakers are closest.
The four of us in my house (L and I and our roomates - a Swedish former-rugby-player, current-governance-sector-ngo-worker and his American wife current-schoolteacher) will drive 30 minutes to the other side of town dodging, goats, random children who don't look both ways, potholes the size of Orlando, al-Qeada operatives, chickens, donkeys pulling the only source of water for many, men sitting quietly together in open-air teashops listening to BBC, and likely a few crazy homeless people. The Swede, who will likely be driving (a consequence of my prepartying which will result in the violation of above stated social norm) will squint and be blinded multiple times due to the unlit roads throughout town.
Tomorrow we will arise late as it is my one day a week off. All in all, one of my favorites.
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