My Birthday (Week)

There have been numerous times over the last few weeks where I have sat down to write a blog and no inspiration has come.  There should be so many things for me to write about, things which would interest all you out there reading this (if anyone is?!).  When I really reflect on this crazy place that I live in, it certainly is so out of the ordinary.  But it now seems so normal, so mundane to me.  Putting in to words daily life has become somewhat of a challenge so I apologise for the very long time between this blog and the last.

One thing that happened last week that does not happen every day...it just so happened to be my birthday.  On reflection, I think it is the first birthday I have spent out of the UK.  Now I'm not really one for big celebrations choosing instead a quiet night in with friends.  However due to the fact that I am in Africa, on a ship, the usual birthday routine followed quite a different pattern.  Instead of a birthday day it turned in to, well, more of a birthday week.  Maybe people here thought I had planned it that way, maybe I looked like a big egotist, but I had a great time!

It started with my good friend Gemma suggesting that we go away together the weekend before my birthday.  Many of you know Gemma.  We went to Uni together and lived together after graduation.  She came to the ship in 2008 and has been here ever since (in the process meeting and marrying her husband Todd).  It has been such a blessing to have such a close friend here who knows me well.  I probably would not have coped when I first arrived without her!  At home we used to go on regular holidays together so for old times sake we decided to repeat the process but tie in my birthday at the same time.

One of our favourite places to go and stay is on a beach around 1 1/2 hours drive from the ship.  Tourism in Sierra Leone is still in recovery from the civil war so places to stay on the beach are limited.  They are also expensive - anything from $20-$50 per night for a basic beach hut, often with bucket showers, no electricity and no running water.  Florences is the best value for money that I have found with clean rooms, proper bathrooms (!) and great food.  It is also on a quiet river inlet next to the sea so at high tide the water comes right up to the guesthouse.  It's so peaceful and the perfect place to relax.  It was great to spend time catching up, as, despite living and working within a few hundred yards of each other, we rarely get the chance!

Amazing salad and humus lunch

The view from our room

It is a tradition on the ship to decorate the door of someone celebrating their birthday.  On Wednesday morning I stepped in to the corridor to be confronted with the below.  Some of my friends had pooled their photos of me and had managed to get together quite the collection of me in many weird and wonderful poses - I didn't know there were so many out there!  But this was just the beginning.

When I arrived at my desk, I was confronted with this:

When I went to get in to my car that I use every day, I found this:

For those of you who don't know Marge, she is my car.  She was named last year after Margaret Thatcher (of course).  It just so happens that both last and this year I have worked with another British person so we had to have a strong British woman's name.  Margaret was the winner, mostly because the car is a battle axe and an iron lady just like her namesake.

As it was a Wednesday I had continue my usual work routine and patient visits.  On that day I visited Madeleine an indomitable lady of 83 who speaks perfect English and who is quite the character.  As I arrived she produced a present and card which I duly unwrapped and out came this:

This is a traditional Krio dress.  The Krio's are descendants of the original freed slaves who settled in Freetown.  They make up a large percentage of Sierra Leones educated classes.  Madeline is a Krio and as a result wears these dresses on a regular basis.  The white part on the top of the dress is make up of very close together embroidery stitches.  It touched me greatly to receive something which will remind me of my time here.

After visiting Madeline we headed to a cafe in Freetown (probably the only consistently decent place to eat in the city centre).  There I was presented by my workmates with a bunch of flowers (a bit of a joke - the only flowers to be bought here are fake, garishly coloured plastic ones.  I am always commenting on how horrible they are!).

My wonderful team:

After eating lunch a cake was whisked out of a plastic bag along with candles and icing sugar to dust it (in the picture I am trying to blow out the candles in slow motion for the picture, hence the face and Dee's hysteria!).

I felt truly blessed throughout the day and was showered with presents and cards by so many people.  In the evening I gathered some of my closest friends on the ship and we ate together on Deck 7, one of the outside decks on the ship.  Another cake also materialised (thank you Jess if you are reading this!)

It was a wonderfully different birthday which I will remember for a long time.

Oh, I almost forgot that one other small event happened on the ship that day.  Princess Anne, the Princess Royal just so happened to decide to visit (all pre planned of course).  She was in Sierra Leone visiting some charities of whom she is patron and was invited to tour the ship.  None of my team were invited to meet her so we decided to go out for lunch instead and miss the whole event.  Somehow I would much rather spend my birthday with people whose friendships I have come to treasure.  I'm sure Princess Anne didn't mind.