M's Bday & Kenyan Flag

Well I don’t know how to sing happy birthday in Swahili yet but today is M’s birthday! He says that he keeps forgetting it’s his birthday whenever I remind him so maybe he’s getting forgetful in his old age. Today I will walk into town to get him some cake, the upside of being on the outskirts of a touristy area is that we can get things like cake if we are willing to walk a bit.

I imagine it’s a bit weird celebrating your birthday in a country where you know exactly 1 person for longer than 5 days. Someone asked us the other day how long we’d been here and we were both shocked that it had only been 5 days. Although we’re still very much figuring things out, we’ve also learned a lot in just 5 days.
Just before we came, M asked me if I was surprised that we're actually going to Kenya after planning for so long. And the answer was that I'm honestly not surprised at all. I knew when we got married that we'd always push each other. That we would almost never do things the easy way. And that at times it would be exhausting and the rest of the time it would be exhilarating. And that because I like to go to bed really, truly, tired every day, that he was the one for me, because he's the exact same way. So, to my running buddy, my Sherpa, my travel companion, and my mume wangu [husband], HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!



As for the Kenyan flag, pictured above, it was adopted on December 12th, 1963. December 12th is therefore Kenyan Independence day which we're looking forward to in a few months. It was the flag of the independence movement when the Kenyans fought against the British. The black represents the people of Kenya, the green represents the land, and the red represents the blood shed in the fight for independence. The Maasai shield and spears also represent the fighting for independence.

In other news, I found someone to give me Swahili lessons starting at 1 today and M observed in the operating theatre yesterday.