DANI'S 1ST BIRTHDAY!

Dani, (pronounced Donny), the son of one of our watchman, had his first birthday on February 7, 2014. His mother wanted to celebrate his special day but wasn't sure how she would be able to have a party or bake a cake. Birthdays in Tanzania aren't usually celebrated this way, but western traditions are becoming better known throughout the country. As you can tell in the picture, Dani is trying to figure out what is going on!

Dani's house

Dani's birthday cake 

The family lives on the property where the new S.M.A. church is going to be built. Their house is very small and Mama Dani doesn't have a kitchen, let alone an oven. I was visiting one day and the discussion came up, so I offered to bake the cake. I had only tried to bake a cake from scratch one other time while I've been in Tanzania, and that was a disaster! Now that I know my little oven better, and am becoming more familiar with the ingredients that are available here, I was successful in baking Dani's birthday cake.

Since their house is so small, Dani's father, Dionis, opened up the 40 foot container on the property, which will be used for storing building supplies once construction is underway. We used the back end of the container for a table and a few chairs. It was a little tricky walking around in the container because it's set on an incline, so nothing was level. But we made the best of it and Mama Dani invited a couple of the neighbor women and their children. Mama Dani's 14 year old niece, Stella, is also staying with the family for awhile since she lost her mother last summer. Dionis wasn't able to join us for the party because he was on duty back at the S.M.A. compound, but we saved him some of the birthday cake. We lit all of the candles and sang "Happy Birthday" in English! One of the woman knew the song, and everyone else tried to sing along. Once I explained, in Kiswahili, that now it was time to blow out the candles, Dani was really confused, so everyone helped him out.

Make a wish & blow out the candles!

I had found some plastic, disposable plates and forks in one of the stores in town so I brought them along. We served up the cake and everyone seemed to enjoy it...especially Dani! First, he tried to eat with a fork, but then decided that his hands worked better and he ate the whole piece!

Dani even tolerated the birthday hat and traditional lei he was coaxed to wear. 

We had our little party about 4:30 in the afternoon so I thought we would just eat cake and drink tea or water, and that would be all, but I should have known better. No matter what time of the day, when you visit a family in Tanzania, you are served a meal. The women filled my plate for me and they gave me a "mound" of rice, covered with chicken, vegetables, sauce and avocados. The plate didn't look very appetizing to me, and I was already full from the cake, but I did my best to eat almost have of the food. I don't like to be rude or disappoint the host. I know a meal like that was a luxury for them and cost more than they could afford. After the meal, we took a few more photos but Dani wasn't in the mood for that so we walked to the S.M.A. compound to visit Dionis. By the time we arrived there, Dani was in a better mood and we took a few photos next to the concrete giraffe on our compound.