A Birthday in Dakar

Yesterday was my birthday, I turned 23. Birthdays in Senegal are not a big deal. They often pass by without notice. Children's birthdays are celebrated, but only until about age 5. After that, it is seen as childish to celebrate them. Although I'm immersed in this culture, I decided to ignore their disinterest in birthdays and celebrate my own. Everyone in my host family wished me a happy birthday when I woke up. I went to class as usual, and everyone at the center wished me a happy birthday as well. When I returned home for lunch, I found a necklace and a card on my bed from Leila, whose birthday was also yesterday. After my afternoon classes one of my professors sang Joyeux Aniversaire to me repeatedly, and he said he couldn't get it out of his head. I stopped back home to change clothes, and then returned to the center to pick up two of my friends. I brought them by my friend's apartment to hang out for a bit, and then we stopped back home to spend a bit more time with my host family. One of Leila's friends bought a huge vanilla and strawberry birthday cake, so the family shared it. Afterwards, my friends and I headed downtown to meet up with other friends at a restaurant.

One of my friends here is a DJ in his spare time and mixes karaoke on Thursday nights at a nice restaurant downtown. So, he picked that as the place for us to celebrate. The staff was introduced to me by the owner of the restaurant, and he told us that everyone with us would have 20% off the bill as a gift for celebrating my birthday there. The food was delicious! I had pizza for the first time since coming here, pizza de trois fromages. The restaurant owner brought me the most delicious black forest birthday cake. It was quite big, so everyone could have a piece. And one of my friends bought a bottle of champagne. Afterwards, my friend turned on the karaoke equipment and serenaded everyone. The owner of the restaurant joined in and serenaded me as well. For the next couple hours the microphones were passed around by everyone. One of my friends pulled out balloons from her purse and a balloon pump and began to make balloon animals. So random! Needless to say within a half hour our table was covered with an assortment of poodles, swords, flours, and teddy bears. Everyone was taught how to make a poodle. I must say, I made it 22 birthdays without balloon animals and I was quite surprised to have them at my 23rd birthday party. The celebration was wonderfully random and fun! Sometime after midnight we left the restaurant with the owner and his wife and went to a club to dance for a little while: a little Latin music and a little Zook. I made it home around 3am. Needless to say, I was a little bit tired during my classes today, but it was definitely worth it.