Birthdays aren't celebrated in Kenya. When you tell people about the concept, they tell you that birthdays are for the rich. It is easy to understand why, if you think about birthdays most people think of cakes and presents. If you see someone in a movie receiving a computer or a car for their birthday, you might say to yourself that a birthday is a luxury of the rich. More problematic though is that the movie depiction is often not far off from the truth. As a child I would become excited about what presents I thought I might get. Of course it is not necessary to see birthdays this way and instead they can be a nice excuse to remember friends. Should we need an excuse to visit friends though? No, not really. I would prefer it if we all agreed to remember our interrelatedness for its own sake, without excuses. So let's just do that instead. If someone forgets your birthday, but invites you to dinner two weeks later just to be with you, let's be more honored than if they had used our birthday as a crutch.
Instead of celebrating that I was one year closer to death, on my birthday I was more excited that I obtained a cow's stomach from the butcher. I celebrated as I hung it from the rafter, and I even gave the local stray dog some bits since I appreciate having him around. I celebrated the presence of the stomach because I am hoping to be able to use the naturally occurring rennet inside of it to make mozzarella cheese.
As a debut, I am inviting the teachers over this weekend. In addition to mozarella they will also learn what pizza is. They don't know it is my birthday, although admittedly me being one year closer to death was the reason that I chose this weekend to have them over.
Locally grown rosemary will one of the guests of honor at this party, as we kick off my mission to make food in our village that is currently only available in ritzy parts of Nairobi.
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