Another Birthday Abroad

Or well it kinda is and kinda isn’t. See, I don’t really count birthdays if they don’t happen in the USA. Or I don’t count them officially, and in that way I can keep my youthful twenty-nine look. As Nicole pointed out last year, I grow old unconventionally. With birthdays in Bali, Indonesia, Sydney, Australia, La Paz, Bolivia, Moscow, Russia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Lake Victoria, Tanzania, and Dakar, Senegal, I have a long way to go before my American birthdays pass twenty-nine.

If I keep up this travel lifestyle, I might never pass twenty-nine, which is fine by me. I like going to warm countries in February anyway. Though oddly, I’ve been cold every day in Dakar. Right on the beach and with low humidity, the breeze is cool and when in the shade, chilling. Chilling if, like me, you expected it to be baking hot and only brought deep summer wear. Foolish me to forget my Artic wear in the Sahel.

I asked around here for the local tradition on birthdays, and unlike Russia where I am expected to throw the party, or the USA where all your friends throw you one, here birthdays are a subdued affair. Not wanting to be a burden on the Geekcorps staff here, who all seem subdued to begin with, I kept my birthday mum. I think I’ll make a birthday party Saturday night when I go to Mali where there are a bunch of Geek volunteers.

Tonight, after yet another long day working on a job I love, its gonna be all about trading at dinner and hitting the sack early. Yeah, I know, not my usual party-boy self, but then again, I am dozing in Dakar.