Birthday Weekend

Yes… another year has past, and this year I’m having my birthday weekend at home in Nigeria!  My students surprised me on Friday with a birthday lunch.  I knew they were up to something, as you can tell with kids, but they did a great job keeping it a secret!  I was getting ready to send them to wash their hands for lunch on Friday, when the door opened and a table full of food came in!  They were beside themselves with excitement.  Apparently the kids organized it themselves.  They all told Miss A. what they would bring, and then they did it.  She had them keep the food in the office when they arrived in the morning, and then she put it all together while we were working.  Such a lovely surprise!

Yesterday, my actual birthday, we started out on the soccer field for Laryssa’s last soccer game for the season.  She had fun, and we just beat the rain!  Following the game, we all went to the pool where the awards were given out, and then the kids had a little pool party.  Unfortunately, the rain beat us this time and the party was cut short.

On to the pool for the awards.

She is hoping she wins something!

A birthday breakfast of bagels!  I mentioned the other day that I hadn’t had bagels in a long time, so Chris and Laryssa got up early yesterday and made them for breakfast.  Yum!

We spent most of the afternoon watching movies, as it was a rather rainy afternoon.  At around 4:00 the rain had stopped and we walked over to Cactus, a nice little restaurant by the water.  We had drinks and Laryssa had ice cream.  Outside, Chris got bit by a parrot… he got a little too close to the cage.  No photos, sorry… Laryssa and I were laughing too hard!

Now, we’re ready for the boat to pick us up.  There is a little dock behind the restaurant and we waited there for Tim and Ann to pick us up.  Tim is our director, and he asked us earlier today if we’d like to go out on the boat for cocktails.  Of course we said yes! We had to dash the security guard to unlock the gate for us, but when we returned later he let us in for free.

       

 

And we’re off!

 

Heading out towards the harbor and the ocean.

 

 

Ships in the harbor.

 

 

The Yacht Club, as seen from the water.

         

 

It’s really hard to take photos while the boat bounces on the waves!  I managed to get a few…

 

 

All part of the adventure… we ran out of gas.  At that point, Ann thought we should get out the snacks!

 

Janet is ready to paddle ashore.  Might take a while!

 

 

A boat full of oyibos floating around doesn’t go unnoticed.  We were rescued in no time!  These kind men towed us to a place where we could buy gas.

        

 

Buying gas was actually a great photo op!

Some of the boats we passed as we were towed in.  This guy below has a boat full of bagged ice.

 

    

 

     

   

Tim pouring the gas into the tank.  Seems a weird place for a gas tank.

 

 

As we were waiting for gas… I snapped some photos.

 

                  

 

                           

 

And we’re ready to go again… thank you!

      

 

        

 

We decided not to press our luck, so we turned around and headed back towards home.

 

The sun is setting…

 

Great end to the birthday!