Tea Party Fashion Show

Birthday parties are always fun, and everyone has their own list of the top ones they've had or been invited to. My personal favorite birthday parties would probably be my bicycle parade party when I was 5 or something, and my 23rd which I celebrated both in Napa with my biological and adoptive family (the Howards) and here in Korr. The tops in terms of guest status were my sister Amanda's "Aladdin" party, when Mom made Aladdin's palace out of old cardboard refrigerator boxes, Tanya Garber's "Pocahontas" party, when we swam in the off-limits Memorial Park duck pond, and any party where there's double chocolate cake with raspberry filling.

But Rendilleland can host some pretty good birthday parties too.


Amina threw a birthday party for her son Shammy, one of our Form 2 students, at her house during tea time on Friday afternoon. He was turning 24. Weird.

This is still something I have a little bit of trouble with; the fact that your students may be older than you and very well may know more about life, and you just happen to know more about creative writing techniques and verb tenses. Concerning Shammy, though, I just gave him a disciplinary yellow card in class today, and he's a full year older than me. I guess that is only further proof of what women have known at least since the turn of the 20th century: a man's age does not necessarily indicate maturity. Shammy is very nice, however, and his mother is the most lovable Ingo and language teacher, so it's a pleasure to spend time with both of them.

To the consternation of the Form 1 students, only Form 2s were invited, which was actually quite nice as it allowed us to more enjoy the intimate company. Amina completely outdid herself with a real birthday cake, complete with candles from our house, popcorn, maandazis (the African equivalent of a beignet) the size our your face, and her famous chai seasoned with cloves.

Needless to say, we didn't need dinner that night. The best part of the party wasn't the food, though, but just the time to goof off with the students. We discussed with the Form 2 ladies, Angeline, Lucy, and Emily who was the most "sassy" and determined that Angeline came in first place, the student equivalent of Alicia, Lucy came in second, my equal in sassafrass, leaving Emily to be paired with Jamie because, "Mme. Jamie never smiles." This is a categorically untrue statement, but it is fair to say that Jamie is a more serious and 'in control' in the classroom; she did her student teaching in the inner city.


Over in the guest hut, which literally has the words "Girls' Hostel: 2008" printed into the cement outside, there was a dance party going on. Alicia accidentally walked on as Abduhlai as he had his shirt unbuttoned all the way to combat the sweat he'd worked up from dancing, which was embarrassing for all involved.

As I was walking around with my second cup of chai, somebody asked for me to take a "single" of them. What does this mean? This means N*SYNC boy-band poses set to the backdrop of a radio blaring Kenyan hip-hop and a shoving/pushing line of boys behind me and my camera.

Some of the results are as follows: I think you would agree, a birthday party isn't a party unless everyone gets to do an impersonation of Justin Timberlake.


(To the above right is Gabe, one of my favs. At the left top, is Terry; that's about as crazy as I've seen this boy get.Below him is John B. who looks like a N.Z. Maori warrior. Below John is Musa whose smile is illusive but precious. And finally, Lenarendille, bottom right, is the head boy and potentially one of the coolest guys at T.S.S. )