Happy Birthday
My birthday aboard the Africa Mercy was definitely a birthday to remember. I was met with many balloons hanging from the ceiling and a birthday banner on the wall outside my door that morning. (We do not lack for much on the ship. It is possible to buy balloons, cake mixes, and banners in the ship shop). There happened to be shortcakes for breakfast. Strawberry shortcake is one of my favorite birthday treats. I was blessed with the shortcake surprise. Went I entered the Rehab tent, I was greeted with more balloons and banners that my coworkers and day crew put up. I also received a necklace freshly made from the spools of casting fiberglass and a bracelet made of rings of splinting material.
At lunch the bell in the dining room was rung. This signals everyone currently present to sing "Happy Birthday." Later in the afternoon, we shared the fun tradition of dying eggs with the day workers. Some background will be helpful to understand the significance of this birthday activity. My birthday is often near Easter. Growing up, my family celebrated Easter with sunrise services, special church services Thursday or Friday, sometimes a new dress, a special dance. It was about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. The egg dying and egg hunts was associated with my birthday. The simple joys of being a child is remarkable sometimes. My brother and I would find hours of pleasure for a week or two putting the plastic eggs together in fun color combinations and hiding them over and over again for ourselves and neighbors. It was just the joy of hide and seek. No candy, no golden egg, no dying eggs. Of course, Dad would hide them the best at my birthday parties. When we got older, we did participate in egg hunts hosted by church or family. Sometimes we did dye hard boiled eggs. Deciding which colors to make and then designing the eggs was a wonderful activity as well.
My coworkers asked how I wanted to celebrate my birthday and dying eggs came to mind. The day workers as would be expected had never heard of such a crazy idea. Most mornings, we have the opportunity to choose and eat up to 4 hard boiled eggs. The eggs here are brown. The day workers said they rarely see white eggs here. Each of us picked out allotted amount of brown eggs that morning. It was nice to not have to boil them. A coworker had actually brought food coloring with her planning to dye eggs herself at Easter. We had crayons in the tent that we used to mark on the eggs. After watching us, the day workers enjoyed drawing on and dying eggs themselves. In case you were wondering, brown eggs can be dyed. In fact, the final product eggs are earthy colored...blue turns to teal, green turns olive green, red becomes bright maroon, purple turns a brown with purple tint, and orange did not color the egg much. Another coworker made cupcakes and had chocolate icing and sprinkles. Guess what type of cupcakes they were. Sprinkle batter! This is one of my favorite, and she had no idea.
It was neat to see how God shows us in unexpected ways how he cares for the details in our lives. The blessings of balloons, shortcake, dying eggs, sprinkle cupcakes. I had no idea to even ask for these. I actually have not celebrated with these fond traditions in several years. As one ages physically, it is important to have moments of pleasures of kids. After all, we should all have a little kid in us at heart. It was a wonderful day of feeling loved by those far away through messages on facebook and email and celebrating with new people.
At lunch the bell in the dining room was rung. This signals everyone currently present to sing "Happy Birthday." Later in the afternoon, we shared the fun tradition of dying eggs with the day workers. Some background will be helpful to understand the significance of this birthday activity. My birthday is often near Easter. Growing up, my family celebrated Easter with sunrise services, special church services Thursday or Friday, sometimes a new dress, a special dance. It was about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. The egg dying and egg hunts was associated with my birthday. The simple joys of being a child is remarkable sometimes. My brother and I would find hours of pleasure for a week or two putting the plastic eggs together in fun color combinations and hiding them over and over again for ourselves and neighbors. It was just the joy of hide and seek. No candy, no golden egg, no dying eggs. Of course, Dad would hide them the best at my birthday parties. When we got older, we did participate in egg hunts hosted by church or family. Sometimes we did dye hard boiled eggs. Deciding which colors to make and then designing the eggs was a wonderful activity as well.
My coworkers asked how I wanted to celebrate my birthday and dying eggs came to mind. The day workers as would be expected had never heard of such a crazy idea. Most mornings, we have the opportunity to choose and eat up to 4 hard boiled eggs. The eggs here are brown. The day workers said they rarely see white eggs here. Each of us picked out allotted amount of brown eggs that morning. It was nice to not have to boil them. A coworker had actually brought food coloring with her planning to dye eggs herself at Easter. We had crayons in the tent that we used to mark on the eggs. After watching us, the day workers enjoyed drawing on and dying eggs themselves. In case you were wondering, brown eggs can be dyed. In fact, the final product eggs are earthy colored...blue turns to teal, green turns olive green, red becomes bright maroon, purple turns a brown with purple tint, and orange did not color the egg much. Another coworker made cupcakes and had chocolate icing and sprinkles. Guess what type of cupcakes they were. Sprinkle batter! This is one of my favorite, and she had no idea.
It was neat to see how God shows us in unexpected ways how he cares for the details in our lives. The blessings of balloons, shortcake, dying eggs, sprinkle cupcakes. I had no idea to even ask for these. I actually have not celebrated with these fond traditions in several years. As one ages physically, it is important to have moments of pleasures of kids. After all, we should all have a little kid in us at heart. It was a wonderful day of feeling loved by those far away through messages on facebook and email and celebrating with new people.
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