MIKES BDAY, and Cooking Cakes !

Hi Friends & Family,

Greetings—again—from The Swaz !!

We celebrated Mike’s birthday in fine fashion, especially since it coincided with a birthday celebration of one of the children here at the children’s home. From what I’ve been able to gather, in general, birthdays are not regularly celebrated in Swaziland as we do in the states. Certain birthdays have significance, and might be honored, yet, depending on the family situation, there may or may not be a party, or even a cake. Most families do not have an oven, so a cake would mean a trip to town to purchase one. In the grocery store, I’ve noticed that cakes are often sold by the slice, since a whole cake would be too expensive for many to buy.

But, the directors at our children’s home, Peter & Michelle, decided that each child would have a birthday party. Since there are 23 children here now, they have a party once or twice a month on a Sunday afternoon. Even if there are 2 or 3 children, each one gets a cake, a few small presents and then sandwiches, juice, popcorn, & candy are served to all. We played games – mostly relay races, since the age range is so great. Then it later turned into a pick up soccer game. It was a lovely time, relaxed, fun and most of all, each child feels special on that day. Sadly, Michelle shared with us that she really isn’t sure of the birthday of some of the kids, so they just designate a day for them.

Fortunately, in our house, I do have an oven, so I tried my hand at baking a chocolate cake. Even without a mixer, and having to convert measurements (they use grams), it turned out surprisingly good. I also helped with the party by providing egg salad sandwiches. I’ll have to make deviled eggs sometime, as I’m sure they’d be a hit.
The 4 older girls came over and helped me ice the cake and make the sandwiches. They love learning new ways to cook & prepare food. I introduced them to the taste of lentils and rice, and took some over to their housemothers. Thankfully, everyone liked it, so now they have another way to economically yet nutritiously prepare food for all the kids.
Mike & I are continually amazed at the great variety of food available here, yet most are content to prepare their maize meal porridge day after day.

We’re having a Peace Corps couple come visit this afternoon. They’ll spend the night and then he and Mike will travel to Mbabane for a meeting, while she stays with me tomorrow to get a chance to see what my days are like.

And we still get almost no news, except for letters, so Thanks for Letters. For example, we did even know about the Chilean miners, until last Thursday—a couple days after they were rescued!. Thankfully, we are totally out of the election din in the USA. I am sure you understand as we have no tv, no radio, no magazines, no news papers. Basically, 100% of what hear about is from letters, and word of mouth.

Bye for now. Gail & Mike