Happy Birthday Dad!

March 20, 2015

As you hopefully know, this past Sunday my dad was born… 45 years ago! Old right?! To celebrate we ate cake with some friends on a broken bridge, but that was after a day of fun with more to come.

In the morning, we went to the English speaking church in town where we met up with our friends Steph and Rob. After a quick stop at Rob and Steph’s house we followed them to the house of Rob’s mom (which had wifi). Steph and Rob spoiled us with an awesome lunch that trumped our premade peanut butter sandwiches a thousand times over. By the time I had enjoyed my wifi filled time and scarfed down lunch it was already time to head out again. At the gas station we picked up two ladies who sing at church and by the side of the road we picked up four more people. When I looked in the back there were six people and there had already been five people so in the famous “adventure unlimited” truck we fit a total of 11 people!

The drive out to the church Rob was preaching at flew by. Unfortunately the word hadn’t spread very well because our group outnumbered the normal congregation. The music was really nice with Steph’s guitar and two African drums. Rob’s short sermon left us all saying “for what?”, which was the reoccurring message that went with the topic of standing up or running away.

Not far away was a bridge that had the nickname of “the broken bridge”. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. There we ate a delicious white cake to celebrate my dad’s birthday. From the bridge we saw some hippos, a croc and in the distance an elephant could be made out. We stayed on the bridge till after sunset before setting out again, hoping to see some game. Between the drive to the church and all the way back from the bridge we saw a bunch of zebras (say the “little e” sound to say it like the Africans), impala, kudu and water buffalo. While we drove back, the back of the truck had a mini concert with singing and someone even pulled the drum out. If only I could sing! I don’t know if my dad enjoyed his birthday, but I sure did! It was one of those days that would later make me puff up my chest and say “I lived in Zimbabwe for three months and did this!”