I’m back from my camping trip! The mosquitoes loved me more than they did last year, which is a bit sad: I’ve been rubbing and scratching my 15+ bites all week.

Speaking of love…wow! I have never felt so much love from people, just for being born! Thank you for commenting on my last entry and wishing me a happy birthday. I appreciate the facebook and twitter messages as well. I received phone calls from Writefreak, Aloted, Sheri, Anne and other friends. Olaoluwatomi and another blogger who may want to remain anonymous emailed me and I got text messages too. I even got a birthday serenade which I mocked for sounding “so Nigerian”. :)

A very special person gave me these lovely roses…and I guess it’s time for me to come clean about one or two things…

Ok: I have a friend named Allison and she and her husband have given me flowers for my birthday two years in a row now. I love getting flowers!

(Oh, did you think I was going to say something else?)

I could be wrong but it seems calling the celebrant on their birthday is a very popular thing among Nigerians. It’s not something that I do much—I’ll send a card or email and I usually receive the same—but judging by the way I felt as I listened to those messages later (when I got back from camping), I think I’ll have to add calling to my list of things to do for friends celebrating a birthday.

There are a number of things I’m very thankful for, aside from living to see another year and surviving the camping trip:

• that my youngest brother is now a college graduate (his gradation was on the morning of my birthday and I was happy to attend).
• that we survived an earthquake! My part of the country experienced an earthquake on Wednesday June 23 around 1:45pm and it was scary (magnitude 5.0 earthquake is no small thing). You should have seen how I ran down the stairs…when you think you may be running for your life, even a big girl can move. What was a bit worrisome is that I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on: our building has a lot of embassies in it, and we’re three blocks from the parliament buildings, so there are always demonstrations and other things going on nearby. There has also been a bomb threat in our building before so my priority was to be safe. In retrospect my actions were contrary to my childhood training on earthquakes: you aren’t supposed to go outside…you’re supposed to hide under a desk or other sturdy structure. I’ll remember for next time (though I hope there isn’t a next time).
• that my dear friend is expecting her second child—her second son—and all is going well. I could never picture her with female kids but if they decide to go for three maybe I’ll be proven wrong!
• for the faith and resiliency of those who are waiting to be blessed with children. Please keep these people in your prayers.
• for learning opportunities, even when I resist them and even when it takes me a few tries to learn the lesson I’m meant to learn. Right now I feel like one of my friends has been brought into my life to teach me how to take risks and I’m hoping I eventually learn what I am meant to learn.

Filed under: Thankful Thursdays by goodnaijagirl |