birthdays and aging!

So yesterday was the big 25! A quarter of a century! AND on 11-11-11! This post is obviously old and something I never got to finish so now that I have unlimited internet and the use of my dear Amy's computer, and above all, TIME...I'll comment just a bit and then go on a blog updating rampage!
I had a lovely time on my birthday! I finished up my Conference on Pediatric AIDS and truly felt like I got quite a bit from it! I'm working (as soon as I have a functional computer) on putting together a summary for all my fellow PCVs. Afterwards, many of my PCV friends were in town on their way out to our amazing pre-Thanksgiving, a Primus-tie affair, but that's a whole 'nother post! We went out for pizza and had a lovely dinner complete with wine (only the second time having it since being in Rwanda). It made me miss my wonderful Tuesdays at Radio Maria and half-price wine with excellent suggestions on new ones to try! BUT it was lovely and then we went out to a bar to dance and chill and just enjoy ourselves. ALSO only the second time I have been out in Kigali, but it was a great time. It felt good to be somewhere and just to dance and not care and also to meet some Rwandans that were down to do the same things. It's rare here that people openly express liking to go out and drink and dance, especially as a women. Here, there's often an automatic correlation between that and them saying you're a prostitute. The attitude's a bit different in the big cities, especially among the younger generation but there's a reason I never go to any of the bars at my site. I figure it's probably safe to drink with my nuns and priests in their homes; they are a pretty constant source of peer pressure in that regard!
The next day we went to the African Bagel Company in Kigali. It's a bit of a trek to get there, but once you do, it's like being transported to a different world. This is apparently, the Saturday morning spot for abazungus (white people [pl. form]). It was absolutely full of them, but understandably so. There were doughnuts and hot bagels of every wonderful variety and Dunkin coffee. It's kind of funny since there is, of course, great coffee in Rwanda BUT I wasn't complaining. So we sat and ate and watched families and young people hang out in hammocks and little bistro tables around a yard just enjoying their Saturday morning. It was a wonderful deep breath of home life.