My Birthday in Goma

I woke up on Saturday the 29th with a meeting planned for that morning. It never happened. The guy I was supposed to meet with was asked by Lyn that morning to do something before they left (and they are gone now) and so we rescheduled the meeting and I had nothing to do. I jumped in the lake and ate breakfast. Louise was leaving and she was going to go to the border and I decided why not go along and see it? We went to the hospital for an hour or so and then to the border. It was kind of cool, but nothing special. Then back to the hospital because one of the girls was giving a talk.

I was in the computer lab just messing around and Christina asked if I wanted to join her and some other people for Indian food. I figured sure, why not? We get in the car and go from the computer lab to the hospital. There outside the hospital was a UN truk with two Indian guys in it and 3 people Christina knew. We followed them to the airport and after a little negotiation with the guards (we had to park outside and couldn't drive into the Indian UN part... the congolese guard wouldn't let us) we went in to the helicopter division of the Indian Army.

The officers club had couches, soft chairs, a nice cable TV (Australia was trouncing India in Cricket), and... A/C. It was cool (finally in more ways than one) and we just talked to these pilots for a while. The food was still being cooked, and I had little in common with them, but we talked about each other's lives and what we did.

Then the food was served in the mess hall, which was also A/C'd. It was amazing. The food was so good and as we were eating it, one guy kept walking around with two dishes at a time (there were five and rice all together) asking if we wanted more. Needless to say, I ate too much.

Then it was time for dessert. He brought out Chocolate ice cream and we scooped that onto our plates. Nuts were brought to the table along with little cake like bar things, and then he came around with vanilla ice cream. And then he came around again with the ice cream. needless to say, I ate too much of that too. It was so good, and I don't think I'll have ice cream again for a very long time.

I thought we were done, but then it was picture time. We all formed for a group picture and there were 6 normal people and these 2 UN pilots. It was sweet. Then we walked around a bit. They have a tennis court, a volleyball court, a basketball court, a screen where they project movies, and we saw the helicopters. He showed us (very simply and matter of factly) that when you fly, if you push forward on the control stick you go forward, pull back and go backwards, left you go left, and you get it if you go right. He made it sound like that was it, definitely showing off, but it was pretty fun. We got some pics in the helicopters too so that was nice. They also said to come back for a movie or to play some sports or something, so I have a feeling I might meet them again someday.

Back at the house I was chilling, reading, and doing nothing. I was really full when dinner came around but I sat down and socialized a bit. The girls were going to a party, but I wasn't going to go. It was a suitcase party where you bring a change of clothes in a bag and then switch with someone. I was just going to enjoy writing about the day and sending some e-mails.

Well, someone knocks on my door and here its Christina and 3 people I don't know summoning me to the party. There was no way I was going to spend my 21 birthday alone in my room. I would have protested, but the one guy was really big, so I grabbed a bag of badger clothing (thanks mom!) and headed out.

It was a very interesting group of people, many of them pilots for an organization here, and other foreigners from all over. Maybe there were 20 people or so and when the bags were passed out, it was definitely a gender switch. I ended up with a black skirt and tank top and some white beads and some sort of headwrap thing. I figured it out eventually.

The UN pilots showed up too and we had Indian music and they were dancing Indian style and we were sort of copying them and creating some sort of jumbled up confusion. I didn't dance much but it was all right anyways. As with all cross dressing events though, someone goes too far, so I just ignored those people. I don't think I'll go to all the parties that go on, but I'll probably catch a couple. There was lots of Coke and Fanta anyways, so it was a bonus.

All in all, it was a pretty sweet day thanks to the Man upstairs looking out for me and making sure I was fed well.