I turned 26 years old yesterday and I did the same thing I do every night — I stayed in Rwinkwavu, had a beer, worked and enjoyed knowing that life had treated me well so far.

Truth be told, I kind of like celebrating my birthday on days other than October 1st.

A few months back, a few of us went to Indian Khaizana — a popular Indian restaurant in Kigali. Besides having delicious food, Khaizana is apparently known for the spectacular show they put on for patrons celebrating birthdays. Once I’d discovered this, I had no choice but to claim it was birthday.

After dinner, the lights dimmed and we could hear the singing starting. The entire staff came out in crazy getups, formed a congo line and started singing ‘Happy Birthday’ in English. They were clapping and dancing around, and continued to the second verse in French. By the time they had reached the third verse (in Swahili) the entire place was clapping and singing along.

I almost felt bad, but I had gone too far to turn back. I jumped up, asked Derek to join me and we hopped into the congo line and danced around the restaurant.

It was the best not birthday ever.

High resolution pictures of me dancing around Khaizana can be found at http://yanokwa.smugmug.com. In fact, all my Rwanda pictures are in a convenient gallery there, so check it out.