My Sunset 32nd Birthday

My family and I started loosely planning my birthday party a week ahead…who to invite (the village, community, elders?, to send invites?), food (of course laplap and cake) and venue (ah…the event planner in me, getting to use the word venue…fantastic).

Wonderful Ivan sent care packages filled with goodies…cookies, glowsticks, a bottle of whiskey for my papas and uncles (as well as mental relief for me of movies and Heroes). My mama, sister and best friend Elsie began food preparations in the morning…my sister and I grating manioc (my fav) for laplap, baking cakes and my mama killing a couple chickens in minutes, I can attest.

My papa set up a tented area on the sandbeach, some uncles and brothers began ramming kava, building a bond fire and kids picking beautiful flowers for décor. Was this really happening? A full on birthday party?
I was tired after making food (remember, this means over a smoking, hot wood burning fire), carrying mats to the beach and setting up but seeing it all pulled together I was ecstatic. By 5pm, people started arriving with food and some with presents…I received 5 island dresses, soap and laundry detergent (very common birthday presents on Paama) and got doused with baby powder (previous posts explain this custom). I got to join the papas and brothers for kava and conversation (storian) then hula hooped with the kids and helped mamas share food. The sun began setting, they sang happy birthday/hapi long laef and with a nice kava buzz, glowsticks glittering, we ate and laughed together. A fabulous 32nd birthday indeed.