Day's Diary

June 7, 2007 ~ The Birthday Party

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Wednesday was Margaret Ncozana’s birthday. Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary group was here in Zomba. We had planned to have a community meal that evening, so it just seemed logical to use the occasion to celebrate Margaret’s birthday. Since the meal was at my house, I had the opportunity to put together the party.

In my family, the tradition is that the birthday person gets to select the menu, which is usually that person’s favorite food. I know Margaret’s favorite is nsima and chicken so I enlisted Alinafe and Bessie to help me, since I don’t make nsima at all and my way of doing chicken is not Malawian. Margaret is the cake baker in the college and I know she likes cake, so I decided that if the girls cooked, I would bake the cake. After a full morning of classes on Wednesday, the three of us went shopping:  me to the grocery store to get the ingredients for the cake and a few other things and the girls to the market to get the produce and the chickens. They decided that three chickens would be enough, but they had to agree to handle the chickens on their own. I don’t deal with live chickens! They dutifully purchased them and placed them in the back of the truck so that I didn’t even have to see them. When we arrived back at the college, Alinafe gathered the chickens and took them home for Charles to kill and I headed to the house to unload the rest of the groceries and then go to Don Dawson’s afternoon lecture on “What God is Doing in the World.” (It was a wonderful lecture and the students were challenged in the best possible way.) The lecture let out at 4:00 p.m., and the group was going on a tour of the Zomba CCAP church and then to Cottage Prayers. That gave us two and a half hours to prepare dinner.

The kitchen became a hub of activity. Bessie began chopping vegetables and I began mixing ingredients for the cake. Everything here is done from scratch, without aid of an electric mixer, food processor or the like, so butter is creamed by hand, egg whites are whipped by hand – you get the idea. In the midst of this, Alinafe arrived with two chickens ready for cooking. The other would be along shortly. It seems that she had asked Charles to prepare the chickens, but hadn’t told him how many there were. One of the birds, a bit smarter than the others, hid in a kitchen cabinet and, at least for a short time, evaded slaughter. Charles was remedying that situation. He arrived in about half an hour with the last bird prepared for cooking. Then he set to work on rearranging the dining room and living room to accommodate 22 people for the evening while we continued mixing, cooking and baking. The great distraction was the icing for the cake. I was making it my American way and everyone was interested to see and taste. I managed to save enough to cover the cake.

In the midst of this Amos, the carver, arrived with drums he had carved for Kara and Beth, so commerce took over the living room for a short time. As the PTS group returned from Cottage Prayers, the interaction with Amos and the drums increased greatly (as did the noise level.) By this time, other guests were arriving for dinner. About 6:30 p.m. Margaret arrived, but without Silas and without the extra plates for the meal. Silas had gone off from the college on an errand and he had the house keys, so we had to wait for him to come back before we could eat. This was not a problem, as the drums became a source of entertainment. Quickly a drum section was established, consisting of Takuzi, Beth and Rev. Mwale. The rest of the ladies formed the choir, complete with dancing. The men sang along or cheered them on. No one seemed to notice that it took Silas an hour to return as everyone was having too much fun. When Silas arrived, he was quickly sent off again to collect the plates and then we set about eating. Margaret was thrilled with the dinner, prepared in her honor and to her liking. She declared it grand! The cooks were duly congratulated. 

After dinner, speeches in honor of Margaret abounded, as did a few presents and then the cake and singing of “Happy Birthday,” first in Chichewa and then in English. (It works better in English, believe me.) That singing opened the way for more singing. Margaret’s nephew, Paul, and his friend, Baxton, had come to share their music, which opened the way for more dancing, this time by the men as they joined Paul and Baxton. Then more speeches followed. Don Dawson became the “MC” for the evening and directed the speeches and honors for Margaret.  Laughter reigned throughout. It was 9:30 p.m. before anyone realized it. This is late in Malawi. Prayer ended the evening. The party was declared a success by all present. Margaret declared it the best birthday party she had had in a year. That was the spirit of the evening.

When everyone left, I went to the kitchen to clean up, only to discover that Bessie, Charles and Alinafe had done that while we were singing and laughing in the living room. I said I didn’t know how to thank them and they quickly responded that I could send the rest of the cake home with them – which I joyfully did. That was a small price for all the work they had done to make the party so tasty.