Sam's Birthday

It's a Filipino tradition to wear 'Red' on your birthday.

Sam's birthday surprises really started the day before her birthday. We were enjoying a nice 4 mile walk and ended up at the food store called Farmers. For the last 3 weeks we've been coming to Farmers almost Daily to see if they had Syrup. We have been craving pancakes like none other but really couldn't enjoy pancakes without Syrup. Anywho, we actually went to the store looking for graham crackers but as we walked in the people recognized us (not necessarily difficult seeing as to how we're the only 2 white girls that come to Farmers daily) and they were saying, "Hey! Syrup! Syrup here! Syrup!" We were SOOO excited! 80 pesos later (which is like $1.50) we got our syrup! Yay!

Anyways, the day of Sam's birthday, Allison woke up super early and made her a special American breakfast complete with American fries, pancakes, and egg whites. The last thing Allison did was toast some bread. She put the bread down into the toaster and about 15 seconds into the toasting the toaster begins to SHAKE  like crazy. Allisons first thought was, "Oh No! Its gonna blow up!" Then all of sudden, a Gecko flies out of the toaster, into the air and lands on the table right in front of her. They stare at each other for a second then the Gecko takes off. Thats when Allison realized, "Oh No! That poor thing was trapped and burning in the toaster." lol, well serves him right…a toaster is not a gecko home…but she still felt bad. 

Cake from Jam.

So after the toaster fiasco, Sam wakes up and enjoys her American breakfast. She also received her birthday present, A Nook (or electronic book) Our parents had bought it before we left and told Allison to hide it for the next 2 months. Allison bought some a bunch of American junk food consisting of M&M's, Cheesy pringles, and Snickers. It wasn't the most expensive gift in the world, but it was still Amazing and greatly appreciated.

Later on, Jam, a fellow missionary, had stopped by and brought Sam a cake and some flowers. He stayed to help Sam take care of a patient and then had to head back to a Mission school that he has been teaching at. It was really exciting that he had stopped by.

That night we celebrated Sam's birthday with our missionary family. Of course, we had to do it in the most American way possible. We made pizza from scratch. We made the crust ourselves and cooked it till it was just about ready. Then we took it out and covered it in marinara sauce and vegan cheese (which we make out of cashews, peppers, nutritional yeast flakes, and seasonings) and covered it in green and black olives on half and pineapple on the other. Then we put it back in the oven till the crust is fully cooked. It wasn't exactly Pizza Hut, but to 2 Americans who haven't had pizza in way seems like a LONG time, it was PERFECT!! Everyone else really enjoyed it as well. 

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Michiel made fresh mango shakes for us to drink and then afterwards we all sang "Happy Birthday" and ate a Carrot cake that Allison had made. They don't have cream cheese over here, so she had to improvise when it came to the frosting…so the cake looked really ugly, but it tasted DELICIOUS.

And thats how Sam spent her Golden birthday. Happy Birthday Sam!! Till next time…

~Me and Her