Brendan's Birthday

On February 16, the most fantastic man in the whole world turned 23! For such a momentous occasion there was obviously much celebrating. Here are just a few things that happened for Brendan’s birthday:

Like any major holiday there is always pre-partying on the eve of the big day. So the night before Brendan’s birthday we were invited to join most of the Sisters and novices at Becora for a birthday dinner. Here Brendan hears the Happy Birthday song for the first of at least 100 times in the next 24 hours.

Here the women who are one step away from their final vows as Canossian Sisters sing to Brendan. They are so full of joy and servants’ hearts…and they have incredible voices.

Also pictured here is the birthday feast! For special occasions they make some non-Timorese dishes – some pasta, pizza, and french fries are added to the normal rice, veggies, and some meat. It was so good to have a taste of home!


And after a good night’s rest, it was the big day! Brendan’s birthday started off with a special breakfast with Gosia and Claudia, who were staying with us at the time.

After breakfast Brendan had to complete a surprise scavenger hunt to find his birthday presents! For his 23 years, 22 snack items and 1 basketball were hidden around our house. It didn’t take long before he found everything, which was good because we had to head off to school.

On the way to school everyone was dancing in the streets and this man had a foot-operated carousel for the kids as part of Brendan’s birthday festivities! : )

In case you’re curious, this man’s job is to bike around town all day and give cheap rides to the kids as they spin around this mini carousel to music. Although we wish this guy had a nicer, better paying job, it’s adorable to watch and the kids love it!


After we had finished lessons with the university teachers, we swung by the convent at the school where I had coordinated with the Sisters for a surprise lunch. So they had pop for the occasion and made Brendan a card. The funniest part was that the Sisters are very busy on Mondays and everyone comes in for lunch at different times when they have finished their duties at school. And each one as she came in would sing Happy Birthday with gusto, as if she was the first person to think of it. So over the course of the meal, Brendan had about fifteen solo renditions of Happy Birthday in his honor : )

After a brief visit to home, we came back for English Club. I had made a fake lesson plan and told Brendan about it, but had planned to surprise him by having the whole class sing Happy Birthday and then go over basketball vocabulary and play basketball to practice it at the court outside because Brendan loves to play basketball!

Sadly, for reasons still unknown to us, only a few students came that day. The 3rd year students may have had a big project due the next day or something, but on that particular day there were less students than we’ve had at any classes since we began. So it wasn’t as good as it could have been, but with the students that were there we had a little party and did the basketball stuff.

After English Club we went home to rest for awhile and then went out for dinner. Brendan had learned about an all-you-can-eat restaurant called the Food Star from one of our friends, Birthin, and wanted to check it out. So for dinner we had unlimitied rice, noodles, vegetables, and most importantly…fried chicken. It was a great ending to the birthday of a wonderful man : )

K, that’s all for now. We’ll write again soon!


Much love,
Rachel and Brendan