Sam's 30th Birthday

The other night Owen attended his second 30^th birthday party (not his own, though he did achieve the 4-month mark last week). His first was his Aunt Marian’s in DC in November, which I believe he slept through as he was only 6 weeks old at that point. His second was this week, when Kristen’s colleague and our friend Sam (a Brit who’s transplanted herself to Madagascar) turned 30. We had Sam over for a drink (or two) to welcome in her third decade. Left to right: Abel (Sam’s boyfriend), Dan & Owen, Kazaku (Japanese volunteer for the NGO Sam heads up), and the birthday girl herself. The highlight of the evening was Sam’s story of the massage she received in town as a birthday present. Specifically, how the masseuse commenced with her feet (living as we all do in Fianar, which is a bit of a dump, and seeing as it’s summer here so we’re all in sandals…let’s just say it’s hard to have squeaky clean feet by 5 pm on any given day), and then spent an inordinate amount of time rubbing the front side of her upper torso instead of her back, and finished up with her face. Abel said he wanted to watch next time. I hope no one gives me a present to that masseuse for my next birthday.