Mom's 80th Birthday in South Africa

I don't usually travel twice in one year to South Africa, but this year was special. It was my wonderful Mother's 80th birthday. My brother and sister also came and even though May is a tricky time for me with our biggest team coming and reports due, I managed to make it work. 

We had a wonderful time as a family the week before her birthday - celebrating Mom's birthday every day in some way. It was really fun. Then it was time for the BIG happening - Mom's actually birthday party. She managed to keep the guest list to just under 40, but it was hard! We had decided to do it at home, and not in a restaurant, as it would be more relaxed. With both Astrid and I helping to organise it (and both of us love organising), it was super fun for everyone! 

And the weather played along... it was a stunningly beautiful Cape Town autumn day (especially as earlier in the week there was a huge storm which caused extensive flooding and electrical outages). We started by mingling outside: 

Enjoying catching up, or meeting new people - we had a fun "Find someone who" knows Sue from different places - like church or aqua... and there was a prize draw at the end for those who filled it out! And the prizes were the 4 spekboom centrepieces which Mom planted specially for the party: 

 

The highlight of our mingling time was having Jack the coffee man - he was making real coffees, lattes, cappuchinos, etc which everyone enjoyed... 

And all this while, the lamb was being cooked on a spit in our driveway! 

And then it was time to enjoy the lamb, and the potatoes and vegetables cooked in the juices being dropped down from the lamb - sooooooooo good! 

We decided to have the 4 of us each have a table and be the host of that table, and it worked really well. Here are all the wonderful tables: my brother, Kevin's:

My sister, Astrid's:

Mom's:

And mine: 

During the party, we had slideshows going in different places - I chose the photos and made sure everyone at the party was on the slideshow:

And it even became a fun talking point with some people: 

Another fun activity was the photo booth: Where you could get into it: 

Or just take a normal photo: 

And two very tall people making it really fun - probably my favourite photobooth photo! 

My brother and I both made a speech, and my sister MC'd the whole event. It really was a fun and honouring party for my wonderful Mom. 

Before everyone went home it was time for cake - made by the daughter of Mom's Maid of Honour who works in a bakery. It was a surprise for Mom (and a gift!) so that made it even more special. The succulents are real (and Mom was able to plant them later). Here are my brother, sister and I with Mom and the cake: 

I don't think we could have hoped for a more honouring celebration, or a more fun time for everyone who came. I believe that celebrations are a small glimpse of what it will one day be like in heaven, and if this party is what it will be like all the time, then I can't wait to get there!! 

Holiday of a lifetime!

For the past 12 years, Ljilja, Sina (our friend from Finland) and I have been going on holiday together. We even managed to find ways to go on holiday during 2020 and covid rules changing every day. We have had a lot of fun adventures, but also just able to relax and enjoy movies and games and looooong discussions about our lives. We also usually celebrate all 3 of our birthdays on Ljilja's birthday in July as I am in June, and Sina in August... 

This year, with both Sina and I were turning 50, we wanted to go somewhere extra special. Sina has also travelled to over 90 countries, and originally she wanted to go somewhere new, but that is quite hard for her! She wanted to go to do an island holiday - and her first suggestion was Fiji! We looked at ticket prices and it was a hard NO from us. After that she thought about Seychelles, but again it looked expensive. She had already been to the Maldives for work, but as that actually looked like the best option price-wise, she was happy with the island holiday there as she had not done the "vacation" side of things there - just visiting projects for work. 

So, in the end we managed to get her "down" to go to the Maldives. We found some reasonable airline tickets ourselves via Doha (with a stopover on the way back) and Ljilja did a phenomenal job of contacting local travel agencies to see if we could get a deal on accommodation. We had decided on a resort near the capital called Kurumba. 

We would just get breakfast included and then go out for dinner, making it cheaper (and healthier!) than a full board/all inclusive option. We got a good deal through an agency in Bosnia, and were about to pay the deposit when Ljilja received another offer for the same exact booking from an agency in Serbia which was even cheaper!! Love it! (we found it it was cheaper in July as it is the "rainy season", but other than a 1 or 2 times of rain during the day, it really didn't bother us at all as it mostly fell at night). 

We stayed in two adjoining rooms upstairs in a condo with four rooms. We didn't have anyone downstairs for most of the time which was nice. It included a fun "outdoor/indoor" bathroom - so you could shower outside... or in the rain - which was a fun experience! 

Being on the top floor meant we had a lovely view from the windows/balcony:

And most of the creepy crawlies kept out of our rooms (which was helpful to those with a fear of creepy crawlies of which there were a few!) We did get to see lots of bats in the evenings and our friendly heron, which we nicknamed Harry the Heron, was always around: 

We had loungers (with our room numbers on!) on the beach which were sort of secluded as they were surrounded by trees, so we felt like we had our own private island getaway. Such a blessing! This is the view from the balcony towards "our" beach and our loungers are in between the trees! 

And this is the view along the beach! 

We mostly spent time at the beach, but did do a couple of snorkelling trips, which were amazing!! It was also lovely just to snorkle around our beach too! And we could also take out the kayaks for some good exercise: 

One of the reasons we chose this resort was that they had different themed restaurants, and one of them was THAI! Which happens to be the favourite food of all of us. We have usually managed to find a Thai restaurant in the places we go to on holiday - there is no real Thai food in Bosnia and it is expensive in Finland! We did go there 4 times during our stay and got to the know the staff, including the chef (from Thailand) and so when it was time to go, they even gave us a special send-off and insisted on taking pictures with us - so sweet! 

The whole time we were there we were all saying everyday, "Thank-you Lord that we get to experience this beautiful place!" There was one moment when I was in the sea at sunset and just looking at the bats flying around and seeing the sunset from the water and I was just praising the Lord for being able to experience this beauty. I am so glad that Sina wanted to go somewhere like that for her 50th, because it really was the crowning experience of my 50th jubilee celebrations! 

On turning 50! | Party in Banja Luka

 After celebrating early with friends and family in Cape Town, it was time to celebrate my actual birthday in June in Banja Luka... and despite having a team of 28 people in town and a planned full week of activities, we still managed to make it happen! And it was even better than I could have imagined! It started earlier that afternoon with a full makeover from my wonderful friends at my beauty salon - their special birthday present to me! 

Ljilja did most of the organising and planning, and even a last minute change in venue (because of torrential rain, we decided the original plan of being outside wasn't possible) didn't dampen the mood.

After welcoming everyone into the new venue, we started off with a special way of doing the toast. Choose a glass and you get either strong liquor or water/juice, it was really fun, especially when people got the strong stuff, thinking it wasn't! 

But luckily, most people got just what they wanted!

This was followed by some phenomenal food: 

Along with catching up with so many special people from my time here in Banja Luka: 

Then it was time for the real fun: "Open Mic:Telling stories about Belinda" 

Some were really touching: Gaga is one of my oldest friends, I met her 3 months after moving to Banja Luka: 

Others getting a good laugh, Nina is one of our longest standing volunteers: 

And Sanja shared how I taught them all about the local language grammar!! 

And Sinisa wishing me all the best! It really was such a lovely part of the party! 

After this, I was led outside and a surprise was organised for me: A 50 candle cake! 

And oh so many sparklers: 

I got sung to in 2 languages and they even did the hip hip hoorays! 

Then it was time to blow out my candles: 

And to eat the cupcakes the sparklers were in: 

Or put some of the icing on the party girl... as is the tradition! 

We had to take a group pic to remember the wonderful evening by... 

Then it was time to party!!! What made it even more fun was when some people figured out a better use for the helium in the balloons Dijana, Tanja and Sanja showing us how it is done!: 

Instead of presents, I asked everyone to bring a donation to help with my work with children. In the end I spent most of the money on needed "summer supplies" for the children's home - suntan lotion, balls, armbands, towels, etc. Going on a shopping spree to bless children was definitely the best present! I will also plant some trees at our friend's forest which is being used for their work to educate children on all things nature (and that was the place the party was supposed to be held...) 

I also have to say a HUGE thank-you to Ljilja who in the midst of hosting a team of 28 decided to organise and bring together the party the week when we also had 3 visitor speakers coming to share every night! It was an amazing party and the change of venue last minute didn't make it any less special! 

I really felt celebrated and it was such a blessing to enjoy it with so many fantastic people - here's to the next 50 years! 

Starting early to celebrate my 50th!

Yes, I am turning 50 this year in June. I decided I wanted to celebrate with my Cape Town friends, and so I decided to celebrate my "American" birthday (3.6 = March 3) as my birthday is 3.6 (= 3rd of June!) And I am so glad I did!! 

My friend, Sarah, had celebrated her 50th a month before, and so I got her to bring me her 50th swag and she also brought some amazing flowers:

And I got my friend, Keren, to bring her party lighting which added to the atmosphere!! (And actually came in helpful when we had "loadshedding" during the party and we didn't have to worry about it as we had light!! 

Here is a pic of all of us - thanks to Katherine's lovely long arms. It really was a lovely evening with lovely people! 

I look forward to celebrating my actual birthday in Bosnia in June!