Celebration

**This very special entry is dedicated to one of the greatest people I had the chance to know.**

Don't we all complain about 'the special days' only being invented for marketing reasons? Valentines day, mothers or fathers day, teachers day, new years, anniversaries... If there was no special day, who would actually go for the heart shaped 'I love you' pillows, scary looking stuffed animals or 'world's best daddy mugs' ?

On second thought, birthdays may be the cruelest of all. As your social network gets bigger, the time you spend on picking out birthday gifts and stressing out about a proper surprise birthday party location highly increases. Birthdays today are clear statements of how popular you are and how much your friends and family care about you. By 'how much', I mean 'how much' they have spent on your gift. Have you ended up with flowers and a fun(!) birthday card that says 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDMA!'' when you turn 30, or a little shiny hoop on your finger that could feed the starving childs in Ethiopia?

Today, I'd like to talk about the special day of a very special person...

Mbumbijazo Katjivena was one of those people... One of those, whom you are absolutely certain after two minutes into knowing them, that they have something very special going on. Mbumbijazo- Mbumbii, as we call him- was a dear friend I've met while I was living in the US. He was from Namibia and he was able to keep his calm and smile under any type of circumstance. 'Admirable' would be his definition if he was on my Oxford dictionary.

Namibia is an extremely poor, developing South African country where people have unlimited wives and unlimited kids. Population: 2.1 million. Geological situation: Mainly deserts... Mbumbii once said, ''The more cows you have, the more chances for you to get the girl!'' I think this sentence says fairly enough about the mentality too. Mbumbii was three years older, and a class higher than me in the US. He has been living there for three years when I met him, it is his sixth year now. More importantly, he hasn’t been back home in these past years since the airline companies do not accept payments with farm animals. Even if they did, Mbumbii still would have to stay on the west side of the Atlantic.

Mbumbii’s dad has three wives –one legally- and 19 kids. Mbumbii once told me that his dad did not know some of his grandchildren. Although this situation made him sad, he still understood of course, since Mbumbijazo Katjivena was simply not capable of sulking or judging.

Mbumbii is an excellent soccer player, brillant student, lovable and popular friend and an amazing listener. The real question here is: ‘How? ‘ Someone who hasn’t been home in a very long time, has literally no money, has to work extremely hard to make it in the IB (International Baccalaureate programme) with no higher education background... During my four years into knowing him, he never complained about anything while we all have been bithching and whining about anything that moves.

I tried asking him the question ‘how’ many many times and he never failed to amaze me with his humble attitude. He used to say that he was just being this sublime to make the rest of us look bad, consequently he was actually the meanest...Although Mbumbii has all these great qualities I talked about, none of them explains why I’m writing this entry today. I’d like to share a moment we had about two years ago.

During the college application term for the seniors, I saw Mbumbii lying alone on the soccer field. He was thinking deeply and did look a little confused. I went over to sit with him and asked him what was wrong. Here is the conversation we had:

-         What’s wrong, Mbumbii?

-         Let me see, we’re both breathing, the moonlight looks perfect, the weather is a little chilly as it is supposed to be, so I’d say, nothing!

-         No, what’s with you?

Since he had listened to me and comforted me countless times, it felt a little weird that my personal saint was actually a little troubled. Mbumbii looked at me and said:

-         I’m thinking of applying early to Dartmouth.

-         I’m thinking you’re getting in early into Dartmouth! (Who could turn him down?!) Why Dartmouth, though?

-         My baby sister, Lilly thinks it has a funny name plus her favorite colour is green, just like Darthmouth’s.

-         Mbumbii, I’d have been a lot happier if you had said ‘’because Dartmouth is an Ivy League’’ or ‘’I have worked really hard, I deserve to go to Dartmouth.’’

Then, Mbumbi looked even sadder. He told me that he felt really bad for taking this scholarship in the US while his brothers and sisters were getting married to their own cousins back in Namibia, but the real reason was something else. Apperantly, earlier that day Mbumbii found out that his babysister did not know the date she was born. She had called him in tears and asked whether Mbumbii knew her birthday or not, but he didn’t. Since their mother had a lot of babies, she did not remember the birthday of her own daughter either. (He still hasn’t judged, of course.) Mbumbii told me that if he could get accepted to Dartmouth and get a full scholarship, he would choose that day to be her sister’s birthday. That was going to be his gift for his little sister. I looked at him and said:

-         Mbumbi, isnt’t that supposed to be your day, though?

-         It will be, when my babysister sings herself happy birthday for once.

There it was. Right there, I understood ‘the special days’ weren’t really about the hidious looking pillows, weird looking teddy bears or the overpriced rings. It was about feeling that we really were special and the people who care about us recognize it and celebrate their love for us. I also realized that receiving completely empty birthday messages from our facebook entourage was not a popularity symbol. It was really...nothing. People like Mbumbijazo Katjivena were the kind of people who would dedicate an entire 24 hours to you, so that they could have a chance to say ‘I love you’ and spoil you once a year just because you are too important.

On October 22nd 2008, Mbumbii and I opened the letter from Dartmouth, and there were no surprises there. Mbumbii had made it to Dartmouth with a full ride and the first thing he did was calling Lilly to name this day as her birthday.

Mbumbii has been studying in Dartmouth for two years now and one day he will turn into a great medical man to help the people in his region. And Lilly will be spoiled and loved by the greatest man on the face of the earth, since her entourage not only remembered but also earned this very special day for her...