Feliz Cumpleaños (Oct 12, 2023)
October appears to be a busy month for birthdays, or at least it was this week. Natalie, the volunteer who coordinates visitors, turned 23 on Tuesday (Oct 10). The volunteers have started a tradition of breakfast in bed for the birthday person, so Natalie’s roommate Julie rose early to make pancakes and we sang happy birthday. Wednesday (Oct 11) was Tio Pancho’s birthday. I am not sure how old he is, but definitely much younger than me. He is one of the coordinators of Casa Suyapa which is the group of 5 houses for the younger kids (ages 3 – 12). Since Allen and I are volunteers for Hogars in Casa Suyapa, we got to be there for the party which included a huge cake.
Thursday was my birthday and I was intending to keep it on the down low. Allen knows that I am not fond of breakfast in bed and I get up early anyway so it is difficult to get up before me. Christine, another volunteer and soon to be our new volunteer coordinator (when Sara leaves at the end of the month), made a coffee cake for me which I greatly enjoyed. I got many felicitations throughout the day, primarily from the volunteers and I made Rice Krispy Treats for the kids in my Hogar. When Allen and I went to our Hogars for dinner, I was greated outside by some of the kids and told to “cierra tus ojos” which means close my eyes and then I was led by the younger ones into "my" Hogar which is called San Mateo. When I was allowed to open my eyes, I saw the little table set up with birthday decorations and my name spelled out. The kids had colored pictures for me and had put them in self-made envelopes. The Rice Krispy Treats were placed on the table for after dinner.
For my birthday ceremony, I sat in a chair near the birthday table while the kids and Tias gathered around and sang a birthday song that I did not recognize followed by the traditional “Feliz Cumpleanos a ti”. I made a wish and blew out the candle (only one in this case). Then came the best part: each of the kids had a turn to tell me something special about me, then came up to give me a hug. The Tia had instructed them to speak slowly so I could understand and I am pretty sure that I got it this time. I still don’t know how the Tias found out about my birthday but they sure surprised me.
When I got home,
Helen (the volunteer that is an amazing cook), had made an apple crisp and we
had another birthday song, candle blow out…
I thought I was
done, but when I got to work Friday morning, there was a cake and birthday
decorations around my desk. This cake was fancy with my name spelled out and decorated
with peanuts (my favorite!). Instead of a candle, they had a sparkler which
they had fun watching me try to blow out 😊
I also got a lot of wonderful messages and videos in the last couple of days from family and friends that just confirm for me that I am one lucky person!
I am almost done celebrating my birthday, but have one more outing in mind. We work the next two weekends as this is our normal work weekend and there is a special activity the following weekend that needs our help. So it looks like Allen and I will have to hold off until the last weekend in October to celebrate with another relaxing weekend at the Honduran Mayan Hotel. We went there for our anniversary and enjoyed it enough to make it our regular getaway when the occasion warrants.
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