48 Cupcakes (and 2 broken ovens)
The school year for the kids here starts in February and last
week (April 8-12) was the first exam week for the school year. Exam week is
taken very seriously, and many other activities are postponed so the kids can
focus on their studies. So it was a relatively slow week at the ranch. However,
there was a need for 48 cupcakes or “cakitos” as they are known here. One of the
kids from my hogar and several from Allen’s hogar had birthdays this week so I
made a couple of batches of cupcakes for the occasion.
The oven in San Vicente has not been working consistently since before Christmas. Luckily, we have another building close by that has an oven we can use. Allen and the maintenance crew worked on our oven several times and were able to get it to work temporarily, but not permanently. At one point Allen removed a bunch of dead cockroaches from the circuit board to get the oven reworking, but not for long. They even brought in a second (used) oven that worked for a short while before quitting. We know that the electrical system in San Vicente is flaky with voltages varying throughout the day and weird sporadic things happening. For example, the volunteers in the other wing are not able to charge their computers or use their curling iron in their rooms. They also have experienced lights not working consistently and fans accelerating when lights are turned on. We have not experienced difficulties in our room, and I think our wing of San Vicente is relatively stable.
My theory on the ovens is that the flaky electrical system causes the ovens to fail. This is supported by the microwave which takes double the usual time to pop popcorn and even then, does not pop it all. We got a new microwave thinking that this would solve the problem but found it did not. To test the theory that all the electrical problems are caused by the old wiring in the building the new microwave was taken to the other building where we go to use a working oven and there the microwave works great.
I don’t know if I have blogged yet on the children’s birthday celebrations. For birthdays in my hogar, a small table is set up in the living room and the wall behind it is decorated for the birthday. The cake (or cakitos) is placed on the table and a single candle is put on the cake. The child sits on a chair by the table while everyone else sits in a circle around them and takes turns telling the birthday child why they are special and getting a hug in return. I am delighted by this custom and want to start incorporating it into our family celebrations. After this, everyone sings a birthday song to the birthday person who then makes a wish and blows out the candle. There are not usually presents other than what a best friend, brother, or sister can find or make from their meager belongings to gift the birthday person. The cake is served and, at least in my hogar, there is music and dancing. Pretty simple, but delightful!
As an update, the restriction is back to not show the faces of the children so you will be seeing more backs of heads or covered faces until I figure out how to mark up the photos with hearts or other symbols to disguise. Here are a couple of photos of two brothers from Allen's hogar who we hosted at San Vicente for a Proyecto Familiar (family project). We played with balloons and had waffles with whipped cream!
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