Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi!

The volunteer was weary from culture shock, a language change and the hot, hot weather. But, at least her birthday was coming up; she had that to look forward to at least. So she planned a small get together, nothing fancy. A little food and (she hoped) a lot of laughter with a few people she had grown close to. She had even found a box of cake mix in a local store and decided to try it out.

When the day finally rolled around, she anticipated everyone’s arrival and while the cake hadn’t turned out perfectly, her hopes hadn’t deflated with it. Soon everyone had arrived; there were greetings and chatter as everyone ate. But wait, the stream of people didn’t stop, people kept coming and coming, most of whom weren’t even invited!

While she normally worked hard to understand the culture she had been dropped into, why did they have to take advantage of her this day! So she decided to pamper herself this day, her birthday, so she had her local boyfriend do a very non-local thing and announce that everyone who wasn’t invited that they had to leave.

Slowly those who had invited themselves left and she was relieved, but frustrated and hot in this unending summer. She’d soon get over it, though, as much as she felt it was important that she was there, that she was working to better the community, weekly frustrations presented themselves in an unending variety of ways. She could always look forward to the next one!

That birthday of my sister in Cameroon, Africa has been good for a laugh (at least to us, her immediate family) ever since it happened about 8 years ago. I couldn’t relate before I came to Nicaragua, and I thank God I still can’t completely.

My birthday was a wonderful day from being woken up at 5:30 AM so the kids could sing happy birthday, to the greasy, cheesy, house front pupusas I ate for dinner that night to cut the sugar high.

I ate brownie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting AND tres leche cake (super sweet, super gooey, super good). And loved all the songs I got from friends and family who called me on Skype. Thank you! I won’t forget my Nicaraguan birthday with all of you!