BEST BIRTHDAY EVER

I want to thank everyone who sent their love and birthday wishes from far away to help make it a wonderful day! For an entirely random reason, school was let out at 10:30, so I had a day to enjoy myself! I am finding, however, that school gets let out early for very many entirely random reasons. I got a phone call from Eli in Jordan at the exact moment that I was trying to buy a cuaderno, so I was the rude American on the cell phone at inappropriate times talking loudly and obnoxiously in English. That’s how much I love my twin. It was also fun when Jess called me while I was on the bus and she thought the ayudante was yelling “revolution, revolution,” when he was actually yelling “guate, guate.” I treated myself to an extravagant lunch that probably cost around $10 (Yes- that is what I consider extravagant) and even some Yogen Fruz (which I still can’t believe exists here)! All of this stuffing of my face was followed by pampering of my face with a facial at an organic macadamia farm. Mmmmm Macadamia oils…

But besides a video involving snow and tu-tus, it was my host family that really made my day. They said nothing about my birthday all day, but then came out with this huuuge dinner, bought me a beautiful cake (these things are expensive here), set off firecrackers as I was lighting the candles, and gave me presents. It was incredible. Firecrackers are a huge thing here. I often wake up to them around 5:30 am. They are used for basically any special occasion, and I felt like a real Guatemalan to have my very own firecrackers bothering the neighbors. As for the presents, my family makes their living partly by sewing, so they sewed me not one, but two BEAUTIFUL bags. I hate to make generalizations, but time and again, Guatemalans are just the most giving, generous people.

This birthday high was carried over yesterday when our group had our first training session with the teachers at our school. Our school has no running water, so if teachers want their kids to wash their hands, they have to send them down to the public pila (a big pool of water used by the community) to wash their hands and then hope they come back. So today with the teachers we made “Tippy-Tappies,” which are like makeshift water dispensers out of old bottles. Whether or not they will actually be used, we had a ton of fun bonding and lighting things on fire with the teachers. I will be sad to leave this school in a month.