A Birthday Party

A birthday party

Let me start out by saying that yesterday got up to 100 degrees F, today the high was 53. oooohhhh myyyyy gooooodness! In a country that has open buildings and no heat that is COLD! I spent most of the day shivering and being unprepared for the cold. It just reminds me why I like the heat so much more!

Yesterday I went with the fam to their nephew’s 1st birthday party. They’re our neighbors so it wasn’t a far walk. I was interested to see what a birthday party would be like here, at least a one year old birthday. So here I’ve noticed they like to sit around and talk, or sit around a talk and drink terere (more on that in a later blog). The birthday party was no exception. When we arrived there was a whole buncha chairs and benches in a wide circle in the front of the house. The yard is just red dirt with some big trees shading most of it. In the front of the circle was a table with a cake on it and all sorts of sweets lined up. Next to the table was a box that people were putting Louise’s presents in. Everyone was sitting, even the kids, and talking with the people around them. A few chickens would run in and out the chairs and the dogs would try to lay in the middle of the big circle, but someone would hit them and chase them out (there’s a lot of dog hitting and animal chasing goin on round here). The Loui’s mother then passed around hot milk chocolate that was pretty good just had a different taste then I’m used to, and then some pieces of torta (dessert or little piece of cake). Then passed around more. And more. And again. Now I’ve told them many times I’m not eating a lot here because I don’t want to get fat so they know! Thankfully they’re not trying to feed me a lot (there’s not a lot of nutrients in what is consumed here, lots of white bread). We sat and ate for about an hour and a half and talked, some kids were running around a bit more and not just sitting. No one was really mingling and walking around only my host sister taking pictures and people helping serve food. Oh did I mention the whole time little kids songs were blasting from inside the house? It was mostly women and kids there, some men were playing cards away from the party though. My host dad stayed at the house to listen to the football match on the radio. Finally it was time for the piñata, or what we could call a piñata. There were two big balloons with what looked like some of the red dust from the ground inside, I had no idea what was going to come out of it that the kids were so excited about and I was told they hit it with a knife! So it seemed as if many small children in close proximity to one another were going to be wielding knives to open balloons full of red dust. I had to watch. Fortunately it wasn’t carnage that followed but a woman who came over with a steak knife. All the little girls ran over and stood under one balloon and the woman popped it with the knife, out came confetti and those things you blow at birthday parties that look like unwinding tongues. They were really excited about this and scrambled all over to grab a dusty lizard tongues and put it in their mouth. Next was the boys turn. After the cake and candy from the front table was passed out, cake to all and candy and chips to the kids as well as balloons. Then they all left. And that was that. A birthday party.
After we left we did some more sitting and chatting, then ended up going back to the party house to sit and talk some more. They were teaching me to count in Gurani and the colors. And that was my Sunday!

I found out today I’m starting off in the Spanish review class. There’s another Spanish class for people who need more practice and the rest have started learning Guarani. At first I was a little upset I wasn’t in the Guarani class yet but I’m ok with in now. I know I do need to practice speaking more since I didn’t really in Mexico, I also wish I had more time with the Rosetta Stone! That helped me review so much! But it doesn’t matter, I’m gonna be the best Spanish/Guarani speaker eeeevvveeeerrrr. But first, bedtime.

Got done with some training aaalll about Diarreah! and our health care. It´s really good healthcare. going from no health care to the best health care we´ll ever get is awesome. 221 ppl to 2 doctors! awesome!