Party like it´s 2008!

Our first week back in Comayagua was nothing less than extremely eventful! In fact, we attended 5 different parties in just 6 days! The fiestas began on Wednesday, January 9 – my birthday! Just getting back from our long trip to the states and getting readjusted back here, I figured my birthday would be pretty low-key. Apparently, I thought wrong! I was told by one of my fourth grade classes (I teach two, 4A and 4B) that they were going to have a surprise birthday party during lunch for one of their classmates, Allison, who also had a birthday last week. They asked me to ‘distract her’ during lunch time, then when they had decorated the room, they would come find me and I would escort her back, just in time to celebrate! Their plan worked to perfection, because when I walked in the room they screamed “Happy Birthday, Miss Emily!” They had tricked me – they were planning the party for me all along! I was so amazed. The kids themselves had come up the idea and coordinated for all of the things needed – pizza, chips, cookies, cake, ice cream, soda, decorations, plates, cups, utensils! I was very impressed! It was a wonderful surprise and the kids really made me feel special! Toward the end of the celebration, Greg brought his 7th grade class down and they sang to me as well! Then, it was time for the cake! They have a tradition here that they like to shove the birthday person’s face straight into the cake. Often times people will even buy two cakes for a party here, one for smashing and one for eating. Well, the kids were all hyped up and kept begging me to put my face in the cake. To humor them, I bent down and got close, acting as if were going to comply with their request. However, just as I was about to bring my head back up and holler “Just Kidding!” one of my students (who still won’t fess up to the deed) pressed my head down, smack dab into the middle of the cake! It was hilarious! The best part of it, was that it was a marshmallow icing so the only way to really get it out of my hair and off my face was to take a shower! Oh well, I laughed it off and had a good time anyway!

When we returned home after school, the surprises just kept on coming! Greg had sketched out a design for a large wooden trunk (one of the typical souvenirs of Honduras) and had a local woodshop craft his creation. He had picked it up earlier in the day and positioned it in the front room, so when I opened the door, I couldn’t miss the beautiful chest. It is carved with all sorts of memories, past and present including: my birthday date, the Ohio State logo, my name, special Bible verses, the address of our first house, our dog’s name, the state of North Carolina, Maranatha, and more. It is so cool! What a sweet and thoughtful gift. Now, we just have to figure out how we are going to get it back to the United States! That evening, our friends Kyle and Crystal treated us to a delicious dinner at the best steakhouse in town, “El Torito.” It was a wonderful birthday…turning 27 turned out great!

On Thursday night, we headed out to Pizza Hut (yes, we do have a couple fast food restaurants here - believe or not!) to bid farewell to Chaplain Bellamy. His four months serving at the “Friendship Chapel” on the Soto Cano military base was up, and on Friday, he was bound for home. He shared that during his visit here he had lost 15 pounds….there is a good chance he gained about 10 of it back though during his ‘last supper here’ because he downed an entire large pepperoni pizza on his own. Following that, he shared that just the week before he had eaten a whole extra-large in just one sitting! Amazing! Greg and I got the only the salad bar….really! Only because we had to hit another party afterward! Around 7:30 we arrived at Evan’s birthday party (sister in law to the owner of our apartment). We hung out with the family and ate cake for a couple hours then retreated home for the night.

After a long day at school on Friday, the weekend had finally arrived! I decided to lay down for a nap, and about 2 hours later at 5:30pm, I woke up. Greg instructed me that I had about 30 minutes to get ready and then we would head out to the base for Crossroads. I knew something was up, as Alex (the boy we tutor, and son of the owner’s of our apartment) mentioned comments to me a couple times during the week about “Miss Emily’s surprise party on Friday night.” I always tried to play it off though, because I LOVE surprises! So at 6:00pm, Greg and I gave each other a look “as if we both knew he was trying his best to cover up that he was taking me to a party.” (I knew the party would be downstairs in the house beside ours…that is where the Lagos family – owners of our house - always parties!) We walked out of the door to our apartment and into the stairwell where we both got a big unexpected surprise….We had shut the door without the keys….were not locked in our stairwell! Just earlier that week, our landlord gave us the second set of keys to our apartment…the ONLY second set of keys! Clearly the party had to be postponed a bit! We finally got out when our neighbors used their key to open the stairwell (there is one other apartment that shares the same stairwell as us – lucky for us, they came home not soon after we locked ourselves in!) The excitement for the party waned a little as we conspired on how to get into our apartment! After about 20 minutes of attempting (Greg and some of the male partygoers had made their way onto the roof, trying to break in through the patio window) they finally were able to reach through the window and grab a set of our keys. I guess it just gave us one more thing to celebrate! (Above are some photos of our guests.)

We had a wonderful evening! Greg along with the owners of our apartment and their rest of their family had planned a great party! Lots of delicious grilled food, dancing, chatting, and just hanging out with friends! Almost all our good friends from Comayagua were there, even a few of my students attended! Luckily, the didn’t attempt to smash my face in the cake – they just dabbed some frosting on my nose for good measure! I truly enjoyed my first birthday celebration in Honduras! Thanks everyone!

Our party going streak culminated on Saturday night as we attended our first Christmas party of 2008! Before we left for break, all the missionaries decided we would celebrate Christmas with a dinner and gift exchange after we returned (since most of us left in mid December). So we had a fun and relaxing evening together. Greg and I made out with a bottle of ranch dressing (highly coveted here) and a pack of plastic hot dog holders from the white elephant gift exchange. We were hoping to score the bag of Hershey kisses and American flag stickers, but were happy with our gifts nonetheless! Of course, at the end of the night, we had to put some sort of Honduran twist on the party… So, we headed outside and with fireworks and matches in hand we celebrated in true Honduran fashion! (Although, we did it at a reasonable hour…not at like 3am which is typical here!) Secretly, I hoped we at least woke someone up….just kidding!

We surely kicked off 2008 with lots of parties! It was a fun first week back, and all the celebrated really helped smooth over the bittersweet departure from the United States just a week earlier. After all the celebrating, it made me think about how much we have to celebrate ever day! Each day God fills our lives with gifts of life, health, work, family, and friends that we need to celebrate and be thankful for! I encourage you to take a moment and celebrate all of the blessings in your life!