My Birthday

Wow. I already knew I was loved, but last week for my birthday it was made quite apparent! My birthday celebration actually began the Saturday before, as I decided that it would probably be better to go out and celebrate on the weekend rather than in the middle of the week. We rounded up all the JVs from my house and Ciudad Sandino, and we ate a dinner of pizza, gallo pinto, and a very odd version of jell-o cake that I attempted to make. Then we went out dancing at the Bosque, where we met up with Jennifer (one of my friends from the bank) and ALL of her family, our friend Jorge that Heather and I danced with in Carnaval, and Matt and Ana (Cap Corps volunteers). We had a great night of dancing, and I went to bed satisfied that we had celebrated well. Little did I know, this was only the start of everything. 

                The following Tuesday (the actual day of my birthday), I am woken up at 6:00am to a wonderful rendition of Las Mananitas by my housemates Chelsea, Heather, and Megan. This is the Nicaraguan tradition on a person’s birthday--although the choreography they added was new. They had also made me a breakfast of banana/oatmeal bread with a side of banana/oatmeal shake. Haha. It was amazing! I also opened the 5 cards that my dad sent me, the card my whole family sent, and my birthday package from Brittney. I went to work feeling so loved. Again, little did I know that this was still only the beginning…

     Once I got to work, I started preparing for my 4 groups of women that I have on Tuesdays. The first one was a little complicated because the group was going to close the cycle, meaning that everyone needed to have their loan paid back by that day. So I was actually thinking about other things when suddenly the first group of women entered the bank with balloons, gifts, soda, and a cake from Pricemart. They also sang Las Mananitas, said a prayer for me, and gave me a bunch of hugs. It was so sweet of them.

       I managed to get through the second group without anything happening since they didn’t know it was my birthday, but then I went to the house where we eat lunch each day. Dona Sobeyda and her family surprised me with a gift of a bag and a very beautiful artisan figurine from Masaya of a rather sexy woman holding a basket of fruit and vegetables. On her bare leg is written “Para Jana con mucho carino.”

I was really starting to feel spoiled at this point. But of course after lunch, the next group of women continued the festivities. One woman made a sign that said “Felicidades Hanna,” and the group made Vigoron (a Nicaraguan dish that is rather expensive and eaten on special occasions). Again I received more hugs, prayers, and Las Mananitas. :)

      Finally, at 5 the work day ended, but instead of going home right away, I went to Jennifer’s house. She told me that we were going to cook chicken for my birthday. I was still really full from everything else, but I couldn’t say no. She showed me how to cook the chicken, we talked and ate, and at 8:00, we decided I should probably go home. I walked to the bus stop with all my bags of presents, got on a bus, and went home. 

      But then I walk in the door and find Jorge, Fidencio, Bayardo, and other Jorge all sitting in our front room with a bottle of rum, listening to music and goofing around. Apparently they had been waiting there for me since 6:00! Suddenly Jorge is asking me if I have nail polish remover because he’s going to paint my finger and toenails. I was super confused and thought I didn’t understand him correctly, but I was right. He wanted to clean and paint my nails. He spent about an hour and a half decorating my nails with elaborate colors and designs, and I was amazed at the care he took.

       Also during this time, I was receiving a billion calls. My parents called to sing me happy birthday and ask how I was doing. Also, each person from the Ciudad Sandino house called me individually. I guess I’m kind of known to their house as the awkward, random caller…since I always call their house with random things to say. They took this and ran with it. Elspeth called and wished me happy birthday in a British accent, Jenn screamed a lot, Tony made a joke about my large boobs, and Adrienne sang the entire Toxic song by Britney Spears.

So wow…I am so loved. Thank you to everyone that made this week so special!

El Medio Ambiente

Last Sunday we had a convivencia for work. (This is the word they use for communal living…cool right! It shows a lot about this culture that they have a specific word for this.) For convivencia, every person that works at Proyecto Generando Vida comes together and we talk about a certain topic and participate in activities. This last week, in honor of Earth Day, we talked about things that we do or don’t do to preserve the Earth and its creatures on three different levels: personally, in the project, and in the larger community. My coworkers mostly ended up talking about how terrible we are at this task. At the project we many times leave lights on after we leave a room, we often use small plastic bags to serve out frescos during events, and we waste water by watering the dirt in front of the project. I agreed that yes, the project could do a better job in some areas to preserve and protect the environment, but as we sat there in the open galerón on this hot day, using only the sun for light and the occasional breeze for air condition, I realized how much better they are than any other project I’ve seen in the United States. Maybe my coworkers do throw away leaves in the trash instead of putting them in my compost, and maybe they do leave lights on even after they’ve left rooms…but in general our project does an amazing job. 

In regard to the environment, lately we’ve been talking about how throwing trash in the garbage as opposed to on the street doesn’t actually do anything to really help the environment. It is just moving it from one place to another…and hopefully to a place where we can just forget that it exists. 

Also, I am convinced that the Recycle, Reuse, Reduce campaign could use another R. I think Repair should be added. Lately I have been trying to do this. We took our clock to be repaired instead of buying a new one, a coworker and I dyed our black pants back to a darker shade, a woman from the bank just sewed in the waist on another pair of pants so that I won’t have to keep pulling them up, and today I went to the market where they sewed my Converses so that now the bottom  doesn’t flap around anymore. 

I would just like to challenge everyone at home to do the same. 

Also, I just put some pictures up on facebook if anyone wants to look!