24th Birthday in Paraguay

This past week on the 25^th of July I celebrated my 24^th birthday.  Over the years I have been a variety of places and countries for my birthday, from Japan to Costa Rica and from Pensacola, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana.  This year seemed to be a little bit different because I have now been here in Paraguay for ten months which just seems so crazy and hard to believe.  Also this has been the coldest birthday that I have ever experienced with temperatures in the nights dropping to 35-45 degrees and daytime about 60-70’s.  We are now in the middle of winter and usually my birthday is one of the hottest days of the year!  It wouldn’t be too bad but considering that the houses are uninsulated and we don’t have heaters it feels like camping.  Luckily I have a large cat and some hot water bottles to help keep me warm at night.   I have also learned to take advantage of the sun in the afternoons and sit outside to soak up some sun and warm up.  Luckily I am prepared for cold weather with warm clothes and a sleeping bag which have been fantastic.  We haven’t had a frost yet but everyone keeps telling me that it is coming and we are just waiting for a clear starry night, at least that is what my family keeps telling me.

A couple of days before my birthday I traveled into Caaguazu to celebrate my birthday and one of my VAC mates birthday Brad.  He celebrated his birthday with his wife Katie earlier in July but this was the first time we could get together.  Below you will be able to see some pictures of our wonderful birthday dinner.  I also was able to go to the post office while I was in town and had some fantastic birthday cards and packages from my parents so I was able to open those on my birthday.  I also had a wonderful day celebrating with my host family and we had a fantastic asado (similar to a BBQ).  I was also able to make a German Chocolate cake for my birthday which my host family and community members absolutely loved. 

It was very interesting to see my communities’ reaction when finding out how old I was.  Some thought that I was younger and some older.  When I told them how old I was senora was beside herself that I didn’t have any children yet, she is convinced that I left all my children at home for someone else to take care of. I kept trying to explain that I don’t have kids and I then got a lecture that I am getting “older and wasting time”, it was a good time for a cultural exchange.  Another senora in the community was horrified that I am this “young” and living as a female by myself so far away from my family.  It is just interesting because you never know what you are going to hear from one day to the next, but they are keeping me on my toes I guess, never a dull moment.  Enjoy the photos!

This didn’t occur on my birthday but was my conservation/ English class that I hold on Sundays.  I went over with the kids how to plant in macetas (containers) as well as start transplants.  So we used egg cartons to start seeds that we will later transplant out into the garden.  They had a fun time and we ended up with soil and seeds everywhere but they kids had fun and learned a lot and most of the seeds are starting to sprout.

This is a picture of Brad and me with our wonderful birthday dinner that you can see below.  We made homemade hamburgers and hamburger buns as well as mashed potatoes and a side salad, it was wonderful!

My dad awhile back send me a Reese’s peanut butter cup muffin mix that was chocolate muffins with peanut butter filling so we made those and they turned out amazing, THANKS DAD!

On the morning of my birthday I got up and made myself a wonderful breakfast with my favorite foods.  I made chocolate chip pancakes (which are an all-time favorite of mine) with bacon (that is splurged on at the super market but worth it) with coffee and fresh pineapple.  It was quite the treat and change from my normal small breakfast in Paraguay.

For lunch my mom made boli-boli (don’t know if that is how you actually spell it but oh well) which is just like a soup with little balls of corn meal, almost like dumplings or something.  It is one of my favorite dishes in Paraguay but this was the first time I had ever had it with beef, usually it is with a fresh chicken that we kill.

For dinner we had a wonderful asado full of chicken, beef, and pork, so we had all of our animals covered.  It was a beautiful but cold evening so having the fire going was a great way to also keep warm.  My mom also made sopa which is kind of like a very fattening version of corn bread and we also had a lettuce salad and cucumbers and onion salad that I made up.  Overall it was a fantastic dinner!

This is just a picture of the German chocolate cake that I made.

Most of my host family singing happy birthday with my mom, host sister Rosa, and her family, and then the old director of the school that has been very helpful to me in the community.  Maximo, my brother is the one taking the picture and his family was in Caaguazu so were not able to celebrate with us.

Just a picture of me and Junior blowing out the candle.  We actually had to try and take this photo a couple of times because Junior kept blowing it out early and Maximo was set on getting “the perfect photo”.

A picture of me and my host mom.

Me and the old director of the school Jorge.

Maximo wanted a picture of me cutting the cake.

Just a couple of adorable pictures of Junior that evening  He was a lively one most of the evening running around in circles and having fun and then as soon as dinner was over he wanted a bunch of photos taken and then he just crashed for the evening.

A picture of the small fire we made after dinner that we all sat around and even the cats couldn’t stay away!

Overall it was a fantastic birthday and it was so great to hear from so many different people, new friends among old.  So here’s to another fantastic year here in Paraguay!