A Quarter of a Century

It is hard to believe that I am a quarter century old now.  Earlier today I was thinking about all of the beautiful places I have celebrated birthday from Thailand, various mission trips across the US, Olivet Float Trips, Costa Rica, and then my second birthday here in Paraguay.  It never seems to be easier  celebrating so far from home but I was blessed enough to be able to talk to both of my parents today and helping someone else celebrate their birthday was a great way to celebrate.  This year I was able to celebrate my birthday with one of Alcides’ nieces who shares my birthday, but she only turned 5 while I turned 25.  So we went into Caaguazu with Alcides and his sister, mom, and many other nieces to help her celebrate her 5^th birthday.  Below you will be able to see just a few of the many photos of her birthday celebration. 

On Friday I spent the entire day baking making 48 cupcakes, 4 loaves of whole wheat bread, and a couple of other desserts.  I had some great helpers though 2 of my nieces Adriana and Diana who were a big help and we had a lot of fun both making and decorating the cupcakes.  This is a picture of them taste testing the icing to make sure it was edible for everyone else.

A photo of Adriana and I making up the icing for the second batch of cupcakes, we ended up making 24 white cake cupcakes and 24 chocolate and then had fun making chocolate frosting as well as dyed pink and blue frosting.  In the end we ended up with very colorful and festive cupcakes with enough to go around.

In the afternoon we had a wonderful visitor from Annie (my closest PCV) that came over and helped us finish decorating cupcakes.  She also brought me a wonderful carrot and coconut cake that we took over to Alcides’ house to have a little mini early birthday celebration.

Alcides getting his hair cut in preparation for the traveling into town.  It was very interesting to me how much work everyone went to before we went into town.  They collected mandioca, all the women washed their hair, collected corn and fresh fruit, and just generally got all cleaned up for the trip into town.

So this doesn’t have to do with my birthday but those are the two baby pigs that Alcides worked a week in the field for and his brother made a very nice pen for them and we are starting to feed them so they will be nice and big for Christmas/New Year’s celebrations.  In the US we don’t think nearly this far ahead but just go to the grocery store and buy a turkey or ham.  Here if you want meat for your family for the holidays and you are smart you buy various animals now (calves, chicks, piglets, ducklings, etc.) and then grow them out yourself because if you wait to buy just the meat around the holidays the prices skyrocket.  So needless to say at least one of these piglets we will be butchering and eating for the holidays!

Just a cute picture of me with one of my kittens that is almost all grown up now that lives with Alcides and his family.  At first they hated cats and didn’t even want one but now Raul (the kitten) is a large part of the family and is spoiled more than any animal I have seen in Paraguay.  It might be due to the fact that he has eaten all of the rats they used to have but whatever the reason Raul is in good hands and is part of the family.

For our birthday celebration we came into Caaguazu and for lunch we had a wonderful duck and rice stew but in order for that to happen we had to kill the duck.  I didn’t really help too much but rather used the excuse to take photos so I wouldn’t have to be the one to kill it.  This is just a photo of Alcides with his mom plucking the duck.

As per Paraguay traditions for birthdays the people hosting the party (or their mother) makes a whole bunch of food to give to everyone else.  It isn’t the US where people throw parties for you and you just show up and enjoy.  Anyway so Edie (Alcides’ sister) had already made up all of the food the day before and then I spent about 4 hours frying it all.  

Alcides and our niece Diana standing in front of all the little plates of food that we made up.

For the birthday girl, Janina, her parents had a bounce house brought in so all the party goers had a fantastic time playing around.

Just a picture of me with one of the cupcakes I made that I called my birthday cake, complete with my dollar store purchase of cupcake molds and little flags that read Happy Birthday!

Alcides and I with my cupcake.  Although it might not look too cold it was in fact only about 60 degrees with a cold southern wind (we are in the middle of winter), not the 100+ temps that I am normally used to in the US for my summer birthday.  

Just a family photo with Alcides and his family standing in front of the themed party she had of Pippa (which is a popular cartoon pig here in Paraguay).  

On Sunday we had a small celebration for my birthday since I didn’t want to take away from the 5 year olds party, so we had a wonderful asado (BBQ) filled with lots of yummy grilled pork, rice salad, and leftover sopa.

So overall I had a fantastic birthday filled with good company and great food.  This week I will be heading on a short vacation to Argentina to help celebrate my birthday with Alcides.  So stay tuned for a blog post our trip to visit Iguazu, the third trip there for me but the first for Alcides ever outside of Paraguay, so it should be a lot of fun!

In the blink of an eye, everything can change.  So forgive often and love with all your heart.  You may never know when you may not have that chance again.