Birthday and Celebrations!

March 5^th 2012- my day of birth!! Wahoo! Well, we didn’t get home from the quince until 4am because helped with the clean-up after! 3 hours of sleep and then up for work bright and early! Woke up to wifey Krystina playing a playlist of some of my favorite songs. As I walked to the bathroom, I passed signs such a “Twerk it Birthday Queen” and well many more inappropriate signs. Ha, great way to start my day. We treated ourselves to these special 7 seed crackers that were definitely out of our volunteer budget but hey it was my birthday! My day was very special. All my friends at work remembered that it was my birthday so I was swarmed with wishes and hugs from everybody which of course made me feel special. The girls that I work at Escuela Taller made me two big posters and made lunch for me! So cuteee.

 Left to Right: Sofia, Maria, Lorena, Monetti, Evelyn, me, Gladis, Liz

They even made me a special vegetarian dish –veggie tarta SOOO YUMMMY!

They are all so unique and fun in their own way! I love working in group with these girls- bc each one brings such a uniqueness to our team/family! I love them! I am so lucky to be able to “work” with them. I don’t remember if I mentioned what we do together?? Well, I teach them English once a week which is fun; I really enjoy it. I used to think I wanted to be a teacher (as a career) but then went away from it for a bit and now I find myself returning to the possibility of it! I don’t know if it’s the teaching I love or maybe I just love it because I just love being around the girls.

I also do a workshop with them once a week which has been so awesome! I work with the psychologist here and we put on 2.5 hour workshops for the girls once a week. She does the first half and I do the second. It reminds me of some of the work I did last year in NYC when working at the all girl’s adolescent group home/Diagnostic Receptive Center. I feel most in my element here and eat every second of it up! The girls are so so receptive, for the most part. I get so taken back by it sometimes! I wish I could work with them every day but at the same time I do feel blessed to be working in all the different areas- the fair trade, the workshops with the girls, teaching English to the girls and to the local kids in our program, community development (growing gardens/self-sufficient living), and translation for our child and elderly-sponsorship program (providing basic education and rice, milk, and bread). We love the drawings we get in some times from the kids or the eldery! Sometimes they are so random and have nothing to do with the letter that is attached with it! Most of the elderly don’t want to draw or can’t so we end up getting to color and draw for them! Drawing and coloring as part of work? Does it get any better!

Okay, let me continue about my wonderful day! I was able to skype Kelly, Shelly, and my family which was fab! I had my birthday dinner with my closest friends, which at this point in my blogging, you should know- are the retired nuns that live next to us and Lourdes and Silvana, their cooks! They obviously made me feel like such a queen!

Lots of vegetarian dishes! Cake! Singing!

Just the love these sisters exude is always too much for my soul to handle! Ha, for realskies! Picture being in a room with all these strong womyn who have done so many amazing things to make the world a more peaceful place! Then add their own little sassy or extremelyyyy gentle personalities, then add some canes, some alternative sweet options bc of diabetes, some who like loud noise, some who only like silence, sassiness, radicalness, yet humble as hell! Its just always a blast of unique hilarious moments with them that NEVER GETS OLD! I invited the retired sister’s cooks to my birthday dinner (Lourdes and Silvanna who have become two of Krystina and I’s closest friends here).

Meet some of the crew. There’s Hermana Modesta who is turning 94 in April. She weighs 85 pounds and is so soft-spoken and gentle, I cant even handle it! Her memory is starting to go and sometimes she tries to sneak out at night to leave and travel. We have to hide the house keys because we are scared she is going to go missing.

Then there is Hermana Eufrasia who is my kind of girl! You know when certain people have a certain way of speaking or expressing themselves and its so unique that you just enjoy hearing them talk, no matter what context/what they are talking about, well she is totally that for me! She eats mango with a bib because she says “I want to dig into this! I just want to eat this mango now! I don’t want be all clean and prissy about it. If it gets all over me, whatever! I’ll put a bib on!” She also doesn’t like cats. Her job is to make sure all the doors are locked at the end of the night. We always find hiding and eating sweets late at night when she isn’t suppose to be! LOVE THAT! She also loves teaching me guarani, the indigenous language- which is so hard for me to learn! My vocab of the indigenous language is about 20 words now. Ha. Her and I laugh so hard—her tying to teach me and me trying to speak this language that sounds nothing like any language I have ever heard! Okay, I can keep going but I’ll stop. She is just such a gem and I’m obsessed with her on a whole other level.

Then there’s Sister Claudia who is very direct and not so affectionate and will yell and call you out when you are not doing something the way it is suppose to be done. Her bossyness kills us and we genuinely love it! Hahahaha. I’m telling you, they all have their uniqueness that makes the bunch so fun!

Here is Sister Me Too (that’s what we call her). She never speaks and always does her own thing and sometimes is missing. Love her mystery!

There is Sister Imelda who is like this cool wise aunt. We watch soccer with her, Sister Elisa and Sister Catalina. She sows our clothes and we always pass time eating watermelon with her. She is so chill and we love that about her.

Then there is Sister Catalina. I cant even go in on her because she is one of those people that literally just brings this intense peace to a room just by standing in it! She retired early due to a back injury and takes care of all the retired sisters. She has been our grandma, mom, our guidance, our everything here! She literally is our everything here; She is just so so special, I cant even put words to it!

So one of my friends got me a ruffle hair scrunchie for my birthday present. Krystina loveddd this because she knows how NOT “rufflely/floral/bows/any such type of super girly wear” I am. So there I was, saying thank you and embracing my so NOT me gift! Im saying this in jokingly loving way bc obvi the gesture was really kind. Even though its not me, I wear it every time I go to her house! It’s become normal now.

Ruffles plus Modesta creepin on the side.

Workin the ruffles!

Anyways, after dinner we were ready for bed! GREAT BIRTHDAY! So unique and special and I will never forget it! I love getting older and I’m really excited to see what my 24^th year on this Earth has in store for me! Life is always full of surprises and loops and well LIFENESS. Yahooooo!

So, we continue to have issues with the water randomly stopping or the electricity going out. So, whether Monetti is outside trying to fetch water to throw on my soaped up body or me putting my headlamp to use, its continues to be an adventure!

hmm..the weekend after my birthday, we decided to stay in a hostel in the city, Asuncion, to celebrate my birthday. We have made some sacrifices with our stipend in order to be able to celebrate birthday. During the “sacrifices” we get cranky but its totally worth it bc then we get to enjoy things like---that pear smoothie! YUMMMYY! Vale la pena! (totally worth it).

So, we stayed at the "BLACK CAT Hostel." The cat was white! AHAHAHAH! YES!

On our nights adventure, Monetti's challenge was to pose with random statues we came across in the city.

I preferred the random MINI trees! How cute are they!

Well, we, of course, found out where the rainbow party was that night in the city and well danced our boooootays off with some fantastic boys who like boys! DANCE QUEEN DIVA Galor! Best dance partners ever! Loveee it!

We continue to hang out with Lourdes, her kids, and her family. Never gets old.

Chillen.

Another update is that Mbopi has had more kittens- 3 of them!

So, we knew Mbopi was preggers and going to have kittens soon. She comes into our house occasionally by jumping through the window. But this week she gave birth, 3 days before she gave birth, she was constantly jumping into our house through the window. I would pick her up, bring her outside and then 20 minutes later she would be back in again—she was entering more than usual being more relentless than I’ve ever seen her. Krystina and I were saying ..watch her try to give birth in our house... Well, that’s exactly what she was trying to do. Day 3 of this behavior- we are eating lunch and she jumps through the window.  I pick her up and bring her outside, as per usual. She does it again and I bring her back out again. Third time she runs past me and underneath my clothes dresser. I wrestle to get her out from underneath. I finally get a grab of her and am carrying her, yet again, outside. I place her down right in front of our door outside and she starts meowing like this different meow I have never heard her do. I look down and there is a third leg inbetween her two back legs!!! AKA as I was carrying her, a kitten was in the midst of being born! Then right there in front of our door, we sat with Mbopi as she gave birth to 3 little kittens! It was crazy; it was so cool and yucky all at the same time. Krystina wanted to throw up and spent most of the time tackling the dogs trying to keep them away from Mbopi. I sat next to Mbopi talking to her and well trying to make sure the kittens didn’t fall off the patio. Kittens cant see for the first few weeks after they are born. So, after the first one came out it kept rolling around/coming close to falling off our patio. Mbopi cant help it because she’s in the midst of giving birth to more kittens. So there Monetti and I were- tackling Nala and Rafiki, the dogs, while using a broom and leaves to try to catch the kittens! It was quite the scene. But in the end, all three came out and are currently in a shoe box in the tool shed by our house to keep them away from the dogs. It’s crazy how in just 35 minutes, there are three more lives added to this Earth. So cool.

Aside from that, we have celebrated more birthdays with cookouts outside.

Don Raul, the gardener, his son Cesar, Monetti and I hung out with them as they cooked up some “asado” (red meat) and chicken. They take a piece of tin metal material that the roofs are made up, place it on the ground, throw some charcoal on there and light up.

Although, I didn’t eat the meat, everyone said it was delicious! I love BBQ like atmospheres, just cookin outside in the fresh air, sitting between the trees, spending time with friends. So simple and so fun.