30th: The Debrief

I love having birthdays in Paraguay. Maybe it wears off when it’s not your first, but it was good times. Surprises around every corner.

I woke up to a hug from Cristian. Well, I should say I was awake already when he hugged me, but it was the first exchange between us that morning. I had a text from a friend here wishing me a happy birthday and telling me she had a present for me when I got to school. Then I got to school during devotions, and afterwards all the teachers sang happy birthday to me (I like the version they use here better – it’s like our “May the good Lord bless you” verse, but there’s no first verse). Then each teacher stopped to greet me and blessed me on the way out the door.

I walked into my first class and found total darkness. I turned on the light and more than a dozen students screamed and jumped out from under their desks. They sang happy birthday in English (must have learned it last year) and started giving me notes or presents. The trouble was that they were also writing me notes in class instead of doing work. How can I be mad at that? Another student has a birthday with me too, and his parents left me some cake. Yum!

Later, and the cyber, I found 80 messages. Normally I’ll find 15, and most will be garbage. I bet I had 70 messages from real people. Good stuff!

I had been thinking about taking Cristian and me out for a South American all-you-can-eat barbecue buffet, but then I remembered he has school at night too. So his (our) friend Gaby and I went to the store and bought up the fixin’s for a tasty barbecue.

I don’t know how Ben’s Tuesday was, but mine was pretty cool.

-j

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