Krak Bak: Birthday!

So the other day we got our future sites and I got thrown a curve ball but apparently hit the jackpot (objectively speaking). I will spend the next two years in a beautiful and small East Indian village about 3 miles from Punta Gorda Town (I am only about 2 miles away from the ocean though so if I ever want to swim it is easy to do and I played soccer the other day in the next village and the field was probably 30 yards from the ocean which was sweet). My village is located right off the highway so it is very accessible, but once you get about 200-300 yards off the highway you are more or less right in the middle of the bush, which is where all the houses are. Also, I have running water (including a flush toilet) and electricity. Finally, I am now doing special education for my primary project which was not even an option at the start but which I am very happy about. That being said, I do have a lot of friends in small Mayan villages in thatched houses living simple with no running water and one with no electricity, which I was kind of excited for. In summary, I have all the perks of living in a small village with all the benefits of a city but I won’t get to live in a thatched house or ever take a bucket bath again.

Next, as many of you know, yesterday was my birthday. I am happy to report that I had a great birthday that was probably the most unique birthday I have ever had. We went back to our training site in Armenia to celebrate it with our host families. My host cousin also turned 12 on the 5^th and there were three other family members that have birthdays within the next two weeks so we celebrated all 5 birthdays at once. The whole family ended up coming from all over the country and there were over 70 people at the party. We got there at about 9:30 and played with the kids till about 10:30 when we had a church service in my host aunt’s house (they cleared it out and put benches in it). The church service was mostly in Mayan, with some Spanish and some English mixed in. After about an hour they called the five birthday people to the front of the “church” and sang Happy Birthday to us in Mayan, Spanish, and English. Then, all the people in the church went one-by-one to wish each of us a “Happy Birthday,” “God’s Blessings,” or any other words of wisdom and then gave us a gift if they had one. This lasted a good half an hour so for that time I just got tons of hugs and birthday wishes and a few gifts. Afterwards we ended the service with some prayer and hymns and then had a great lunch of tamales, rice and beans, and chicken and then finished it off with some delicious cake. I then spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out with the family and playing baseball and such.