Mis Cumpleaños! - 8/28/06

Woo Hoo! I'm 29!

Wait, I'm 29. I'm almost 30. What the... how did that happen again?

I was walking home at lunch time, and as I began climbing the stairs to our apartment, I thought to myself, "It's my birthday! I'm 28! Wow! Wait......no I'm not...." Then I realized the last year of my twenties began that morning and I could never again, for the rest of my life, say that I was 28 years old. Which I thought was a pretty good age. I look back fondly on my 28's.

It was a fun day, though. Melissa crossed the river to Mexico and bought me a Nemo Piñata full of Mexican sweets, and then brought it to school. During recess, she surprised me and all the students on my level gathered around for a Mexican birthday fiesta. I, of course, got the first whack. The only thing we didn't count on was the tropical rain that arrived out of the blue. We were under a wide covering, but the wind soaked everyone anyway. It only started at the beginning of recess, but didn't dampen our spirits. The kids were excited too about all the candy. Let's just say that afternoon they were a bit more energetic than usual...

Later she made a kick-butt dinner for me and we invited all of our friends over. We had eleven people over for dinner in our little apartment! It was so much fun! She made a taco bar with meat, cilantro, onion, lime, homemade guacamole, corn tortillas, salsa, rice, beans, the works! It was SO good. One guy remarked to his wife, "This tastes like Mexican food. Like, ACTUAL Mexican food. Like, if you went to somebody's house in Mexico and they made dinner for you. It would taste like this."

Then she served dessert. Hecka yum! She made one of my childhood favorites that my mom would sometimes make: Yellow cake with chocolate pudding for the icing. And, she poked holes in the cake before pouring it on, so each slice had a little puddin' surprise in the middle. Mm MM mm!

In the middle of all the brouhaha, Melissa's mom called to wish me a happy birthday. It was nice to hear a voice from home. Sounds like everything is going well over there, and we had a good conversation about all the stuff happening here in Belize. I love the people here!

So, stay tuned for the next installment. Same bat-time, same bat-channel. Miss all y'all! Don't be afraid to leave us a comment, it's good to hear how others are doing!