A birthday and a celebration

Somedays it feels like there is nothing to do. Like I have already cleaned and re cleaned my house twice, been to the health post, cooked lunch and made a desert and it is only 11am. Then there are days when there is too much to do. The days where I leave my house at 8am and do not return till midnight or sometimes later. These days are usually birthdays. I know I have blogged a little bit about how birthdays in Paraguay are celebrated but I want to blog a little about my host dad's birthday because it is a bit of a bigger deal then the others and was so special.

My host dad is named after Saint Salvador. His family has had this saint ( literally a porcelain doll) in the family for generations. This saint's day is August 6. My host dad just happened to be born on August 6 and there for his name is Salvador. About 7 years ago my host dad had a small chapel built on their property to house St. Salvador. Now every August my host family says the rosary for 9 days leading up to August 6. Then on August 6th we have a big celebration for the saint and then a birthday party for my host dad. This past year was my second time attending and it was such a beautiful evening. The celebration was outside under the stars. A brother came and gave a mass and we sang and danced and was beautiful. My host dad made sure I sat up front and center with him and his wife. I felt so comfortable and at home with them. A million happy thoughts were circulating my mind until I started to think about how this could be my last celebration here... then I got a little sad. But there is still lots of time to spend with them!

A celebration like this takes a lot of work and time and manual labor. We started by making all the flags that you will see hanging in the yard below. We had to cut the paper out, glue it to the string and then transport them to the yard. Then we went shopping for all the food. It is tradition in Paraguay that after a celebration like this one to serve the guest food. There is a mixture of what is appropriate and my family went all out- little goody bags filled with candy, loli pops and cookies, empanadas, sopa paraguaya, a fried meat called milansea, soda, the paraguayan version of cheese puffs. The day of was spent preparing all of this. We worked all morning and through lunch then I ran home to shower and change and continue the evening.

We decorated the chapel, attended the mass, handed out the food, rested for a little while and then begun our cook out for the birthday party, which included 15 kilos of meat, other assorted culturally appropriate party foods and cake! There was beer, wine and whiskey. We danced, talked and celebrated. I was in pure bliss and enjoyed every moment. These people have really become my family athe more time I spend with them the harder it is to think about how in 8 months I will be closing my service.

Please enjoy some of the pictures I took from the celebration!