25

So as my wonderful Aunt Judy reminded me on November 8th, I was a very lucky person--I got to turn 25 in Honduras, fulfilling a lifetime goal of mine to teach and serve abroad. And thankfully, my birthday was a wonderful celebration of just that.

I started my birthday off with a small roommate celebration on Tuesday night at our house in La Colonia. It's a tradition that every year I have my mom's chicken and/or eggplant parmesan for my birthday dinner. I cannot even remember a year in which I didn't have that for my bday meal. So I set out on my mission to make that happen here in Honduras. Unfortunately I think eggplant has gone out of season as our usual store stopped selling it, so I had 2 verrrrrry tiny eggplants to work with. Then I couldn't find any bread crumbs in Juticalpa. But I did find pasta, tomato sauce, and zucchini. I also amazingly found the right cheeses and had quite the experience explaining to the lady behind the deli counter that I would need 10 slices as thin as possible in Spanish. So the resulting meal was a "fake" parmesan that was very delicious but was more like a cheesy eggplant/zucchini bake. Nevertheless, a fantastic kick-off meal.

fake eggplant parm

The morning of my birthday I woke up to an "S" shaped scone and birthday signs courtesy of the roomies. Irish Breakfast Tea and raisin scones, heavenly way to begin the celebration. At school the celebration only grew in size and joy. I was greeted with hugs and well wishes from the other volunteers and teachers at school.

bday breakfast

The best part though was my kids...they were obsessed with it being my birthday. Apparently birthdays are a huge deal here in Honduras. When I walked next door to the Spanish section of 1st grade to give some papers, I was greeted with a huge "Feliz Cumpleaños" Later when I returned to my classroom after religion, they serenaded me with some sort of Spanish birthday song that I really couldn't understand until they got to a part where they started chanting "Ya queremos pastel, ya queremos pastel" (now we want cake!) and then changed that to "y ya queremos casarse" (and now we want you to marry) and I screamed in shock. Then the religion teacher was like y un fuerte aplauso y un gran abrazo. And suddenly I was bombarded with my 25 kiddos going in for a hug. I almost fell over. After recess, Mr. Fellows (a new volunteer) was teaching a quick lesson for me while I was working on a test with a student and when I returned he had them sing "Happy Birthday" for me followed by another everybody-tackle-Miss Nardozzi-hug.

When it came time to switch classes and I went back over to Profe Rosa's room she had the kids sing to me in English and then they gave me cards which all pretty much said "Happy Birthday, I love Miss Sara, You excellent teacher" Mad props to Rosa for the English on those :-) They were so cute. And then one of my students Andree, gave me a card from home and 2 dry erase markers, which is best present ever when everyday you face off in the epic dry erase marker vs. Honduran humidity battle (and usually lose). Carlos, Andree's dad, said that they had gone to the grocery store the night before and he was trying to convince Andree to get me like an apple or pistachios or something but Andree insisted on getting me the markers. What a smart kid!

Then at lunchtime, Fanny came and got me and said we had to have a lunch meeting about grades. When I walked in they had music playing and Rosa and Flor were dancing around. They proceeded to encircle me while singing and dancing. We then sat down where they had lunch prepared for us. Rosa cooked a salad, saffron rice, and fried chicken. Flor brought a cake which was like a white, ice creamish sort of deal and Fanny got somebody to cover her 5th graders to come be with us. It was awesome. Then during the meal, they went around the table and affirmed me in Spanish, which promptly began a series of tears for me. It was so special. I am just so lucky to have an amazing first grade team.

The downfall of my school day was that I did ZERO teaching. All my kids wanted to do was sing. Literally anytime I would say a word beginning with the h or f song they would break out in a chorus of Happy Birthdays or Feliz Cumpleaños. I've never been sung to, hugged, or loved by a group of kids so much on my birthday before. It was truly an incredibly joyful day and reminded me of why I want to be here.

Wednesday is our normal community night here, so in honor of that I decided to cook for everybody with my roommates. I love cooking so it was a great birthday treat. We made pizza dough and pizzas, which were awesome! And we had a salad alongside.

For dessert my roommates got the most delicious cake. It was a chocolate cake, but it was so moist it was almost like gooey with strawberries inside. It was heavenly! The whole meal and dinner was wonderful to be exact.

apparently you have to smear your name and put it on your nose?

It truly was a great birthday. I am so thankful for all the wishes and love sent my way from here in Honduras and back home. I love birthdays, simply for the occasion to celebrate and connect with my dear friends and family. Here's to a great 25th year :-)