Feliz Cumpleaños!

On Saturday I was planning to go visit a friend’s family as they are closing in on the final stages of building their first house! I was pretty excited to go visit with another friend of mine, Suly. But then Suly was delayed in the morning by this whole baby thing (she has a 2 month old) so we wouldn’t have left until 10am and it was already sunny and hot! Suly invited over to get ready for a birthday party instead so we did that (it was in a covered and cool space). I was planning on going for a little while to just hang out and chat then head back home for lunch as it was just after noon…
…then they invited me to have some chicken tortilla things that were great so I decided that I needed to keep working to make up for it…
…then they gave me a whole plate of chicken, salad, and tortillas that were also great so I had to keep working to make up for it…
…then people started showing up for the party and Doña Chus told me that I couldn’t leave at this point cause the party was starting! Since it was full of people that I didn’t know I was looking for some place to stick myself in a corner and hide. I found a place in the kitchen to help make canches (a hard shell tortilla with refried beans, cheese, and salsa on it) so I staid there with my new friend Thelma. Thelma is from San Pedro and has a couple kids about my age so we had a great time sharing stories about them and she actually invited me over to San Pedro and said that some weekend we can go to Lago Yajoa, out to the beach, etc. if I want to stop by with her family. It was great…
…then they gave me cake, coke, and awesome chicken taco/enchilada things that were amazing. So I decided that in order to make up for that I had to stay and help with clean-up…
…then it was just down to about 20 people left at the party (it was probably around 60 or 70 at it’s peak) so I decided that it was a good time to slip out.
What was going to be a short visit with Suly in Doña Chus’ restaurant turned out to be a whole day long celebration for Stacy (turning one) filled with food, piñata, candy, set-up, and everyone’s favorite part (clean-up). I’m continually blown away by the hospitality of people around here. Just the other day I was thinking about how I was starting to get good at hospitality but once again I was humiliated completely by Doña Chus and the whole gang at the party who welcomed me to the party despite at best only being acquaintances previously. Lesson: when you think you’re on top of life go visit somebody else’s birthday party and be humiliated.:)