Birthday Party

It has been a while since my last entry and, you can probably imagine, as our time here moves toward its end it seems to also be accelerating. Nonetheless, I will find time to post several updates to catch up a bit. I will spread it out, and it probably won’t be chronological; my apologies.

We baked a couple of cakes and made the trek to Good Shepherd for a birthday party last evening. I was expecting just a small gathering of kids in the cafeteria, but there is a group of young educators at Good Shepherd who are always looking for an excuse for a celebration. And a celebration it was.

Personally I find it a bit uncomfortable to be the center of so many people’s attention and, as Laura will testify, I am not so good at being gracious and accepting complements. But I’m learning. As the picture indicates, we were dressed as king and queen and sat at the head table (Laura said it felt like “we’re getting married again”). A couple of kids prepared a power point slide show of pictures of me with the kids; complete with music to which the crowd sang. And to top it all off, there was a 5x6-foot black-and-white poster of my face on the wall.

After the party, we realized that if we didn’t take the poster, the crowns, and about 25 balloons we would be offending those who prepared the party. So at around 10:30 we left—I in my crown carrying the huge poster roll and Laura with the balloons—taking public transportation, as usual, for the 12 km journey home. It was awkward to make a scene in public after having spent almost 3 years trying not to draw attention to ourselves. But when will we get the chance to wear crowns and carry balloons in the little minibuses ever again. At least people had an excuse to stare at the awkward foreigners for once.

Dave