Happy Birthday to Me

I’m 29 today. Pucha. I got a gift today at lunch when I saw Chele – one of his handmade bracelets. Pretty excited about it!! Also, apparently in Spain, instead of birthday spankings, you get birthday earlobe tugs. I know this because I’ve had it done to me by a Spaniard. Loved it.

On Sunday, I had the most fun I’ve had at a Fourth of July party in a long time. Kind of ironic that it happened in Honduras. We had a big bonfire in the volunteer house and cooked hotdogs over it. We sat around the campfire and listened to Bryan play “The Star-Spangled Banner” on his trumpet. We decorated in red, white, and blue. Pretty patriotic, all things considered. Jesse made this amazing guacamole and then played Ani DiFranco’s “Both Hands” on guitar, so I was completely in heaven.
Orientation is going really well. If there’s one thing I’m grateful for, it’s that I already know kids. It feels so good to go on tours of the hogars and to hear my name called and get hugs. I’m also glad I have a knack for names. One of the volunteers asked me, “How do you remember ALL of them?” I told him it’s a teacher thing. A good deal of the information we’re getting is review for me, which is nice. I don’t feel like a snobby Ranch know-it-all, though; most of what I feel is relief that I’m not having to process and make sense of as many things as people who are coming in cold. I have so much respect for the other volunteers! I am a big baby and would never have had the guts to come to a strange place.

I started my Ranch-wide tour of hogars yesterday with Inmaculadas. They are 14-16 year-old girls…and I absolutely loved it (to my surprise and delight). When I came to sit down, someone must have made some comment about the new volunteer because Suyapa said, “No, Kimmie es familia.” Diana is a girl who hated me two years ago, and we had the best time together. We all bonded over deciding which of the Honduran soccer players was the cutest. They were also really interested in my family; they asked lots of questions about my biological father and my brother in Afghanistan. I can totally see doing some fun dance stuff with these girls if I was their volunteer.

All in all, a great couple of first days.