I forgot I had my 30th birthday 2 weeks ago. Oh jeez. So we actually had a storm and the power was out the entire afternoon and night of my birthday. Well, not my exact birth day (Feb 25) but the day before. Here they celebrate the night before, called the quema (pronounced kayma) which means burn. At the moment of 12:00 and upon entering the actual day of your birth, there is a birthday toast. And then you continue celebrating past midnight of course. So since there was no electricity, we couldn’t really party in the house with music and dancing, which is typical. And most people could not maneuver in the dark streets to get here. But the ones that live close stumbled over and, after starting by candlelight inside with a bottle of red wine (how romantic!), we ended up moving outside on the front stoop and sitting under the stars. As we drank through our case(s?) of cerveza, we pulled up his dad’s car and played music through the car stereo. The best part of the night - there was an incredible amount of stars out! Because of being in the mountains and especially now because it is more of the rainy season, many nights are cloudy. And they told me this was unusual to see so many stars. I have definitely never seen this amount of stars before, even in the south-western deserts of the US. It was quite amazing. Especially after coming from DC where you can only see about 5 stars.
some of the family (and me standing)
Xavier’s grandma, Mami Nora
Xavier’s sister, Indira, and his uncle, Calin
sitting next to Xavier’s sister, Norma
(sorry no photos of Xavier…he had the camera)
(I was actually looking forward to my 30th birthday all year. How wonderful to enter a new decade of womanhood. I figured I’d spend some of it reflecting on my life, what I have experienced, what my hopes and dreams are to come. But it came and went so fast…I hardly realized it was happening. But sometimes the best way to travel the river of life is to just hop in your raft and go rather than looking at a map.) :-)
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