A Peruvian/ American Birthday

 Photos from the big day and the day before!

First and foremost the month of June is a busy birthday month even here in Peru. My host brother, Yoni on the 5th, host mom and another volunteer, Hayden, the 12th me the 14th, another volunteer Kate the 16th, host brother Mayo (Alex) on the 24th, Emily on the 28th.....and if I missed someone sorry I'm at birthday overload! haha.
Anyways here in the Campo of Peru there isn't much of a celebration to birthdays. If they remember there is the Feliz Cumple, pasalo bien, and the frying of a cuy or another animal if you are lucky. But this is about the extent. My host mom forgot that it was her birthday until I reminded her. So we are joking about it and how the kids are going to find my a sapo (frog) to give me as a present the night before. They actually go to the river for a bit to look haha. I thought that would be about it for the passing of another year of life.

OH HOW I WAS WRONG!!!
At 3AM noises start from upstairs. I mean it sounds like the family has decided to redecorate in the middle of the night by dragging the furniture around and around. The noise goes on and on and on for about 30 min. Finally I think. Wrong at 4:30AM it starts again. Later I found out that my host mom, Martha successfully killed two rats that morning. haha. At about 7 or 7:30 Mayo starts yelling through the window Yenni are you awake? Yes! (Although don't want to be yet) Okay well then open your door.
Now this is odd because usually we open the window to chit chat. So we play around for a bit with me opening the other door, he runs around, I open the front door, and so on. Finally we are at the same door and I'm still half asleep. He rushes in to give me my 23 birthday spankings. haha. Now Mayo is 11 and quite small but that little kid is strong! After it was completely adorable though he gave me not 1 but 2 hugs and told me Happy Birthday. (Side note: the reason he decided I needed birthday spankings---for Yoni's 14th Birthday I explained that we have this custom in the States and they just thought that was a whoot!) Now people here in the Campo are not the touchy type so getting/giving hugs is kinda a big deal. When I went for breakfast my sister, Zaida and my host mom both gave me hugs and told me how happy they are that I'm here.  A little later Yoni told me to prepare myself because he is not only giving me my 23 spankings but 14 extra...haha (although he didn't follow through).

So I spent the day watching movies, hanging out with the host fam, went on a long run and to end the day Zaida took me on a hike. I've been asking her to take me to the top of this hill for about a month. It was beautiful from the top and fun spending time with her. To top things off, for dinner we had lentils because my host mom knows they are my favorite! Now doesn't that sounds like a good day!