Happy Birthday Alex?

I wake up on the beautiful Tuesday morning; it was an unusually sunny day at this time of year in Pacoche, Ecuador. It was a normal work day. A work team from Detroit, Michigan in working on building a wall on that week, so I was getting my boots on to go lay some bricks with the team while the kids were in school. I had read our monthly calender the day before, and it said that is was Alex birthday. I asked Alex's oldest sisters Yamileth and Brenda and they said it wasn't his birthday. Ok, maybe they have the wrong date in the calender. Then, I asked Susan, the missionary who oversees what volunteers do, and she confirmed that indeed it was his birthday. I come downstairs to have breakfast with the kids and scream a loud and overentuthiastic HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX! when everyone just looked at me and said "Tia, we told you already: It's no one's birthday" I didn't pay much attention to that and ate breakfast and saw the kids leave for school. Then my work as a construction worker began. It was an interesting day, especially because the Maestro or construction expert, knocked down one whole row I built because it was not done right. Oh well, I tried! lol. And I have earned a respect for construction workers. That is hard work.

After lunch, I am summoned to Paul and Susan's house to work on some preparations for the birthday party we would have for Alex later on. At this time, I was just confused! Is it Alex birthday or is it not? That was still a mistery, yet we made a banner for him and had cake and games ready for the celebration. At about 4pm, the celebration began. It was lots of fun! The kids and adults played musical squares (drawn on the ground with chalk) and other fun games. Alex and everyone had a great time. Then, it was time to have some cake, but before then, we sang about 5 different birthday songs including the traditional "happy birthday to you" both in Spanish and in English. And of course, you cannot forget the traditional Ecuadorian biting of the cake. It was great and Alex was a very happy kid.

It really was Alex's birthday; he just didn't know it. This was Alex's first birthday celebration ever and after that he finally learned when his birthday is. After talking about the birthday confusion with Susan, she explained to me that non of these children know their birthday and that prior to coming most of them had never celebrated a birthday. Leiton, our hyper and sweet 9 year old, took advantange of birthday confusion and made everyone believe that his birthday was in March when it really was in April so he had two birthday celebrations this year. He was making up for lost time.

It was really fun to see Alex smile as much as he did and being so happy to have all the attention that day. I have celebrated most of my birthdays in my life. Birthdays are special for me. It made me happy to be able to be part of Alex first birhtday celebration. He's is 7 now.