Birthdays galore

We have had a busy week at LIA. I mentioned a couple of posts ago about 4 in the same family who had recently arrived. One of them, Fernanda, was coming up for her 8th birthday last Sunday; we had had our 3 girls on Saturday. Elizabeth, the housemother, asked if we could help because Fernanda does not yet have godparents. We agreed to get cake and ice cream, plus a couple of presents. She is a delightful girl and was absolutely thrilled by her party. Then, another girl, named Monsarret but called Monce, is the same age (same house) and had her birthday on Wednesday. She used to have a godparent, but that is no longer the case. We felt that it wouldn’t be fair is she were omitted; thus, we got more cake and ice cream and bought her a pretty little dress at the tianguis. Again we were rewarded because there was another very thrilled little girl. We are suggesting that the godparents’ group make sure that even those kids without godparents have their birthdays celebrated.

Finally, today was the twins’ 4th birthday; September (along with May) seems to have a plethora of birthdays. We had given Alvia money to buy school uniforms for the twins and with the money left over, she was able to get the pretty little dresses you see on the girls. Barb had also bought 2 Mexican dolls (she was determined that she was not going to get Barbie or princess dolls). The twins’ mother and baby brother, who live in Chapala, were there for the party too. As you can see, more cake and ice cream!

Tomorrow, we go back again because there is a special 15th birthday party for Cenia. In Mexico, the 15th birthday for girls is a special, coming of age celebration, kind of like bat mitzvah for Jewish girls. Her godparents are organizing and paying for this, but wanted as many godparents as possible to come. I don’t know about the kids, but in spite of how good it is, we are getting our fill of cake and ice cream! Actually, we are restricting birthday parties to just the kids in the house of the one with the birthday, not everyone in LIA; that works so much better. In spite of hearing it so many times in the last week, we still have not learned the words to the Mexican birthday song; we must get a copy and learn it.

For months, Barbara has been yearning to get a hammock, but where to put it to find shade all year? The problem is the sun. It is south from September to April, but then goes to the north for the summer. Every place we thought of would be in the afternoon sun for at least part of the year. However, in the back corner on the west wall, we have a very big bougainvillea. Barb had persuaded Rosendo not to prune it since we arrived; if you prune very much you don’t get flowers because they grow only on new growth. Anyway, it is thick and bushy and by the early afternoon, the area underneath is in shade all year. Barb’s solution is to build a pergola to hold up the bougainvillea and provide support for the hammock. We contacted Jose Luis, our contractor, who gave us estimates for about 4 projects; we can spread them out as we have funds available. The first project is the pergola; Barb had been unwilling to wait any longer and bought her hammock in August. The men are to start work on Monday morning. They are also going to replace the grass under the pergola with flagstones in cement; the grass is not doing well in the shade anyway.