My Birthday!

Today was my first birthday in the DR.  I took a break from my diagnostic and
from teaching, which was partially my choice and partially necessitated by crazy amounts of rain we had: 

The path river near our house

I never wore crocs in the US, but I couldn't manage without them here!

Our yard

My host sister sweeping water to get it moving out of our yard (and house).

Sweeping muddy water and feeling very Peace Corps!

When the rain and mud let up a bit, I went out to visit some friends.  There are a couple of families living right next to each other; I teach some of the kids reading and math, another teenage daughter is learning English, and their mom is teaching me Haitian Creole.

The teenager (who avoided being captured in any photos) gets credit for remembering my birthday, and ran out to buy something.  Haitians living in a batey don't have a large budget, so I was honored they were spending money on me, and I love what she came up with using only a few cents at the tiny local store:

Cheese puffs and candy, with a candle!

Proof you don't need a cake to feel loved!

 They sang "Happy Birthday" in Spanish and English, but the English version was something like "Happy baby yoo yoo!"  Then we played some games and they insisted on me taking more and more photos:

Showing off for the camera with a song from church

Then I went to another family's house.  These people get even more credit, because they saw me coming, hid inside, and then all ran out cheering when I got there!

 Then someone commandeered my camera

and proceeded, as she always does, to take a bunch of photos of everyone and everything:

Mom in the kitchen

Sister

Dad's motorcycle (and another sister)

Cousin

I decided not to include all the pictures of the ceiling, floor, rocks, dark corners, the same people over and over, and blurry shots of who-knows-what.

Meanwhile, that mom in the kitchen was cooking sugared cherries:

So they gave me a cup of that:

I've had this several times here in the DR.  It's similar to the filling in cherry pie, but a bit more sour...it's pretty good!

'Someone' was pouting because her extra-long turn with the camera was over.

 Overall, I'd call it a good day!