Week Eight: My Birthday!

This week I had my birthday! I turned 22. (I know, I’m getting so old!) The night before my birthday my whole family called me. All told the callers were my parents, my sister Tina, her husband Ryan and their two kids Bryce and Paige, My brother Nick who was home on leave from Afghanistan and his wife Taysha, my uncle Mike and my aunt Linda. It was a great surprise! (Although afterwards I felt somewhat homesick and nostalgic!)

My birthday fell on a Sunday, so after church when the people from our church caught wind of the fact that it was my birthday, they invited me to go to a cookout they wanted to have in my honor. Jairo and I decided to go, and spent most of the day there, hanging out, eating and watching a movie. It was another great example of the famous Ecuadorian hospitality, since they bought the food, soda and cake for me on the spot.

One birthday tradition I found unpleasant was one that I encountered after blowing out the candles on my birthday cake. As soon as I made a wish and blew them out everyone started chanting “Bite the cake! Bite the cake!” My reaction was a firm, “NO!” It sounded like a disgusting idea to me. Why would I bite the cake that everyone was going to eat? Well, eventually they tired of my resistance and I then realized the point of biting the cake, as the pastor shoved the cake in my face! I wasn’t that happy about it!

I told Bre about it later and we agreed that if you pulled that in the States, there’s a good chance you’d get punched! Jairo, however, didn’t see why it was bad. I asked him later, shocked, why they do that here. He replied that it’s just what they do, and it’s fun. Fun for everyone else maybe! I guess I still have some things to learn about Ecuadorian culture!