Day 33 (holy moly that can't be right): On birthday presents.

Did you know that the other teachers blog everyday?! Dang. I need to get on it.

Yesterday I celebrated the most memorable birthday to date. To be honest, I'm not all that into my birthday. All I had to do was not die, and statistically speaking, women in my family live upwards of 95 years. It's not hard to not die in my family. Don't get me wrong, I'm into birthdays, just not mine. One thing that I am into is half birthdays. You better believe that when January 27th rolls around each year I'm celebrating. It's unexpected, a break in routine, and quirky and weird. Kind of like me, so it works.

I think this year I wasn't that into my birthday also because the work I'm doing here, or God's work that He's willing me to do here, is so much bigger than a birthday. It transcends milestones and is so much more important than the simple fact of my not dying. Coming to Haiti is the most meaningful experience of my life and my birthday pales in comparison. I came to serve and not be served, and I didn't want to offend the sanctity of the experience.

However, the kids didn't get this memorandum, so we celebrated anyway.

When I got to school, the kids sang a beautiful rendition of the birthday song followed by Patrick raising his hand and saying, “I have a question: is Ms. Caitlin turning 15 today?” Gotta love the jokers. I told him that I was turning 14. I will meet your joke, and raise you one more slightly funnier joke, good sir.

By the time first period was over the counter in the kitchen that I use as a desk/workspace/printing room for photography was collecting letters and cards and pictures. The best surprise came when Kelly, one of the school co-principals brought me a stack of drawings that the kids made during class. My favorite is Davidson's picture of Jesus holding the Ten Commandments. If that doesn't convey “happy birthday” then nothing does.

During Community Circle instead of writing on the prompt, the girls wrote me notes and drew me flowers. In Alissa's science class the kids were drawing pictures of flowers and labeling the parts of the plant and you can probably guess that I received 7 science projects of plants complete with labeled parts. Flower, stem, roots. My favorite was Gipson's, which was actually Alissa's example drawing that he took to give to me because he didn't like the one he made.

Semi, one of the older boys in my intermediate math class, picked me flowers from the neighbor's jasmine tree during recess and as he gave them to me, my darling Willie Etienne came in and told me that now that I'm 25 I should really get married. He followed that up with, “you should marry my brother.”
“Really, Willie, I should marry your younger brother, Richard? Isn't be 10?”
“No, he's 12.”

So that's neat.

Pretty much I'm engaged.

The teachers planned a surprise dinner in Paitionville, a little town in Port-au-Prince at Pizza Garden. They got the memo that pizza is my favorite food, bless their hearts, and all the missionaries at Child Hope (all 30-something of us) went and took over the outside patio until the tropical storm rolled up (literally and figuratively... hahaha. Oh, English teacher) and we had to move inside.

It was a nice night, but honestly, I missed the kids. After morning flag salute the kids always get to ask questions about the day or the schedule or electives, and this morning's questions were:

1. Did Ms. Caitlin have a good birthday?
2. Why didn't Ms. Caitlin bring her birthday cake over last night?

So after thanking them for making it the best birthday ever I told them that I was coming over tonight for worship and to let them beat me yet again in basketball. Schneider raised his hand and said, “so, um, are you bringing anything?”

Hahaha, oh my little darlings.

Since I am advanced in the art of hint-dropping, this afternoon I went out and got ice cream for the kids, so after dinner we're headed over there for worship and ice cream. Can't go wrong with that combo. Unfortunately, on the way to the store my camera lens broke, so now I'm out a camera. God gives and He takes away, right? At this point I don't even have it in me to get upset. How cool that I even had a camera to begin with. How nice that I have shoes and can shower and have 3 meals a day. What an amazing blessing that I got to celebrate my birthday with children whose lives were spared through living on the street and through the earthquake and through illness and such tremendous and soul shaking adversity. God has spared these children for such amazing things, and the best birthday present I could have asked for is just to be in their presence.