I had the most wonderful, blessed Birthday ANYONE could ever ask for! Even the weather was perfect: cool and cloudy in the morning, but bright, sunny and warm in the afternoon.
Birthday festivities actually began the day BEFORE my Birthday at the orphanage down the hill. Because there are 120 girls at the orphanage, it is impossible to have a Birthday party for each and every one of them. Instead, the nuns host 3 Birthday parties each year. Each party honors the girls who had a Birthday in the previous 4 months. Interestingly enough, October 6 (the day before my Birthday) happened to be a Birthday party day at the orphanage! I am not sure why, but the party was in honor of the girls who had Birthdays in May-August (why not have this party in May or August?) It was really neat to see how children celebrate their Birthdays here in East Timor!
The party started off with jubilant singing by all the attendees to the Birthday girls. Sr. Cellina graciously explained the Birthday party celebrations to me. First, the girls born in each month were grouped together. The girls born in the month of May got to play the first game, which happened to be Musical Chairs. When the girls are eliminated, instead of just standing around to see who the winner would be, they were rushed over to a group of girls that had organized the game for them. These girls tied ribbons into the hair of the girls who “lost” the game and gave them crazy hairstyles. Once a winner has been selected, all the “losers” have to walk around like models on a runway and flaunt their new look. It was so funny!
The second group of girls played a game that required teams of 3. The smallest girl would wear a hat and sit on the arms of the 2 bigger girls. The object of the game was to steal other player’s hats and not have yours stolen. It looked like a lot of fun, but also potentially dangerous! The spectators all got really into it and cheered very loudly.
The third game was a tug of war. When a team won, they (along with the spectators) cheered so loudly that you would have thought they had just won the gold medal at the Olympics. It was so cute. Before the contest began, the sister announced that the winning team would receive a very big surprise! After the game, as promised, the sister pulled out a very large box wrapped in blue paper. The girl she asked to open the box was terrified of what might be inside. She slowly and timidly opened each layer of the wrappings, then opened the box, removed the newspaper within and pulled out a large pan with a lid on it. She grimaced and turned away while opening the lid. Inside was a frog! She dropped the pan and the frog jumped out of it and onto the floor near the spectators. Everyone screamed and most girls ran away or stood on chairs! I recorded the whole thing on camera and even I screamed a little when the frog jumped in my direction!
Next, the Birthday girls entertained the audience by singing their favorite Christian songs. I was awed by how beautiful they all sounded! They even all danced together in unison, which was neat to see. The girls soon returned to their seats of honor and all of the spectators sang to them. The song had instructions that said something like, “If you were born in May, stand up, smile, jump around, take a bow, spin around, etc” It was very cute and looked like fun, too. The girls each then received their Birthday present. Each girl received a sweater or shirt and a pair of pants. These were all donations. It was very nice to know they received something for their Birthday, but I wondered if they ever even need a sweatshirt here in Venilale-I have experienced nothing but warm weather here during my stay.
Finally, it was time for food! The “Madres” (nuns) and “Manas” (Ulla and myself) were served first. We got a big plateful of food that had popcorn (salted and delicious!), 2 gummi bears, 2 pieces of a Kit Kat Bar, 2 soft candies (the Indonesian version of Starbursts) and several sweet biscuits (cookies?). I helped served orange punch (which wasn’t actually sweet at all, but still refreshing). Some of the girls asked when my Birthday was, and when I told them it was tomorrow they were all very excited. They told me twins at the orphanage had their Birthday tomorrow, too, and pointed to one of them. I thought they meant another girl was also celebrating her birthday tomorrow, so we were like twins. I wanted to get a picture together with her, but I couldn’t figure out why this other girl joined us in it. I didn’t want to be rude and tell her this picture was just for the girls celebrating their Birthdays on October 7, so I just went along with it and let her stay in the picture. I am glad I did, because it was only later that I found out the 2 girls were twins (they didn’t look identical to me) that are turning 16. When they told me that, my heart jumped a little because I remembered how fun and exciting it was to turn 16. I then realized that turning 16 here has a very different meaning than in the U.S. For them it is probably like any other year. Regardless, Birthdays are always an reason to celebrate!
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