Sorpresas

A few days ago we had a surprise birthday party for my host dad, “Hector grande”.   We had spent weeks planning and plotting for this event, as well as trying to keep Hector pequeño (my 3 year old brother) quiet.  He knew it was supposed to be a surprise, but since it was all he could think and talk about this was not an easy task.  So first, I made a cake (vanilla, with rainbow sprinkles) and we hid it safely in the oven overnight.  The day of his birthday, he was at work until around 6:30pm.  At 6:25 we turned off all the lights in the house, locked the doors, and Doña Juanita, Marta, Paolo, Hector, Franklin, and I huddled together on the floor of the dining room.  This was mostly amusing because little Hector kept coughing and Marta kept telling me to cover his mouth, which just made him cough more.  Finally he came home (a little confused about why it was so dark and the TV was off) and we all jumped up, turned on the light, and yelled things like “feliz cumpleaños!” and “felicidades!”.  He seemed very happy and surprised (thank goodness the coughing didn’t give us away!).  We sang Happy Birthday in English (which I was forced to lead) and in Spanish.  We then ate Doña Juanita’s amazing tacos, his favorite food, and ate the cake for dessert.   Marta had bought a number candle to put on the cake, which was cool… except that she got the number 35, and later found out he was only turning 34!  We laughed about this for a long time.  Through all of the chaos that went on to make this little birthday party happen, I think it is amazing how everything worked out perfectly in the end.  I have felt that way a lot during the past year… Hondurans are not always the best planners, but somehow things almost always work out amazingly well.  I wanted to share this story because it was one of the best bonding times I have had with my Honduran family, and it is one I will not forget.   And seeing how he has still not stopped talking about it, neither will little Hector.