Bry'Chell's Birthday Sleepover

I haven't had access to the internet for the past few weeks. There was some trouble with my connection that I still don't understand, except to know that it's been resolved. I'm still trying to catch up on my email. It will be a while before I've responded to all my messages, so if anyone has sent me a message and I haven't responded, I'm not ignoring you.

Not only do I need to catch up with my email, I also want to catch up with my blog. I haven't written since Bry'Chell's birthday. The weekend after Bry'Chell's birthday we had a sleepover with seven of her schoolmates. We started off with three guests, but by the time everyone Bry'Chell couldn't possibly leave out was included, there were seven girls. Fortunately, we have the space here.

Sr. Justine, the campus Warden, provided the extra mattresses we needed. Charity, the Guesthouse mistress, supplied the blankets, Cyprian, the computer guy (actually director of the ITC Dept.) found speakers for the computer so we could show movies, and even the staff pub was able to get sausage for the girls' breakfast. It was really cool the way people were so willing to help. Nobody seemed to think it was out of line to ask for mattresses and blankets. Sr. Justine even sent a truck over with the mattresses.

The girls asked for meat, so I provided meat--for supper we had pork roast with rice, spaghetti, carrots and lemon cake for dessert. For breakfast we had pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage. Lunch was chicken wings and spaghetti. For snacks there was popcorn, soda pop and chips.

Of course, sleepover is just a euphemism since the girls did just about everything but sleep. They watched movies, ate, danced, sang, talked, laughed and took pictures and videos of each other. They finally did fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

The girls who are boarders at St. Mary's were especially glad to get away for the overnight. They really do not get out. They cannot leave the school compound during the semester except to go to the village church for mass. They REALLY are limited to the school campus. Getting out overnight is a big deal. They tried to talk me into another night, but one night is enough.

They were a lot of fun. One of the girls asked if I would cook for her wedding. I'm told this is a compliment to my cooking. They seemed to have a good time. I don't think sleepovers are common here, but the girls caught on really quickly.

Birthdays may or may not be celebrated here. They're definitely not as big a deal as in the United States. Some kids can't even tell you when their birthday is. Of course, some of it is just a lack of money. When you may only get meat a couple of times a year, there is definitely not money for birthday celebrations. In other ways, it just the lack of materialism. People here just don't seem to focus of stuff quite the way Americans do.