the Gabriela day

It's the Gabriela day but it should actually be called the Matt and Esther and all our friends and family and the whole community of Dezam's day because it's the day we got so "lucky" (in the most divine sense), that Gabri came to live with us and we came out to Dezam and Dezam started to fall in love with her. (that's how WE see it: we're the ones who got lucky but we'll save that for another post.) So just because she's been so wonderful, we forced her to wear earings for her, our party.

Here's who helped us celebrate the anniversary: Rocky, Rubenski, Fafa, Dawonika, Jazline, Serena, Solène, Karlens in spirit (and their Mamas) and Kurt from Port au Prince, Don and Donna and Holly from Oregon who not only choose the right sparklers and balloons and party favours for the occasion but also made the place look festive with "Haitian" streamers. You can see them here (beyond the guy with the knife).


The blocks and bubbles were big hits but the water balloons were the best. . .

. . . and the pineapple upsidedown cake with aerosol whipped cream was even better. That's fresh pineapple and get this! we made it ourselves. At least one little person was impressed.







It was a precious moment when we all shared one thing we love about our babes. I asked Matt to go first just to start the ball rolling and he said how wonderful it is when he comes home and Gabri hears the gate and hears his voice and runs to edge of the balcony to greet him, busting with joy. Then one by one the other Mamas said the same thing and I thought "oh brother" because this is so what the Haitian educational system teaches it's students: to repeat. Repetition isn't always bad I guess. I can't complain when the sun comes up every morning against the bluest of skies and 1031+ days later I still love rice and beans for lunch. It's pretty cool that water I use to cool my face is the same water that cooled Toussaint Louverture so he could lead the Haitian revolution without a sweat and that a lot of tropical trees "reboujane" (grow multiple new trunks of good wood to replace one that's cut). And it's alright that we can keep coming to God and/or our friends for forgiveness when we've made the same mistake. I can't say I'm a big fan though when my phone card runs out mid-converstation again or I fall in the mud (i can't count how many times i've fallen for lack of 2 hands since my other hand is often supporting Gabriela in the sling) or big countries repeatedly take actions that hurt smaller countries and related, some countries could benefit from a coup d'etat cap to avoid the redundancy. Anyways that's all history and so is Gabri's party and I'm a little sad because it was really a lot of fun.