Happy Birthday, Honduras-Style

Today is the birthday of Dalia, one of the cooks. She is 21. For the past three weeks, Dalia has made a production of her upcoming birthday. She insisted numerous times that she didn’t want anyone to know that her birthday was coming (which meant, of course, that she did).

The reason Dalia didn’t want anyone to know her birthday was approaching was because of the way birthdays are celebrated in Honduras. In the States, your friends and family bake you cake, serve you ice cream, and sing a happy song for you. In Honduras, they make you a cake, quite literally. Dalia explained that, here, if it is your birthday, your friends and family throw eggs at your head (the number of eggs corresponds to your age) and then dump flour on you. Then they throw you in the water. Sounds like fun, I guess, unless you are the birthday boy or girl.

Last night, Kevin and Joe (our friend visiting from Africa) gave Dalia a wonderful Honduran birthday celebration, complete with eggs and flour. This morning, she took a dip with Sailor, the lodge dog, in an attempt to get the egg out. It was a mess.



Happy birthday, Dalia!