A Reason to Celebrate

Last week Tuesday when I came home from work I was greeted, as I usually am, by the young neighbourhood children.  After changing out of my work clothes, I came back and sat with the older boys as we watched the kids play cricket in the street.   A little while later, one of the kids, Kevon (pronounced 'Kee-von'), came over and whispered to me, "Tiffany, it's my birthday today". I asked him how old he was turning and he said 10.  Now, I spend a lot of time with these kids. Sometimes we go to the park to play football (soccer), sometimes I'll take them to the little convenient store down the street, and sometimes we just chill back in the street together.   However, amongst our play we don't spend a whole lot of time talking, so when Kevon came over to tell me about his birthday I thought to myself, this must be a special day for him.   Afterall, I was 10 once. I remember getting excited for my birthday party, opening presents and eating birthday cake with all my friends and family.  These were times to celebrate. So I asked him if he was going to have a birthday party.  He said no.  I asked why not.  He shrugged.  I asked if he was having birthday cake and again he said no.  Well that just wouldn't do, I thought to myself.  It was too late that day to make a cake, but by the weekend I would bake one and we were going to have a party!  To be completely honest, I cannot remember the last time I baked a cake that wasn't out of a box, but fortunately for me, the woman I'm staying with does a lot of baking so she gave me a few pointers and I actually had a lot of fun with the decorating. I admit, the perfectionist in me got a little frustrated when the 2 year old grandchild of the woman I stay with stuck her chubby little fingers in my artistic masterpiece (hahaha) but then the woman said something that dawned on me.  "It doesn't matter if it's not perfect," she said, "because these kids never get a cake like this anyway".  I still did my best to clean it up, and it didn't turn out too shabby either, if I do say so myself!

Initially I wanted it to be a surprise, but by the time the weekend rolled around, Kevon knew I was up to something.  There's not much I am able to hide from these kids; they're pretty intuitive.  Either way it still TOUCHED MY HEART to see his face light up and to see all the kids, parents, and grandparents gather around together.  There have been so many shootings and deaths of young people due to gang violence, here in St. Kitts (which has also sobered my outlook on life a little) that it just feels good to take a moment to celebrate life with someone.

One thing's for sure; I am really going to miss my neighbours when I leave. We've had some fun times, whether I'm running around with the kids, sitting down to talk with a couple of the grandmothers, or having some random in-depth conversations with the older guys while I drag them out to walk with me whenever I want to grab something to eat or venture off. Oh and I cannot forget about my newfound friend Tensy too, the only other girl around my age in the neighbourhood. When I'm not careful we end up staying up half the night talking! Truly everyone looks out for me, and I respect and appreciate them for that. They look out for one other too despite their ins and outs. The neighbourhood is a bit of a family, and I definitely feel fortunate that I get to be a part of that even in a small way while I'm here. I think the biggest compliment that I have received since I've been here is that they say I have the ability to get along and vibe well with pretty much everyone. I'm just happy people take a liking to me because I don't know what I'd be doing without all of them!