A Modified Marshallese Birthday

Birthday Season has arrived.  It goes Mom in June, Dad & Eva in July, Asher & Caleb in August, Josiah in September, Isaac in October.  Rachel is all by herself in February, but she can claim the honor of the first birthday of the year.  At least, that is how I try to console her.

I celebrated my birthday the Marshallese way.  Well, sort of.  You see the true custom is as follows:  

Women come and while they serenade you...
They give you a dollar
You give them candy
They take anything of yours that they want 

That is not a typo.  When my Marshallese helper told me about her birthday a few months ago, I was aghast.  When I asked her how her birthday went, she said, "Great.  Some ladies came to sing to me.  They each gave me a dollar and started taking stuff, but," she added with a sneaky grin, "they didn't find my favorite glass pan, because I hid it really well."  

The other time of year you are looted is on New Year's Eve.  She lost a TV that way, but it would never be considered stealing in this culture.  Just sharing, except you never see it again.  This doesn't only occur on these days, because stealing sharing happens on a daily basis.   The list of items she has shared is endless. 

Well, when Atrina hinted that I might have some birthday visitors I jokingly reminded her that I don't participate in the part of their culture where I share anything they want, but that I would provide food and candy.

I had nine Marshallese women stop by to celebrate and it was wonderful.  While the women sang, they each gave me a dollar and my kids passed out candy.  They pulled me up to dance with them and then gathered in a circle on the floor and told me nice things about me and then I told them nice things about them.  It was a special experience and made me cry.  

Josiah, Caleb w/ Asher, Caroline w/ child, Leeserong, Emsar, Anne Marie, Judy, Florence, Rachel, Keema, Atrina, Eva, Lala (Christine) w/ child (Momee a.k.a Cousin not pictured)

Isaac took the video and I was originally going to trim it down, but I'm just posting the raw footage.  They sang to me a long time.  When Peter commented on the length, Isaac chimed in, "Of course, the song needs be long so they have plenty of time to take stuff."  Joking aside, it was really beautiful and even though I couldn't understand what they said, I felt their love.  

After the singing and dancing, I fed them lunch and some gave me other gifts.  Judy attempted to give me a dress and with no warning she started to put it on me, but it was a medium.  I am not a medium, but it was a gift in-and-of-itself that she thought I was a medium.  I was able to squeeze myself in, but sitting would have been another matter.  We all had a good laugh over it.   

After the festivities, I decided I wanted birthday donuts rather than cake.  We had four extra kids during the donut-making and they found it fascinating.  See my little audience...

After gorging on donuts, we spent some time frolicking in the yard.  Well, they frolicked, I relaxed.

I'm often given a flower to wear in my hair by the children.
This particular one was given to me by Hayden.

After their long, muddy romp outside the girls had to have a quick bath and rush off to dance.  When they got back, they both looked so sweet in their matching outfits that I snapped some more pictures of them.

 

The girls would throw grass in the air and call it their party.

The older boys were off playing soccer, but Asher & Peter enjoyed the show, too.

It was a wonderful day with surprise visits from friends and unexpected gifts.  One gift I even got to open twice, because her children each wanted a turn to give it to me.  Another gift spilled into the next day, when Neilan stopped by the next morning because she wasn't able to make it to the celebration the previous day.  Some of my gifts are on-going and I've already cashed in 30 minutes of foot massages with many more to come.  The only gift that hasn't happened, yet, is that Peter is going to hang a hammock up at the beach for me, so I can relax child-free for an hour.  I'm saving that for a day when I actually want a break from everyone.  For now, I'm happy to bask in everyone's love, even if that love sometimes sounds like a cacophony.