A Brazilian Birthday Party

In Brazilian birthday parties no expense is spared. This is one of the few times a year they get to show off. Last night a little girl was turning one, and as is the custom, everyone was invited, not just the kids. The lady who is the cook for the employee mess, a great big lady, made sure she invited me personally because the more prestigious the guests, the better the party, and well I’m about as close as prestigious as you can get out in the middle of nowhere, not that I’m very close.
They had spent several hours after dinner cooking the snacks for the party, enough for about 40 people, and the cakes I’m sure they started 2 days before as there were 4 different cakes besides the birthday cake, and the decorations had been brought from Manaus at a cost I would never pay. There was enough soft drinks for at least a hundred people, only soft drinks since no employee is allowed to drink at the lodge but if we were in town there would have been plenty of beer, and people passed them timidly around afraid to take too much because those from the villages weren’t used to the showing off that goes on in the city.
So the desired effect was had, that some were impressed and even intimidated, and others got food they don’t normally get at the lodge. I even broke my not eating after 7 rule to get some food that wasn’t the black beans, rice, and fish or chicken I had been eating for the last 2 weeks, though I suffered for it later with a stomach ache when I did my workout.
It was all very serious taking pictures and such until another Brazilian tradition came out, and my head guide was making sure it was followed. You see, when it is your birthday, they crack an egg on your head, not a confetti filled egg, but a real egg, and since you can’t do that to a one-year-old, he decided that the father would do. As can be imagined, the formality dissipated when the egg was broken, and given the unorthodoxy to the situation, is wasn’t long until Ze’, my head guide, had an egg broken on his head as well, not to mention several other guides, and those unlucky enough to be standing too close to someone who had procured an egg, which may seem like an easy thing, but none of us had seen eggs for weeks only having crackers for breakfast, which I of course gave to the monkeys who didn’t seem to happy with the “treat” they were getting, though that was the only treat I really gave them, except for Nico. This only goes to show to what lengths people go to celebrating birthdays, and as is my custom, I avoid getting hit with eggs, so when there was a lull and the egg throwers had run off after each other in the darkness, I too walked off into the darkness, in the other direction.