The Old Man

As some of you may or may not know, I celebrated another b-day several weeks ago. Yes, I know, it is hard to believe, but I hit the big 3-7. I'm certainly feeling my age a bit more these days. I think it must be something of the combination of living in a foreign country trying to learn a new language (the perpetual fatigue-headache is lessening!) and raising five covenant kids.

At any rate, my b-day didn't pass without a healthy dose of humility. I was up on the campus of the National University of Trujillo and was chatting with some students. One girl asked me how old I was, and I told her to guess. I braced myself to be flattered. That was a mistake.

She thought about it for a minute and said, "Cuarenta y cinco años" (45 years old). Trying to not to look too deflated, I said in an encouraging voice, "No,try again." She then said, "¡Cincuenta anos!" (50 years). What do you do in a situation like this? Slightly embarrassed, I said, "37." She said, "Oh! I thought you were older because of the little gray hairs on your chin." I nodded my head knowingly and thought its probably about time to start mourning the passing of my youth.

I told my wife about the incident and she encouraged me by saying that these gray hairs are evidence of wisdom and maturity. (That's why Heather is a great wife.) But it is getting harder and harder to pretend that I'm a recent college graduate, especially when twenty-somethings refer to me as a father figure. Oh well.

Here is a picture of a surprise birthday celebration (Peruvian style) that my friends in RUF gave me after one of the lectures on the campus (see the following blog entry).

Mis amigos gave me a song and a cake to share with the attendees of the lectures.


Here I am with Isabel and Geraldo, Pablo, Calin, & Obal. They (read "Pablo") tried to play a trick on the Gringo by telling him that it was a tradition for the birthday person to take a bite out of the cake. I was immediately suspicious (after all, I wasn't born yesterday!), and I had seen a birthday celebration or two and had never seen this, but I'm on the spot with a bunch of folks looking at me so I thought, Sure, why not. I'll be the butt of a joke and do something crazy. So I opened my mouth and at that moment felt Pablo's hand conspicously on my neck. Then I knew what he was up to! Doesn't he know that in my old age that I am skilled in getting even?