Chivirico's birthday - oh Dios mio

It was Chivirico's birthday on Friday so on Saturday Danilo went to pick him up so we could have a special day on Sunday.

The day started with him and Albert getting up early and making empanadas for breakfast which were salami and cheese on the inside, wrapped in pastry and fried. Here is a picture from Aunt Clara's Dominican Cooking.

So once breakfast was over - no photos as I was sleeping as it happened at 6.30 am - it was time to make the dough for pizza, which Chivo made and bread, made by Albert, with a bit of a competition to see whose dough would rise best. Once the dough was made it was put in my jeep to rise - as it is really warm there and today was cool and cloudy.

Then a couple of hours later they came to show me the result and both had risen well.

Then it was time for a special lunch - two enormous chillo (red snapper) from the fish man.

Chivirico was desperate to have his annual photo taken with Danilo holding him up in water. Every year it has been in a pool, or the sea, or a river and this year they have just opened a pool/bar restaurant only a mile from where we live so we decided to go there. He and Albert were beside themselves with excitement, so once lunch was over, off we went. But it was raining, and not just raining it was thunder and lightning and I warned them they couldn't go in the pool until the lightning had stopped.

So we get to this new pool and the entrance was particularly guest friendly.

The down pipes from the roof threw all of the water on top of people entering the pool complex, so even though Danilo had let us off right by the entrance by the time we walked in, we were soaked to the skin, Hey ho, I thought, we should dry off soon, and what designer would shower arriving guests with water, but having paid the entrance fee, we then had another water obstacle to face.

This was the entrance to the actual pool, but there was a massive water butt, with water pouring in and it was overflowing and soaking anyone who walked past it. Danilo went first.

We had a table on the far side of the pool, under a metal roof, but had to wade through 6 inches of water. The lightning was all around and I told the boys to put their feet on the chairs as it seemed somewhat idiotic to be sitting under a metal roof with ones feet in six inches of water. Meanwhile the owner was trying desperately to get rid of all the water on the floor, and the full water butt continued to overflow and balance dangerously on the step.

The people at the tables on the other side of the pool appeared to be oblivious to the impending danger and as it happened the owner then emptied the water butt (!!) and carried on sweeping to get rid of the water but in seconds it seemed it was full again, so he emptied it again. The water around our ankles rose to 9 inches.

Albert was desperate to get into the water and as the lightning stopped the boys were given the green light. He just ran and threw himself in. Danilo went ballistic telling him never to throw himself into water as he had no idea if it was shallow and would smash his head or deep and he can't swim. He kept doing it. Again and again. Each time we yelled at him, and he just kept doing it.

We took the famous birthday photo of Danilo holding Chivirico up in water which we have done every year since his 5th birthday.

This time you can't see his legs! And we continued to shout at Albert not to throw himself in the pool - until..... we saw him running around the pool with blood streaming down his face. Yes he had hit his head on the bottom and his forehead was split open like a ripe plum. People came running from all over telling us to take him to hospital, to call the ambulance, but we said we could sort it at home and that was the end of the pool trip.

Albert pressed serviettes to his wound and we came home and then I had one of the "oh my God" "Oh Dios mio" moments as Danilo put him on a bar stool and approached him with a needle.
"Danilo, what are you doing?"I asked
"Anesthetic"he said
"What for?"
"To stitch it", and I noticed Chivirico licking thread to put in a stitching needle.
"You are bloody loco - I have steri strips, no need for stitches".
"Ingles you know nothing. I stitch roosters, he is like a rooster"
Albert's eyes were like saucers sitting on the bar stool.
"OK, so let's do it the English way first with antiseptic and steri strips and if in three days the wound hasn't closed you can stitch him up".

I cleaned the wound, put steri strips on it (total rubbish according to Danilo) and Albert is now watching TV with a big plaster (elastoplast in American?) on his head.

Now all that is left is to make the pizza and bake the bread.