party it up!

A couple weeks ago we were invited to a birthday party for our neighbor's little boy Sahil, who was turning 2. That was quite a cultural experience! We made some cookies to bring and headed down there about 6:30. The last words said as we were walking out the door were- "we'll just go down there for a little while, and then eat dinner when we get back. I can't imagine it will take that long." Let's just say things went a little longer then we expected.

They had decorated their whole little house with balloons and streamers, music was boomin', and everybody was in party mode. After singing and Sahil blowing out his candles, they handed him a huge candle and helped (forced) him to hold it up to a big balloon above his head. He was terrified of it, and his terrified expression turned into screaming and crying as soon as the balloon popped. They popped it over his head, and glitter and confetti flew everywhere. That's how the party began. They then handed the newly 2 year old a sharp knife to cut the cake. Hmm, dangerous? I say yes. We sat under their piece of sheet metal that acts as a front porch; with chickens and dogs running around everywhere, laughing, eating a little bit of (nasty) cake, and just hanging out for a while. Not really saying much, because neither of us knows the others language.

Then the dancing began.

I SO wish we would have recorded it, and I had a video to put up here for you to see. You need a visual-words simply will not do it justice. But I shall try…
It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen! Mel and I were laughing so hard we were almost crying. They looked completely and totally ridiculous. For the most part it was just Telock-17 and Sahil's dad-about 19 or 20. They did a mix of music including some Michael Jackson, Hindi hip hop, Nepali, and a little more Michael Jackson. I've never seen anything quite like it before….I can't even describe it to you, except hilarious. They were certainly bustin' some moves. Imagining them doing the same thing at an American club, or something of the sort, just made me laugh harder. It was pretty funny.

The boys ran around with Serjin and had a great time. It rained the whole evening and they had a blast jumping in mud puddles with cookies in hand. The homemade whiskey was brought out after a while. Poor Dave got stuck drinking quite a bit of it, after Mel and I said no thanks (1st time to ever be offered a glass of whiskey). They also brought out some bowls of some sort of chicken. They wouldn't eat it, but clearly were excited to offer it to us. I guarantee you there is at least one less chicken running around their house after that night.

After about an hour and a half Mel brought the boys back home to feed, bathe, and put to bed. Dave and I stayed down there because the party was clearly far from over and they had asked us to eat with them. As the night went on, more and more people kept showing up. After a couple more hours of dancing (yes, we DID dance with them some) and hanging out, we finally ate. It was almost 10 before they started bringing the food out. When we finally ate, they didn't even eat with us. It's just cultural to serve your guests first, but it was a bummer they wouldn’t eat with us. The other bummer about that, is the fact that they then sat there and watched us eat it all. Meaning there was no way around eating the food and drinking the water that we probably really shouldn't have been eating or drinking. We just smiled and prayed we wouldn't get sick :) They served us SO MUCH food! They served each of us a hot chili along with our meal, and I bravely ate mine whole. When they saw I didn't have one, I was blessed with hot chili #2. I told them I had already eaten one, and proceeded to show them how with the 2nd. Have I mentioned, I'm not a big fan of chilis? They are H.O.T.! I was definitely stuffed to the brim, and hiding chicken in my pockets because I could not bring myself to eat another bite.

All in all we can came home happy, partly relieved, wet, tired, and very culturally "filled" for the night. It was a good experience.






Doesn't the bday boy look so happy??