A birtday party

On Saturday we had a birthday party to go to. The daughter of one of Kyaw Kyaw's cousins. He owns a teashop across the river and I'd never been there before. It is pretty far and we really must decide to go there since we never have anything in that direction.

 I only learned about the party on Saturday morning. This in not unusual. We've even had an invitation once on Tuesday afternoon to come to a birthday party that evening. So when I arrived back from school it was to set of at once again after finding out we were expected and that they were even preparing food especially for me (being vegetarian). That time, like this Saturday, I actually had planned something else but everyone here wanted to go so go we did.

Luckily this was not one of those very early parties, like there are many around here where you are expected between 7 and 9 am. This was from 11 to 1 so a decent time but effectively  breaking up the day.

I'm always a bit apprehensive and this time was no exception. I had never visited their teashop before and did not know what to expect. Of course, there are many things I do know by now. There is usually an abundance of food like rice and chicken, something called 'butter rice' which is the Myanmar equivalent of Biryani rice, or fried rice with pork or chicken. I also know that I usually feel awkward. These places are often full of people who have never seen a westerner before. The open-mouthed stare is fairly uncommon but apart from that the whole gamma has passed. Most of the time people treat you like you are royalty who has condescended to have a meal with the proletariat. All the best food comes out, you need to sit in the most comfortable place (or space), and people ask you 500 times in half an hour if everything is ok.

This time was much better. The teashop was so crowded the parents of the little girl were so busy that they did not have the time to fuss too much. We were directed to a small room next to the open teashop part. It was probably their bedroom since there were bamboo mats on the floor, a small cupboard in one corner and clothes and things hanging off hooks everywhere.

We weren't the only ones sitting in there and it was a rather tight fit with 7 adults and a couple of kids. Right after we sat down on the mats, more food was brought to us than we could ever thing of eating. 3 plates with different kinds of cakes, several savoury dishes and things like roasted chicken feet. A couple of bottles of soda and glasses all around.

We sat there for a while chatting to the other people in that room, or better said, Kyaw Kyaw chatting since my Burmese is still sadly lacking any substance. We did do a useful job though and that was to pass the gifts and put them in a pile in a corner of the room. I did wonder if they would have enough space for all the stuffed toys this 6 or 7 year old girl was getting. There were heaps of those.

Eaindra was soon confiscated and shown around the teashop. Xenne found a space to sit next to the girl who was playing with her father's phone and they were playing together before long.

The parents wanted us to come to the teashop part and eat butter rice or rice and chicken. By that time a few of the adults had left the room and we were fairly ok in there. So the plates of food were brought to us. It was apparently good. Kyaw Kyaw ate 2 plates full and Ye'ko even managed to put away 3. Me, I just sipped from my cup of burmese tea.

Shortly after though, I thought we'd done our duty and since Eaindra was getting tired and I wanted to do something else with my Saturday, we left. After all, most people only stay as long as they need to eat and have a short chat with a few people. Often, people are in and out of a party like that in under an hour.