Austin's 30 th Birthday

I’ll be honest, I had different ideas of ways to celebrate Austin’s 30^th birthday. But being in the midst of our home stay, he was thrown an all out Aobistan birthday party! Janel and her family and then several adult children of our home stay (and their families) were invited to the party. The final count was 34 people at the party.

Party preparations began the day before with a trip to the bazaar to purchase over 30 items. Merenges, the 10 year old girl, came with me to make sure I got the right things. She was so excited for this honored position and made sure to express her opinion on the quality of meat, fruit and candy that we purchased! Since the foreigner was buying. Several people in the bazaar asked why her language was so good when her mother couldn’t speak as well. She clarified that I wasn’t her mother but just a relative.

Then on his actual birthday, we started cooking by 8 a.m. By 4 p.m. several recruits from the family arrived to help and make sure that everything was prepared in time. A birthday menu is the same as a wedding, circumcision, any party kind of menu. The table is set with the first course when the guests arrive. And by set, I mean full of small plates filled with salads, cookies, candies, and nuts. The goal is to have little or no space remaining.

This is the woman’s table. We had to sit seperatly as there wasn’t a room big enough for all of us.

The second course is a sour soup that is made from “chaka” (which we have yet to fully identify how it is made) and some mountain leaves only found in the spring. Definitely a stretch on our taste buds and not Austin’s first pick for a 30^th birthday meal. And the final course is the Ash pilau; pilau rice with meat, onions, and carrots. Grandma doesn’t like cumin, so it is always immited. But I asked her permission to include cumin for Austin’s birthday, as it is one of his favorite spices. She willingly conceded and was honored that I asked first.

Before all the men arrived our Grandma and a 74 year old neighbor had their fun giving Austin his birthday presents. It was all about the presenting of them to Austin and then dancing a little celebration birthday dance for him. Austin’s face quickly reddened, as this is so different from what we had grown accostumed to in our first overseas home.

And the Grandma’s were fully aware of how they had made him blush. Actually they were quite pleased with themselves.

Here are some of the guests in attendance. Once everything got busy with hosting, I wasn't able to get a picture of all the women in attendance. But there were quite a few more than this picture captured.

I told Kaleen that I would make Austin's birthday cake. She was quite concerned that it wouldn't be a "real cake" but I assured her she would like it. Without Austin knowing, I organized with the corner store that has a small soft serve ice cream machine to have 30 plastic cup servings of ice cream ready. I told them I would pick them up around 7 p.m. The kids were extatic about the ice cream, calling it "Eid-e-Arif" as they have ice cream for weddings and Eid. The adults weren't quite sure what to think of the white ream atop their cake.

All the guests finally left around 11 p.m. after we had eaten, talked, and even danced. Then it was clean-up. With 2 tables covered in a plethora of little plates, I was up midnight washing dishes with Kaleen and Fazula. All in all a fun memory. Cause you only turn 30 once!