Here is it customary for you to throw yourself a birthday party on your birthday. This is because in our culture it is more honorable to host than to be hosted. So, Drew and I threw a party for my birthday last night. We invited the two families we've interacted with in our stairwell, which would have been quite a few people if they'd come. Well, 30 minutes after we'd told them to come no one was here yet, which was not unusual, but we had a TON of food so we wanted a back-up plan. So we called some more people and were able to get one of our teammates and our language teacher and her daughter to come over. They, along with two of our neighbors ended up coming- all ladies. So, Drew mostly did the serving and I hung out with the guests. As usual, Eliana was a big hit, despite being a little more fussy than normal. It was a fun night and we are thankful to have thrown our first Tajik party. I hope to have more interactions with our neighbors in the future and even though not everyone came, I hope it opens up doors for relationships.
We went all out and tried to make the party as Tajik as possible. We served everything on the dasterhone- tablecloth on the floor with korpachas to sit on. My househelper made two local salads for me. One is called Francuski and has beets, cabbage, spicy carrots, kielbasa and crispy potatoes held together by mayonnaise. The second is called Oliviay and is a type of potato salad with carrots, kielbasa and peas, also held together by mayonnaise. I really like both of these salads and they were delicious. We also had meat and veggies platters, cookie/candy plates, cake, fruit, bread and we made pizza for the American touch. We had a TON of food and TON leftover but that is normal here. People are just so generous and like I said, the honor is in hosting so everyone always goes over the top.
Everyone also brought small gifts and we actually ended up with a box of wine, which was very surprising. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but it was nice. Like I said, we have a ton of food left over so we'll be working on getting rid of that this week.
Here are some pictures of the night. Be sure to see the pictures at the end of the potato salad and how much was eaten of the six plates we served. It was a fun night, but a lot of work and I'm thankful it's over! It made me appreciate all the work people put in to throwing parties here. Good times!
We went all out and tried to make the party as Tajik as possible. We served everything on the dasterhone- tablecloth on the floor with korpachas to sit on. My househelper made two local salads for me. One is called Francuski and has beets, cabbage, spicy carrots, kielbasa and crispy potatoes held together by mayonnaise. The second is called Oliviay and is a type of potato salad with carrots, kielbasa and peas, also held together by mayonnaise. I really like both of these salads and they were delicious. We also had meat and veggies platters, cookie/candy plates, cake, fruit, bread and we made pizza for the American touch. We had a TON of food and TON leftover but that is normal here. People are just so generous and like I said, the honor is in hosting so everyone always goes over the top.
Everyone also brought small gifts and we actually ended up with a box of wine, which was very surprising. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but it was nice. Like I said, we have a ton of food left over so we'll be working on getting rid of that this week.
Here are some pictures of the night. Be sure to see the pictures at the end of the potato salad and how much was eaten of the six plates we served. It was a fun night, but a lot of work and I'm thankful it's over! It made me appreciate all the work people put in to throwing parties here. Good times!
1 comment:
You can always use the wine to cook with--it gives great flavor to lasagna or spaghetti sauce or if you saute mushrooms and add it to that, brings out the flavor in gravy and you use less salt. I use it to cook but I do not drink it--it does not like me! Happy Birhday late. I remember when we had a meal in the Tajik home how bountiful the table was laid--it all looked very yummy and at least you do not have to cook this week. Dixie
Post a Comment