A "regular" birthday party

(The lack of names, specific locations and pictures are out of respect and to guarantee the privacy of the people involved.)


Alex was invited to one of his classmates’ birthday party yesterday. Since it was the first invitation he had received, we decided to take him. To start, the invitation looked just like a regular birthday invite from the USA. The invitation had balloons, “you’re invited”, and a map… The only REAL difference was the map. Instead of showing where the house was, it indicated a WHOLE city block as the location of the house. This was our first indication that wasn’t just a regular birthday party! Since we are still new in Riyadh and streets don’t have names well indicated (or written in English) we really had no idea where this whole city block was located! So, I called the number on the invitation and talked with someone who asked me if I knew where certain locations were, which I didn’t know ANY of them… After a while of this, he just offered to come get me and bring me to the party, so we were going with our private chauffeur.

So, Alex and I arrived to the house. It is guarded and is behind huge walls (pretty usual here, but these walls were really high, and the entrances were multiple.) The driver honks and a beautiful wooden ornate entry gate opened and we are let in. There is a drive-way leading to the house, with trees all over the front and a beautiful green lawn (remember, it’s the desert here). The Driveway was particularly fascinating because it was not concrete…it was all marble tiled. The house that I should probably refer to as the mansion was all faced with marble too, and was either 4 or 5 stories high. We are led to the back of the house in a huge courtyard where the party is held.

There, I see one of my grade 6 girls and finds out that she’s the big sister of the birthday girl! She’s very happy to see me and ran to hug me, called her little sister who is very happy to see Alex. The little ones take off running after each other, playing tag and hide and seek. Although we arrive on time, we are the in the first ones there. I see about 10 large round tables, all decked with table cloths, with covered chairs and centerpiece decoration (what you usually see at formal weddings). There are also plastic lawn chairs, all along a wall. I am not sure where to sit so I head that way. My student grabs my hand and says that I cannot sit there, because that’s for the nannies! So I put my abaya and purse down at one of the table. Still holding my hand, my student takes me around the house and tells me that this is her grandmother’s house, that her house is under renovation and they’re having the party here, on the women’s side (as there is a whole other side reserved for the men on the grounds of the house). She takes me and shows me the full-size grass soccer field, the pool house with an Olympic sized indoor heated pool, the playground for the grandkids. It was nothing unusual for her to show all this to her teacher! It is what she’s used to and it does not occur to her that some of us may not ever have seen such a spread of wealth and privilege.

She guided me back to the party area. The guests start arriving, each time accompanied by their own nannies. Before the end of the evening, there must be over 40 nannies sitting on those plastic patio chairs! Moms and dads are not there. I was one of the very few moms there. After a while the father the birthday girl came by to survey the scene and stayed for about 5 minutes. The birthday girls’ mom arrived a little after the father has left and will stay for the remainder of the evening. So, who was taking care of it all? The maids, nannies and various workers were working to make the party a success! The mother never got up the whole time, except to visit with the other very few moms. I went talk to her and she was just very nice. She seemed genuinely glad to see us there and visited with me for a while.

As for attractions and activities, the children were not disappointed. There were 2 large inflatable jumpy thing, pop-corn and cotton candy machines, a stage with light that would rival with the Varsity and a D-J mixing table ready for any party! The stage was covered with a large Persian rug and another one was laying in a corner of the courtyard…because later on a clown was in charge of entertainment with magical tricks, games, make-up, dancing on the stage… Alex was very happy and kept busy all evening. The older girls put on a talent show, with amazingly organized choreography. I have the sneaky suspicion that they do those pretty often as they have certain moves that go with certain songs and they all know these. I also have seen them browse youtube and watching videos to learn the moves (they were doing that when we arrived)

Party started at 6:00PM, by 9:30 the food was brought on the large table! The spread included hummus, mini pizza, white rice with a parsley sauce, hotdogs, chicken wings, French fries, curly fries, spaghetti and two huge cakes! We all sang happy birthday and then all the nannies fixed their child a plate of food, sat them at the tables and went back sit in their plastic chairs. During that time, I started talking with the mom about the green parsley sauce (and I cannot remember its name) telling her that it was really good and asking her what was in it…Before I know it, the mom brings me a covered dish with about half a gallon of the green sauce for me to take home. There was nothing I could have done but accept graciously the dish! She also tells me that everything was fixed in-house by her kitchen staff, that nothing was brought from the outside, because and I quote “you never know what could be put in there!” Remember that we are dealing with some members of the Saudi Royal family and you can’t be too careful. All the food was delicious and the children (and moms and nannies) were all ravenous by the time it was served!

Since this was our first party in a Saudi home, I wasn’t sure what to expect…well, in a nutshell, it was a regular birthday party thrown by (almost) regular folks. Unfortunately I did not get to see the inside of the house…but as I was saying my goodbyes to the mom, she thanked me for coming and said that I needed to come visit her in her house soon, to which I replied that I would love to! So, if that invitation comes through, it will most certainly be another blog entry.