My 13th Birthday Party, Friday, August 2nd, 2019

Today was my thirteenth birthday! And Mom and I wanted to throw a little birthday party at the house for the kids in the neighbourhood. Over the course of the last couple weeks we had been getting ready for the party – ordering cakes, organizing games to play, planning out what snacks and things we would need – and finally the time had come for the party to actually happen!

I started out the day with a delicious birthday breakfast of french toast, honey, and banana. Yum!

Mom and I then walked to the market to get some fruit, and other food for the party. When we got home we had to quickly set up all the balloons, games, and food before the party started at three. People started arriving a little after three, and once we had enough people we started playing our first part game, which was musical chairs. It was a little hard to explain at first, but the kids caught on quite quickly! We ended up playing three different rounds, and we gave a little prize to the winner of the last one.

Once more people had arrived we played the second game that we had arranged which was a version of ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ that we called ‘pin the tail on the water buffalo’ (since they don’t really have donkeys here in Lao). I drew the water buffalo which we pinned up on the wall and made little tails to stick to it.

This game was fun to play as well, it was really funny to watch everyone as they walked around blindfolded trying to find the paper. I had forgotten how hard it actually was to play this game and stick the tail in the correct spot!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Lastly we played pass the parcel. After the parcel had been passed many times, all 18 layers had been unwrapped, and one of the kids had gotten the present inside, it was time for cake! Cake is definitely the biggest highlight of birthday parties for the Lao people, probably because for the average person here a cake is very expensive to buy, so it’s a treat that only comes on your birthday. Luckily, we had three cakes so everyone got to have a nice big piece, or even two pieces in some cases! We sang happy birthday and I blew out the candles on one of the cakes while a girl from down the street named Anda blew out the candles on the other. We wanted Anda to have a cake, because her birthday is coming up on the 10th and we thought it would be nice to celebrate her birthday as well.

• 

• 

• 

The cake was delicious! After I had finished my slice, a bunch of the girls kept coming up to me and feeding me little pieces of cake… I guess it’s a tradition here? They also went around smearing icing on each other’s faces, which was pretty funny and got quite a few laughs.

• 

• 

At the very end of the party we brought out the yellow “Baci” bracelets, and tied them on each others wrists, to wish good luck, health, and strength.

Overall I think the party was a big success! I know that I had a lot of fun and I think that everyone else did as well. Who would have ever thought that I would be celebrating my thirteenth birthday party in Laos? It definitely was the most memorable birthday experience that I have ever had, and I think it will remain the most memorable for a long time.

*Word of the Day: Boom bao (Pronounce: Boom – bow), it means balloon!