Moroccan Birthday Party

Saturday night we went to our first Moroccan birthday party. Our housekeepers oldest daughter was turning 14 and they planned a big party for her and invited us. Normally, this would be something I would try hard to get out of. I don't' like going places where I don't know anyone else or what to expect or understand what anyone else in the room is saying. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of any excuse to get us out of the party and it is apparently really rude to turn down an invitation to someone's home in this culture so we went.

It was fun but a little bizarre.

Everyone was so nice but we were probably the first Americans to ever step foot in this house. Everyone wanted to take pictures of us and with us, especially Lily. You would have thought that it was a party for her! She was probably in 95% of the pictures taken at the party that night.



We got the VIP treatment and ate a delicious dinner in a separate room with a just a few other people. The rest of the guests ate after we were done. This is another reason events like this are a little awkward for us. People go overboard when they know we are coming and do things that are beyond their means. We feel horrible when we know someone has spent extra money to do something special because of us. Another cultural thing we have to get used to.

After dinner we had a little dance party which Lily of course loved. That girl could probably dance until midnight if we let her!



Danny literally may kill me for posting this, but he got in on the dancing too! Anyone who has been to a wedding with us knows that Danny really loves to dance and has some pretty good moves. Not sure he felt 100% comfortable dancing with Hayat's husband though, haha!

We ended the night with birthday cake and juice before heading home at 10 pm. We were the first to leave. Apparently, Moroccans like to party!