Thanksgiving – African style

My day began differently this morning; I decided to run before school. I used to run at home, and I’ve really missed this exercise since being here. At 5:00, Allen, who lives in the main house, knocked on my window. We walked first until I built up to jogging. At 5:00 it is still pitch black so there is no way to see for the next 40 minutes or so. I felt so refreshed afterward and ready for the Thanksgiving Day.

I left school at noon to help cook. I didn’t realize that this day was the beginning of a busy season for riding matatus. I had waited for 45 before a Kenyan friend told me it could be one and a half hours before a seat would be available on a bus. I decided to call a cab. After finally arriving home, I found out that Todd had secured a generator because electricity was out all over town and would likely not be back on until 5:00. I couldn’t believe this was happening on our holiday! The two of us drove with the generator to the house where a group of 14 would be celebrating. After greeting everyone with an enthusiastic "Happy Thanksgiving, Amanda, Kate, and I discussed what needed to be baked in the oven. It tuned out that Todd’s generator was broken. We decided we would begin cooking at 5:00 when the electricity came on but nothing ever happens when it’s supposed to in Africa. For all we knew, the electricity might not come on until 8:00 that night.

I had ordered three pumpkin pies from a wonderful baker down the street. I texted her on my phone to see if she had been able to make the pies. With great excitement she wrote back to tell me they were ready because she has a gas stove. Now we had an option. So we three girls finished making lunch and walked down the hill to get the pies and ask if we could use her stove. Ebraham, the husband and chef, told us it would be fine if we used their stove so we headed back up the hill to assemble the dishes and bring them down. During our walk back, Amanda received a phone call saying the elecricity was back on. We couldn’t believe it. Like I already said, nothing ever happens early in Africa. So, we were able to use both our stove and our friends' which allowed us to serve dinner by 6:30 right on time.

Our meal consisted of variations of most traditional dishes that Americans eat for Thanksgiving except for turkey, very expensive, so we had steaks instead. Our side dishes were mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, baked macaroni and cheese, northern style stuffing, pumpkin pie, and chocolate cake. Everything was delicious and we managed to stuff ourselves just fine. Once the meal was over, ten of us changed into dark or black clothes and headed out to the back yard for what turned out to be three hours of capture the flag. The day was a complete success. I am very blessed to have other Americas with whom I can celebrate holidays.