I am thankful for many things. My family. My wonderful
girlfriend. This wonderful opportunity to work and live in a different country
and culture. The chance to grow and challenge myself. The supportive people who
have enabled me to undergo all of their, either through moral or financial support.
The fact that I was born in this day and age, allowing me to experience some of
the best convenience and technology the human species has developed so far. The
fact that I was born in a country to a family with the means to allow me to experience
these things. The list can go on and on. This Thanksgiving I was able to add a
few more things to this list.
Every year, HOPE Africa, the organization I am working for,
has the YASC members assigned to them prepare a Thanksgiving meal for the
office. Since Thanksgiving is one of the holidays that South Africans don’t typically
celebrate, the office decides make the Americans they host feel welcome by
participating with them (this can also be read as scamming some unexpecting
young adults into cooking a meal for them). Now, I have never cooked a Thanksgiving
meal before. In fact, I don’t believe I have ever even assisted in preparing
one. Typically, my family travels to my father’s relatives in Cleveland for Thanksgiving.
Since we are traveling the day of, we don’t help prepare that actual meal, and
instead bring the food for Friday’s meal (Quiche, because it is easy to make
then transport and reheat the next day. Now quiche I can make). So this leaves
me without the faintest clue as how to cook a turkey or make stuffing. It’s ok
though, because there is another American here, Lacey, to help, and surely she
knows how to… to make… No? She doesn’t know either? Never done it? Despite the fact that neither of us knew how
to do it, HOPE still insisted on the event. They even said that ever previous
year the YASCers also have had no idea how to cook thanksgiving dinner, and
everything turned out fine. So, with literally no clue what we were doing, and
no real research done, we undertook the challenge.
Thursday morning, I caught a ride back to Cape Town with
Hananja (friend of the former YASCer in my placement, as well as a dietitian who helps at the Care Center) and Lacey and I set out to make the meal at the
HOPE office. We quickly discovered that we didn’t have enough supplies and took
another shopping trip (we knew enough to buy the turkey and let it defrost the
day before, so at least that was fine). We manage, with the help of Delene (CEO
of HOPE) and Thandeka, to actually get the turkey in the oven and cooking along
with the stuffing prepared (Shout out to my Aunt Sally for providing the
recipe). Shortly after this we discovered that the second oven in the offices
kitchen, wasn’t actually functional. This is when the second big wave of help,
and the real day saver, occurred. There is another American missionary working
in the Anglican Church office, Nicole. She works for the Growing the Church
office, but it’s a small compound, and we rub elbows quite often (also, Lacey
and Nicole actually graduated from the same university). We had invited her to
our office thanksgiving earlier in the day, and once we discovered that our
office’s kitchen wasn’t going to cut it, we went in search of another oven. We
asked Nicole if her particular office had an extra oven we could borrow. She
informed us that they did not, however, she lived close, and didn’t have any
pressing work that needed turned in that day. We loaded up her car and took a
little trip to her abode. This actually turned out really well, since it
enabled us to have a slightly better equipped kitchen (I still don’t know why I
thought the Office kitchen would have all the material we needed) and it
allowed the Americans to talk about our Thanksgivings and our time in South
Africa and all of that while frantically preparing and cooking mashed potatoes,
green beans, deviled eggs, roasted veggies, and the stuffing. It certainly
helped make the time pass faster and before we knew it we were done and it was almost
6pm (the dinner was originally supposed to begin around 5). We loaded
everything back up and raced back to the office. Those left in the office had
set everything else up, in spectacular fashion, and the turkey looked
fantastic. The dinner that followed was a delight and everyone agreed that it
was delicious.
All in all, it was a very successful first attempt at making
a thanksgiving dinner that would have never succeeded without the help of many
wonderful people. If you look closely enough there might be a lesson to be
found about asking others for help and giving assistance, even when the practices
aren’t particularly your own culture. There is also a lesson buried in there
about being appreciative of what you have, the time with your family, and the hard
efforts of those that usually prepare your fests for you. However, my brain is
still muddled from all the tryptophan and work, so you will have to hunt those
lessons on your own. God bless, and thank you all.
