What do you mean Thanksgiving is an America only thing?

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.