The Thanksgiving Episode

Thanksgiving came the day after we had completed a month's worth of Model School and it could not have come at a better time. I had taught four different classes in four weeks. I had gone from completely failing to execute a listening and critical thinking exercise using a VOA special English news piece on a flying car (and seriously reconsidering whether or not I should ever be a teacher) to being able to successfully teach a lesson on metaphor and ambition centered on “Waka Waka,” the theme song to the World Cup. I definitely felt like I deserved a bit of a celebration.

Celebrating holidays away from home is probably one of the most difficult aspects of Peace Corps. For most of us, this Thanksgiving was the first one we had ever celebrated without family and that definitely made it tough (and made me thankful for all of the holidays I have been able to celebrate at home). However, being around the training staff, many of whom have moved away from families themselves in order to teach us has served as a constant reminder to me that I am not the only one making sacrifices. Our training director, Mupe, has a son who is battling sickle-cell anemia and his longing to be with his family on Thanksgiving were clearly just as strong as anyone else's.

The good news is that Thanksgiving was a hit. We actually managed to prepare dinner for over 50 people using charcoal. The preparation began when Peace Corps delivered 8 live turkeys to the training center the day before. We (and by “we” I mean other trainees that are NOT vegetarian, like me) had to slaughter them with only minimal assistance by a local hired to show us the ropes, scope out their entrails, and pluck them overnight so they would be ready to go in the morning. Then, the turkey crew had to get up at 5:00 the next morning to build a giant, underground coal oven to roast them in. Over the course of one day, we put together enough mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, and mac n cheese to feed a small army. It was awesome to be able to enjoy good, American style cooking, but it was even better to be able to celebrate with so many people. I've never celebrated Thanksgiving with anybody besides my parents and it really felt like being with family to be together as a group this year. That's not an easy feeling to recreate.

After a full day of celebrating, cooking, and dance parties (and having spent the night sharing a mattress at the training center the day before after getting a bit stranded when the Peace Corps vehicles couldn't drive me home until well after dark), I was definitely looking forward to being able to crash in my own bed. It just wasn't going to be that easy. Right as the Peace Corps driver was about to drop me off at my house, the car got stuck in a huge ditch. We got out to investigate and my friend Jon went around the side of the car to see what was wrong and found out by literally falling into the same ditch the car was stuck in. So, instead of going to sleep, we got to spend the next hour trying to help lift and push the car out of a ditch that was literally less than a stone's throw from my house. It might have seemed like a scene straight out of a horror movie, but this was honestly one of my favorite experiences so far. I actually managed to take the situation so lightly that I even got my camera out of my bag to take pictures while we were working (for the sake of your viewing pleasure of course). I suppose the ability to find humor in trying to haul a car out of a muddy pit on the side of a deserted Rwandan road in the middle of the night is up there on my list of things to be thankful for this year.