Celebrating your culture's holidays can be a lot of work when you are in a foreign country, but there is something special about it that makes you rethink and appreciate where you are from. A couple weeks after I arrived in Peru, all of us American volunteers were already discussing how we wanted to cook a huge Thanksgiving feast here. Meg, a vegetarian, even suggested that we buy a turkey chick on Quince (the main street in Huaycan where you can buy anything), raise it on our roof and then kill it for our turkey dinner. However, this idea was quickly vetoed after we began naming this potential turkey (Pablo, el pavo of course) and realized how expensive it would be to feed. However, considering that there are chickens living on our neighbors roof it wasn't such a crazy idea. Anyways, we did attempt to find cranberries in Peru and discovered that its impossible to buy them. Anyways, we were not discouraged and decided to invite our Peruvian friends to join our Peruivan version of thanksgiving. Following in the tradition of playing football in thanksgiving, we started off the day with a game of Peruvian football- soccer and then volleyball. We each signed up to cook a dish and all of Thanksgving day, we took up the tiny kitchen boiling potatoes, cooking veggies and whipping up all sorts of delicious dishes (without the use of an oven!)
It definitely requires a lot of creativity and hard work. I mashed my potatoes by hand with a fork, Natasha made stuffing on the stove top and Bekah made cheesecake with a double boiler. The most impressive was that Sam made a pumpkin pie with Zapallo, the big yellow squash that they sell in the market here. However, she did have the help of her boyfriends oven! Kendra made a delicious broccoli salad that her grandmother makes, Veronica made a beet stir fry, Adriana made sweet potatoes, Elle made her grandmother's banana pudding and green beans...every single dish was special and delicious! To top it all off, we bought rotisserie chicken (pollo a la brasa) which is very popular here to add a Peruvian twist. To decorate out classroom, we put sheets on the table, flower bouquets from the market and spread out of feast.
We weren't sure what our Peruvian friends would think of the spread, but they all loved it and it was so special to share it with all of them! About 25 people showed up to join the feast! I decided I wanted to make a speech to thank everyone and explain what the holiday means to us. I was a bit nervous to give an impromptu speech in Spanish and I definitely stumbled on my words, but I think I was able to convey my general feelings of gratitude to our friends here for welcoming us and making our experience here so wonderful. Sonia, one of my adult students and a close friend of Elle's also talked and thanked God and us for everything. As usual, we all ate too much food, but we had some yummy leftovers for the next day. After the dinner, some of our friends joined us for a game of Mafia (a fun group game where you have to figure out who the "murderers" are.) And that is the beauty of holidays- is that they can be adapted and celebrated in new ways, but the spirit of appreciation, friends and family stays true. I definitely gained a new appreciation for the value of celebrating your cultural holidays away from home and sharing the spirit of the day with new friends in new places. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!
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