Thanksgiving.....in Haiti.

Sometimes you forget which holidays are American and which holidays are worldwide. Thanksgiving is an American holiday (in case you have forgotten - a few people asked us how they celebrate Thanksgiving in Haiti).

We've also made several assumptions about Christmas that turned out to be wrong (e.g., you don't work on Christmas). We almost lost Christmas this week - Sharon and I are supposed to go along on a teacher's outing to another part of Haiti, a trip originally scheduled for December 22-24. On Monday the environmental education team extended the trip to return the morning of the 25th. No one else seemed to mind, though we attempted to change the date:

Sharon: Is Christmas not a big holiday here?
Fritzner, one of our coworkers: Oh yes, it's very big.
Sharon: Then how is it possible to schedule work for that day?
Fritzner: Oh, it's no problem.
Sharon (referencing the biggest holiday in Haiti): So if we were scheduled to come back on December 31, and we extended one day...
Fritzner, chuckling: No, that's impossible. We couldn't do that. January 1 is a big holiday.

What could we do? We're trying to be culturally flexible, so we shrugged our shoulders and had a tinge of resentment as Christmas was canceled for us. But as we sat in our weekly team meeting and discussed the calender for December, our director raised his eyebrows as he heard the new date. He's scheduled to go on this outing as well, but (fortunately!) he's also planning to go to Christmas Eve Mass at 6pm on the 24th and needs to be back before Christmas Day. So, in short, he saved Christmas for us.

Back to Thanksgiving. We started assembling our Haitian vegetarian Thanksgiving menu a few days before the 27th. We went to the market and bought all that we needed: pumpkins, onions, potatoes, meloton, etc. Our menu consisted of pumpkin soup, freshly-baked rolls, green papaya salad, faux-apple pie (with the meloton), fresh pineapple, and fried plantains. Unfortunately, we were so busy cooking we forgot to take photos.

We had a few visitors from the upper echelons of MCC who are here taking a survey of Haiti's disaster management practices, and we were happy to share our dinner with them (there were even 2 other Americans in the group!). We also Skyped with Sharon's family, who were finally able to see us through the magic of a borrowed computer with a working camera. It still wasn't quite the same as being at home, especially because we were the only people in town celebrating and we worked a full day at the office and were all a bit tired, but it was worth the extra time in the kitchen.

This meal was also the unveiling of our new pressure cooker (!) which should help us stretch our tank of gas every month. One thing that I do find amusing is that we have 4 turkeys who live in the yard we share with our landlord. They are funny birds (although terrifying when perched at eye level and you are walking to the outhouse in the dark and don't see them until the last minute) and I laugh every time I see them walk past our door. Whenever people asked if we were going to eat turkey, I told them it wouldn't have been that difficult. As you might have guessed, there isn't yet a market for tofurkey here!

Before eating, we asked each person to name one thing for which they are thankful for this year. Though we are often frustrated with our life here, we found ourselves genuinely grateful for things like being able to eat food from the backyard (papayas, squash). For friends who are becoming good friends. For the chance to experience life in a culture so totally different from ours (who knew that the other side of the world is just off the coast of Florida?). For family and friends at home who are in our thoughts every day.

Well, I hope everyone in the U.S. had a great Thanksgiving (and Black Friday - get that economy going before we get back in 2011, ha ha).

Happy Holidays,

Bryan