This is a picture of our Thanksgiving dinner. I thought we weren't going to do anything to celebrate Thanksgiving, but we put something together last minute. We woke up this morning and went to the flea market, where the favorite buy of the day was two pounds of the most beautiful strawberries I have ever seen for 20 pesos.
( that's $2 USD) Also bought potatoes for the feast later.
I bought a roasted chicken because the only way to buy a turkey here is alive, and then I would have had to kill it, pluck it, gut it, and cook it. GET REAL. Not only do I not have the stomach for that this week, I also don't have a pan big enough or an oven, so that was pretty much off the table. When we went to get the chicken Justino got excited about some ribs they had for sale, so we bought chicken and ribs instead of turkey.
I made mashed potatoes, but gravy doesn't exist in this country and since I didn't actually cook the chicken I had no drippings to do it from scratch, so I bought the closet thing I could find which was a cream of chicken and mushroom soup by campbells. It wasn't too bad.
I bought rolls, and then forgot to put them out so we will be having chicken sandwiches tomorrow.
We had corn, no stuffing or cranberry sauce. It was all about basics. There is also no pie here. I could have made one, like a chocolate cream, or banana cream since Jello is big here, but again, no dishes or oven, so I bought a "Pay de Queso" which is like a less rich, not quite as decadent version of a cheesecake. The best part was the coke.
My father in law came. Two hours late, which worked out because we only have two plates. He didn't eat pie, so more for me.
It all happened fast and was pretty anti climatic. I was trying to be grateful, in light of the day, but wasn't really feeling it until later when we went to see a sister from the church, and she invited us in. She has two small girls, ages 1 and 3. Her husband is a nice, decent guy and there is a loving feeling in there home.
It was looking around her house that gratitude filled me. We walked through a sheet that is hung as the only door, onto dirt floor. One room constitutes their whole house. We sat on a bench that came out a van that is the couch. The table is a rusty old refrigerator turned on it's side, and a newer smaller model sits precariously one one end so as not to rest in the dirt. She has a camp stove just like mine, and another small table to one side where she works. She was so excited for us to visit, and immediately insisted that she cook for us.
Such a gesture really touched me, because often we have visitors come to our house and I would love to cook for them, but am almost always intimidated by my toy kitchen and unless I have something already made, I fall back on the excuse that I don't have the space or the dishes to entertain. She made gorditas for us. They are like a fat tortilla with salsa and cheese, that you eat like an open faced sandwich. They were good.
As we waited for her to cook, I examined the structure of the house. One wall was concrete, and the other three where big cardboard boxes that had been flattened out and nailed together. I am not sure what the roof was made of, but it seemed to be at least a pretty solid protection form the rain. It was raining and I didn't get wet.
Behind the couch was the small bed where the whole family of four sleep. Eva and her two girls jumped relentlessly on the bed and laughed and loved it. They kept jumping from the bed to the couch, to the floor. I was mortified at all the dirt that they were tracking up on the bed, and I kept trying to clean off Eva's feet. Finally the sister told me, that it didn't matter, that they were used to the dirt, and she would clean it off before they went to bed. I was also horrified at the bugs that were all over the bed. They were new bugs that I had never seen. Look like a thinner fly with six spider legs, they were crawling and flying all over the bed. I just kept praying that they didn't bite and if they did that Eva wouldn't get bit. Last Sunday she got bit by something on her finger and it is still twice it's normal size and below the bottom knuckle is red and feels like she has a gum ball shooved under her skin.
Eva face and hands where covered in dirt by the time dinner was served. Justino looked at me and told me not to put any food in her hands, as to by pass the dirt, and head right for her mouth. That didn't go over so well, and before I could do anything about it she was eating fist fulls of dirt covered bean gorditas. She loved it, ate like a champ and had a ring of mud around her mouth by the time she finished.
As we walked home to what now seems like a palace, I finally felt the gratitude that one should have on this day. Every year for some time now I have made a list of 50 things I am thankful for, and as I think back on those lists I don't think I was ever thankful for the basics, like food, and flooring, and clean water. It never crossed my mind to be thankful for those things, because I had never given one thought to the possibility of life without them. Now I have seen what some people live without, and I am so grateful for the floor in my apartment, that is not dirt. I am so grateful for the walls that are not cardboard. I am so grateful for that sweet sister who is so happy and gracious even without those things.
I don't think I have ever given much thought to the first Thanksgiving. A day originally celebrated for a good harvest. They were in a new land, and they were grateful that they had enough to sit down with their families and new friends and eat. I bet they didn't have fancy china. I bet their kids ran around and played in the dirt, and even got bitten by a few bugs in the new world. But they recognized their blessings, and founded a day all about that. I woke up today ungrateful and focused on missing the extravagance that is Thanksgiving in my house. I am going to bed grateful and humble to be like the pilgrims, in a new land with new friends, and with my husband and daughter, and for the blessings I have. I truly have enough, not alot, but enough. I am so grateful for that.
