This year Thanksgiving felt very inconvenitent because it hit right in the middle of preparations for our Diaspora of Hope Art Camp that is coming this Sunday. I had been feeling a lot of stress and pressure and yet also deeply wanted to celebrate thanksgiving how we do in the US. So because some people from the US had arrived the night before we all decided to take a break from planning on thursday afternoon and go out in search of a turkey to slaughter!
Well, this was actually completely unsuccessful, but we did buy 2 unlucky chickens and took them to the house where Celmali and Moses killed these poor birds. I was supposed to kill one but just couldnt do it so instead I stepped on the chicken’s wings and covered my face with my hands while Moses cut its head off. I dont think I ever want to kill a living thing, its just too sad and gory. I decided to leave others to work on plucking and gutting the chicken and headed back to the kitchen to make the 3 things that make me think of thanksgiving- spinach casserole, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie! Mom had actually sent me real cream cheese over with a lady from the US for the casserole and for the pie i boiled and pureed the pumpkin and then stuck it in the only pan we have- a sqaure casserole dish- but all of these turned out pretty darn close to what I have at home. Dorrette had brought cranberry sauce, cornbread mix, and stuffing from the US and we made regular squash and butternut squash too!
We cooked most of the afternoon to prepare for this dinner. Brenda and Grace came, plus Moses, and Astrid (my swiss friend living with Brenda) and the 3 friends that came from the US for the camp, Celmali, Dorrette and her daughter Roshelle, and Mwix and her 2 girls, plus Mwix’s sister, Rosie and Chris, the bottomless pit cousin that lives next door. It was a wonderful group and we sat family style around the big diningroom table just passing around good food and eating. It was a crazy feeling to realize that I feel like these people have become part of my family and yet I have only known them for 3 months! But they truly are becoming like another family to me.
This Paintbrush In My Hand 