Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's how the turkey arrived at my house.

Sole with our Thanksgiving turkey

Despite being far from home, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving, complete with crisp, cool November weather! I invited the volunteers that live close by to my house for dinner, and we made an impressive group of 15. We just received a bunch of new volunteers here in the Oriente (the eastern part of Guatemala), which more than doubled the volunteer population out here. Yay oriente!

Two months ago I talked to a neighbor who raises turkeys, and bought a turkey from her. So two days before Thanksgiving I went to pick it up. I wasn't sure how I was going to get it back to my house, but was told that I should just put it in a sack. (I don't know why I didn't think of that- everything gets carried around in a sack in Guatemala!) Sole helped me kill, pluck and clean it- I realized that the only other time I've killed a turkey I used a gun. Though I didn't have a scale to actually weigh the turkey, I think it was about 12lbs. For Q125 ($15), that's not a bad deal at all!

Wednesday I went grocery shopping in Jalapa with Sara, a neighboring volunteer (who is from Dryden, NY! What a small world!), and we made apple and pumpkin pies, and Mom's famous potato rolls. Thursday morning we made stuffing and got the turkey in the oven, while listening to Bing Crosby. (I have to say that I am really getting into the Christmas mood, and can't wait to go home in 14 days!) We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, honey glazed carrots, potato rolls, cornbread, homemade herbed butter, broccoli salad, pumpkin, apple, and blackberry pie, spice cake, and a fruit tart. Not too bad from being miles and miles away from America!

What a delicious spread of desserts!

I have to say that being so far from home during the holidays has been quite possibly one of the hardest parts about being in the Peace Corps for me. While I've been very lucky to have American friends to spend Thanksgiving with both this year and last, it has really made me appreciate my family and friends in NY. And although I enjoyed spending time with my host family for Christmas last year, I can't quite contain my excitement about coming home for Christmas this year! And I'm not too sad to be missing out on all the tamales...they made me sick last year!

Besides counting down the days until I get to see my family (!) I've been keeping quite busy. Yesterday was the end of the school year ceremony for my middle school kids in Pino Dulce. They invited me to a lunch that they made with their teachers, and then there was a ceremony at the school, in which the kids did a sort of exposition of what they've learned this year. The kids families came to watch. I was pleasantly surprised when the teachers announced that they were going to randomly call on the kids to explain the different activities that they'd done with me this year! When one of the kids explained how to make a compost pile, the teacher asked how many had made their own compost piles at home, and a bunch raised their hands! Although the teachers didn't have my diploma printed because they couldn't remember my last name (they LOVE to give out diplomas in Guatemala for any excuse), it was far more meaningful to me to see that what I've taught this year really did stick with the kids. It was also nice to see that the teachers appreciated my work, and actually paid attention to what I was doing. (Sometimes I really had to work on the teachers to get them to participate in my activities, instead of just treating me like a babysitter). But all in all, it was definitely a successful year! I'm excited to work with these kids again next year.