Tanzanian Thanksgiving

Posted by Ali

I missed out on my Thanksgiving back in October. Being the only Canadian on campus (besides Darren, who is semi-Americanized after living in Texas for some years before coming over here), I was a little outnumbered about when Thanksgiving Dinner should be eaten. Therefore Oct. 11 slipped past uncelebrated by me, although I did manage to have a makeshift Thanksgiving Dinner of chapatis and vegetables the next night when the other volunteers and I had a going away meal for Ashley for her last supper in Tanzania.

So today I finally got some real Thanksgiving food and it was delicious! I just have to say, I live next door to some amazing cooks, in particular Shae, who got up at 7 a.m. to start preparing the meal. In the late morning I went to the market with Shae to pick up some vegetables we needed for the meal and met Ruth and Jordan. An hour after leaving the apartment we were back on campus and jumped back into cooking with the other volunteers. In the end we made mashed potatoes, three casserole dishes of stroganoff with chunks of veggie meat stirred in, a salad, stuffing, sweet rolls (made by Anika from the receipe Ashley left here), and of course pumpkin pie for dessert!  (Note: When I was a kid I thought pumpkin pie was OK, but one year I helped my grandma make the pie and when the smell of the canned pumpkin met my nose I swore off pumpkin pie for good. Interestingly enough, today I was so happy for all the familiar Thanksgiving foods that I just had to try a small piece of pumpkin pie...and I LIKED it!  Yeah, that's how good of a cook Shae is! :) )

Thanksgiving dinner complete with 'turkey' and Jordan's kitenge material

We used Shae's pretty kanga as a tablecloth

Jordan displaying Anika's rolls

My message on the fridge (with improvisation when letters were lacking)

Kezia, Anika and Danielle showing their appreciation for food

Anika and Kezia hanging out after dinner

Jordan and Ruth telling Bekki and Jacqui about turkeys

All in all, the day was busy but fun and fall-holiday-like with people bustling around the Cradle apartment kitchen, all engaged in various food-making tasks. And when all twelve of us volunteers from six countries and four local organizations sat down to eat I almost felt like I was back home again! Thanks everyone for your contributions and for all the work you did to ensure us North Americans got our Thanksgiving celebration!