Día de Acción de Gracias

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving in my house, with all of my closest friends, and their friends, and our whole Peruvian family. It was truly the best Thanksgiving of my life. Let me tell you...

We decided a couple months ago to do this, as we would all be missing this big holiday and thought it would be fun to share a bit of our culture with our Peruvian family.  It didn't get talked about much after that, and I was afraid our plan had fallen by the wayside until Colleena brought it up again a week ago. From there it took off, farther than I could have imagined, as I have found things to so magically do here.  

Five of the Americans in our house, along with a few other American friends from around town came together to make a grand feast. We started on Thursday afternoon with an enormous shopping trip.  After about an hour in the store with our lists frantically searching for a lot of ingredients that don't exist here, and after a ton of improvisation, we came home with un montón of food. We prepared a lot of it that night, including pumpkin pies from scratch, oreo ice cream torte, cheesecake, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, peeling all the potatoes, and preparing all the beans.  This was a good idea, and made the day of much less stressful and enjoyable.

I woke up early the next day to start the turkey with Nancy. Turkeys at home come with the neck and organs tucked inside, but turkeys here have an extra surprise: the feet and the head!  It was funny and a little gross, but Nancy and I shared a lot of laughs.  Cooking with her was so much fun and I am so grateful I got the chance to spend a lot of time with her before I leave.  She was such an angel.  Throughout the day we continued by making green bean casserole with homemade cream of mushroom soup, boiling and mashing more potatoes than I've ever seen in my life, making five boxes of mac and cheese, and enormous amount of caesar salad, and more.  We decorated turkeys from traced hand cutouts, and Nancy made a beautiful spread in our courtyard complete with gorgeous tablecloths and flower centerpieces with candles.  We hung the American flag on the buffet table. It was perfect.

Around six we set out the whole feast and our guests started showing up.  We ended up with 23 people in total, by far the largest amount of people I've ever cooked for. It was so exciting! Once everyone was there we gathered around the long table of food and all held hands while Colleena and I sang the Waldorf prayer:

For the golden corn and the apples on the trees

For the golden butter and the honey from the bees

For fruits and nuts and berries we gather on our way

We praise our loving Mother Earth and thank her every day.

Blessings on our meal.

It was really lovely to watch people from the United States, Peru, Japan, Sweden, and India hold hands with each other and appreciate the feast before us.  We then took turns (all 23 of us!) saying what we were grateful for, in Spanish, which was fun and exciting for me.  I was happy everyone seemed interested in doing it, and every person had really wonderful things to be thankful for.  Our host family especially seemed so pleased to take part in this celebration, and to share some of our culture with them.  It was so beautiful.  Our host dad Tito even told us a parable about an old man asking a young man what success is. The young man answered money, a Phd, a big house, and lots of traveling. The old man told him that success is having friends and family, people to take care of him when he's sick, and people to write him when he's gone. Leia and I cried.  I couldn't have imagined a better way to start our delicious feast than that atmosphere: I was completely surrounded with people I love and count on, with this positive, beautiful, grateful energy just radiating around us.  It was one of my favorite moments in Peru, and maybe in my life.

This whole celebration and feast was a lot more than a holiday to me. It was the culmination of a journey. Next week my three best friends in Peru leave to travel and then return to the states. My time with them is literally limited to hours.  I move out of this house in two weeks.  I leave this country in a month and a half.  It is coming to an end, and through this beautiful celebration I got to stop and realize how far I've come during this experience.  As we set out all the food and I was radiating with joy, I said to my host sister: "Nunca he estado mas orgullosa." (I have never been more proud) We smiled and laughed, and then I thought about it, and in some ways I really haven't ever been more proud.  On the surface level, for the feast we prepared.  We did it ourselves, using the things our mothers and fathers had taught us, working together as a team, and most of all enjoying ourselves. And absolutely everything fell together perfectly.  Underneath what meets the eye, I was proud for a lot of other things.  I realized that I said exactly what I was feeling in Spanish.  I speak another language now. It may not be fluent, or anywhere near perfect. I may even sound silly sometimes, but I can do it, and I have learned so much in such a short time. I think I can now call myself bilingual, and that is pretty amazing. In addition,  I came into this country scared of what would happen, where I would end up, and as I mentioned in August right before I left, who I would find to belong to.  Last night as I sang a prayer that I learned as a little girl, I saw the smiling faces of people around me that I really love.  I have made myself a family in a foreign country. I have found loving, supportive people to surround myself with, to care for me and walk beside me experiencing every day.  I have a family, and friends, and a boyfriend, and I found them with what seems like such ease.  All in all, when I said I have never been prouder, I really meant it. Because I came to Peru trying to accomplish so many things, and last night I finally realized:

I fucking did it.