November 28, 2005

  • Thanksgiving In Africa

    Thanksgiving in Africa

     

    I did not realize how much Thanksgiving has come to be about food.....well, food, family, friends and football!  But I guess that first Thanksgiving was about food, family and friends. too.  This Thanksgiving was no exception.  We spoke to our families by phone, as they gathered together to carry on the family dinner.  We were surrounded by new friends as we thought about old friends and the food was surprisingly delicious!  There was however no football...not even videos of last weekend's games.  Let me share with you our adventure.  First of all, the electricity went out around noon on Wednesday and as I write this Friday morning, we still are without power.  Thanksgiving was to be at Mike and Linda's with 37 people expected for dinner.  Turkeys are very hard to come by...Linda did say she found one years ago for $75.00 and after she cooked it, found that it didn't taste quite like an American turkey.  It just wasn't worth it, so dinner this year was 2 hams and 5 roasted chickens.  Fortunately Linda had decided to cook on Wednesday to save time and she finished the hams (with peach glaze) and all but a half hour of cooking the chickens before we lost power.  The electric has been going off pretty regularly since the rains started!  This time poles were knocked down and it takes days to reinstate them.  (A little rabbit trail - Someone said the Maramba River on the back of the farm has water in it already - so that is a praise!)  Back to the story at hand - It amazes me...the pioneer spirit and the problem solving ability and ingenuity of us Americans.  Linda and Mike have a 110 generator and they rigged up a small oven with 2 burners in the kitchen to finish the chicken.  JoAnne made Sweet Potato Fluff in that small oven using butternut squash since there are no sweet potatoes here at this time of year.  I was going to make honey glazed carrots but opted instead for grated carrot/pineapple/raisin salad, a recipe shared with me days before at Zimba Hospital by an experienced missionary.  I also made sour cream cucumbers making my own sour cream out of desert  cream and vinegar.  I had found a can of cranberry sauce in Lusaka on one of our previous trips.  So I opened that to slice only to have it "glop" into the bowl...but it was a little taste of cranberry none the less.  The other missionary women (all from town with electric)brought cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, vegetables and homemade rolls.  One woman found a grey pumpkin in the food store in town and took a chance to make pumpkin pie...It was yellow on the inside and was just enough to end a wonderful dinner.  The only thing missing was that dab of cool whip!  The evening ended with the six of us (Mike, Linda, Terry, JoAnne, Sal and I) playing Dominoes with light from small lamps and drinking flavored coffee from the coffee pot hooked up to Mike's generator.  Perhaps we could replace football with fun...Food, Family, Friends and Fun!  That's what Thanksgiving is all about.  Pastor Jerry once spent a whole year preaching on the theme of being thankful...exceedingly thankful.  It says in God's word "to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise."  We don't even get through the gate without giving thanks!  So Sal and I will take the time to give thanks to God.....for being part of His family, for being His friends, for sharing in His food (His Body and Blood) and for the fun of following His call.  We also want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers, encouragement and support.   THANK YOU.