Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, Amy decided to go all out and have a real American feast. There was an oven in the house, but apparently the window to the oven was broken out 10 years or so ago. Since they never cooked in the oven anyway, they never thought to fix it. We decided that we should get a new oven, not in the least because Amy had had a hankering for baking cookies for the past 4 months. We bought a big bird and roasted it up good in the oven. She spent the day before baking pies, all from scratch, mind you. We also whipped up mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. Here I am helping with the potatoes with Jonathan Spears, another volunteer with the foundation.

Here is the "adult table." We invited over the missionaries (4 of them) and Jonathan and Molly (the other volunteer), and Christina, who is Susana´s younger sister. Needless to say, we all appropriately stuffed ourselves.





Here is the "kids table." Also needless to say, they probably had a lot more fun. You will note that in this frame Bentz and Jorie are demonstrating their abilities to insert large quantities of food into their mouths.





Here are a couple of the pies, before they were quickly finished off. Amy made pumpkin pie completely from scratch. This means she started with a pumpkin, for those of you who haven´t ever been forcefully weaned from processed and canned products. It was honestly the best pumpkin pie I have ever tasted. She also made apple pie and a mixed berry pie, with blueberries, strawberries and blackberries, all fresh from the market. Best. Desert. Ever. 

It was a unique experience to share this American tradition with our host family. Perhaps it was for this reason that contemplating our blessings was all the more poignant an experience. Here we were, living with a family that had given us half of their house to live in before they had ever met us. They knew that they were going to share their lives, their meals, their confidence, their good and bad days, with complete strangers. Before we left for Christmas vacation in the US they told us that, before we arrived, they had been praying mightily that the family coming to stay with them would be a good one. We told them that we, too, had been hoping and praying for a good family. For this wonderful family that has allowed us to become part of their family, we will always be humbly grateful.