Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24^th, 2011

            Well happy Thanksgiving to everyone, I hope that everyone enjoyed this great day and took some time to reflect on everything that they have to be thankful for in their lives. I know I did, however I am not sure how many Hondurans did because Thanksgiving is not a celebrated holiday down here. So in order to spread this American tradition a bunch of the volunteers from out here in the west all gathered together yesterday to make a large Thanksgiving feast at a local girl’s orphanage in Santa Rosa. We spent most of yesterday cooking all throughout the day and then we were able to serve our incredible meal at night for the girls, which numbered around 70. There was 5 turkey’s, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, gravy, biscuits, fruit salad, salad, potato salad, broccoli casserole, corn casserole, two different types of stuffing, baliadas (Honduran food in case the girl’s did not like what we prepared for them), cranberry sauce, 4 cakes, and 4 pies. The four pies were contributed by me and another volunteer from my group named Julie and I have to say, after a rough start we really pulled together and make some delicious pies 2 apples and 2 banana creams. You can drool over the pictures below because they were really delicious. After the dinner we played a little pickup basketball before having a little late night serenade by the girls, complete with guitar playing. It was a really great time and a great experience and a great way to remember just how blessed I am to have everything that I have and everything that I have had in my life, both materialistic and non-materialistic.

Top one is the first attempt and one below is the second attempt. Obviously we learned.

banana cream pies

           I really do have a lot to be thankful for, I have all of my family and friends in my life still and they are the greatest family and friends that I could ever hope for, yea I’m talking about you! Of course, I love and miss you all dearly. I am also incredibly thankful for this amazing opportunity that I have been given to live and work within another whole culture. I am learning a new language, meeting tons of new people, learning new life perspectives, and getting the opportunity to help people in need with a skill(s) that I have been blessed with. This experience that I have been given is helping me to grow as a person while at the same time teaching me so much about the world as a whole. I have so much more to be thankful for which I will not list here but save for my gratitude list simply because I don’t want to bore you all with the small miracles of my life that I am thankful for.

            I just want to leave you all with one last thought on this Thanksgiving Day. Even though Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated here in Honduras, the holiday is translated not as, Día Del Gracias as a direct translation would have it. Instead it is translated as Día Del Acción de Gracias, that one little added word makes a large difference if you ask me. The added word is translated as action, and isn’t that the true meaning of what this day is all about? Putting our thanks into action, now how one puts their thanks into action is up to them but I think it is something that you should spend a few minutes thinking about. Instead of just having observing Thanksgiving Day once a year and thinking about all that we are thankful for why don’t we as a society start to put that thanks into action and  give back to those who do not have as much to be thankful for.