thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone ... I missed being home for the McSweeney festivities a great deal, but I was pleasantly surprised (and very amused) to find that my cousin Kyle managed to use his facebook account to let many family members say hello to me after dinner! That was pretty awesome. Dinner just doesn't feel as indulgent without an entire course of AMAZING cavati beforehand. *sigh* I can't believe I missed it.

I was lucky enough to have not one, but TWO great Thanksgiving celebrations here in Arusha. The first one was held at our house, and Erica invited all 35+ volunteers and staff members from her organization to have dinner. The volunteers stepped up and made some AMAZING bread stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, tomato/cucumber salad, and mashed potatoes. I made corn muffins, and we ordered a huge quantity of Swahili-style chicken with super-hot chili sauce. It was a true feast shared by many people, and it was really fun.

Then, on the actual day of Thanksgiving, we were invited to the home of an American couple from Minnesota who have lived here for a long time. Mark, the husband, runs Selian Hospital, the best hospital in Arusha, which receives funding from the Lutheran Church. I made lots of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and we ate real turkey, ordered from Nairobi (!). It was delicious and they were kind people all around. One of the older ladies at the party whipped out her guitar after dinner and sang some hilarious Americana campfire songs for us ... it was wonderful.

Everything is well here -- this week promises to be one of the busiest of the year, as we've got two performances coming up. On Friday, we teachers are performing in a benefit concert for Umoja (I'm playing some solo Bach, and some fun tango-style trios). On Saturday, our kids are giving their final performance of the semester at the annual Christmas Fair ... so it's sure to be intense.

I'm counting down the days until I fly home for Christmas. Lots of love to everyone!

P.S. Our cat hasn't been killed yet ... we gave the Mama next door 10,000 Tsh (about $10) to compensate for her lost chickens, and promised to try to address the problem. We haven't had Rock Star deported yet, because he seemed to have stopped his hunting spree. Yet lo and behold, this morning, there was a scattering of black feathers in the kitchen. It seems his days here might be numbered, or his days on Earth will be instead. Poor guy!