What do you do for a thoroughly American holiday while residing in another country? Celebrate it anyways!! This past Thursday, I volunteered to help cook and serve at a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by a travel club called South American Explorers. I offered to make pies. So using the recipes my sister sent me I set out to make some pumpkin pie. After going to three grocery stores, I thought I was ready to get baking. Well almost. See I couldn´t find canned pumpkin puree. I did, however, find actual pumpkins. And amazingly, after lots of time in a very hot kitchen without any actual measuring insturments, I was able to turn that pumpkin into a pie. Two actually and I made a chocolate pudding one just in case.
So wearing my only dress, I took my three pies and hit the streets to go to the dinner. Luckily I was able to catch a cab quickly and well the driver didn´t seem to think anything of the fact that i had three pies. Anyways I arrived at the dinner where everyone else was bringing the dishes they had spent all day working on. And we had everything: stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, sweet potatoes, even turkeys which i heard had to be specially ordered and shot just for the occassion. It was marvelous.
Upon arrival, I was assigned to help at the bar. It was so much fun even though i had to switch between Spanish and English.I liked to guess which langage someone spoke before they ordered. Usually I got it right but either way we only had like 5 options so it was pretty easy.
After dinner there was a presentation on the organization which all the proceeds for the night were going to. It´s an organization that protects and educates street kids and some of the kids from the program got up and spoke. Afterwards, we had a tango singer and a folklorcic singer to entertain us while eating dessert. Some crazy British girl after trying my pie declared I just had to be her friend and I should open a restaurant. It was hilarious and all in all a great, and very different, Thanksgiving.
So along with a great Thanksgiving, my luck with the men also seems to be improving. I have had two guys ask for my number in the past few days. Oh, oh wait. They were both old. The first approached me in the grocery store while i was, as usual, searching for bacon. He was probably 55 and had einstien hair and only 2 teeth ( serioulsy, wasn´t this the kinda thing i left chattanooga to get away from?). Upon learning I was from the US, he became estatic and continued to talk to me for 45 minutes about american politics, particularly the Clinton sex scandals, right there amongst the cold cuts and sliced cheese. Apparently, he had lived in Tuscon during this time and was still fascianted by it.
The second guy, who I assume was in the middle of a run, was stretching outside the ticket office of the theater where i had gone to buy a ticket for the opera. He was probably around 34 and was wearing very short, very tight spandex shorts, a running shirt, and a fanny pack. While I was able to escape a little quicker from this one, he still invited me out for a drink sometime. Anyways, let´s just say I told them both I don´t have a working phone.
Anyways, my weekend ended with yet another discussion with AIESEC about my job in the orphanage. After talking about some of the problems, I said I had had enough and do not want to return. So they finally listened this time. I had just realized that even if I did return and was allowed to do "the job I want" that i would be doing it alone without the support of the rest of the staff and without any materials. And without these things i feel it would be very hard to engage the girls. So after three agonizing weeks, I really am now moving on to bigger and better ( well at least different) things. In fact, I already have a offer for an internship at the South American Explorers club and quite a few leads on some other interesting projects.
So as my first three months come to an end, I am at a very different place then i thought i would be. However, I am thankful for the experience and very thankful for all the support from so many of my friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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