Thanksgiving. When
that word is spoken, many memories run through my mind, such as being with my
family, making Indian costumes out of brown paper bags, the feel of the cool,
crisp fall air, leaves that have changed and now cover the dying grass. And oh the aromas of various foods: sweet
potatoes, turkeys, honey-baked hams, homemade macaroni and cheese and pecan
pie.
This Thanksgiving Day DeeDee and I were once again in
Guatemala. Being in a country that does
not celebrate Thanksgiving Day like we do in the States made it a bit of
challenge to schedule when we would have our celebration, but it all turned out
for the best. Last Thursday was an
ordinary workday for us here in Guatemala, but we had made plans to celebrate
our “Día de
Gracias” on Saturday. As we began to
make these plans, our list invites kept growing. Just beginning with our two U.S. families
(one of two and another of seven) our number was off to a rather large start,
but we then decided that we wanted to invite all of our CAFNIMA team members
and their families to celebrate this day with us. And a couple of days later, we realized that
we would be rude to not include the construction manager for our most recent
water project, as well as the presenter for our training of community leaders
(who just so happened to bring along his two daughters, as well). In the end we had 22 adults and 11 children
surrounding our tables.
What was so neat for us, just like last year, was that our U.S.
tradition of this day began with two very different cultures sitting (I think
they actually stood) around a table together.
For us, Saturday was the closest we have ever been to that old tradition,
where around our table people from different backgrounds and speaking various languages
sat and fellowshipped. It was a day to
truly to be thankful for.
But now for some of the dirty details of preparing a meal
for 33 people…
Last year the Colvetts and we went out on a limb and
pit-cooked a turkey. This called for
digging a 3 foot by 3 foot by 3 foot hole in the ground, building a huge fire
in said hole, letting it burn to ashes, dropping the turkey in the ground, and covering
it all back up with dirt, all in order to dig it back out after 12 or 15 hours
of cooking. Well, last year the turkey
was one of the best any of us had ever had, and we had talked it up quite a bit
with everyone who was coming to share in our special dinner… but this year… in
the end it turned out quite good as well, but it did not happen as planned…
Early Friday morning DeeDee and I began digging the hole. We then spent about an hour chopping up all
our firewood with machetes. Around 2pm
we started our fire, then we dropped the bird (all 26 pounds of it) into the
hole at about 8pm, covered it with dirt and said “good night.” The next morning around 10am we began the
excavation process. As I was digging the
hole again, things did not seem quite the same as the year before. The delicious turkey juice smell was not
present, and the ground did not seem to be as warm. We finally got the turkey out of the ground
and unwrapped it (2 layers of tinfoil, about 6 very large banana leaves and
some chicken wire) to find that the bird was not done… not done at all, in
fact… butter not even really melted.
Watch out... I'm pretty scary with a machete in hand!
Thanks to our Guatemalan friend Ricardo for helping us get this fire started... not without the assistance of a little kerosene, mind you.
Our secret ingredients... rosemary and honey.
The turkey prepped and ready to go into the ground!
By this time it was 10:30am and we had planned to eat around
noon. Now remember, we live in a place
that has no electricity and no stove.
How would we finishing cooking this turkey in time for lunch or at all?! Our saving grace came from Nina’s idea to create
a makeshift oven out of our gas stove. After
moving the turkey over to the griddle on the stove, tenting over the turkey
with a few more layers of tinfoil, and about 2 hours of cooking, the bird was finally
ready to be served (minus one little section that did not get done that we had
to pan sear). We had save the turkey
after all!
All in all, the turkey, the cream style corn, the stovetop
sweet potatoes, the green beans, the stuffing, the gravy, the cranberry sauce
and the sweet tea (not to mention the company we enjoyed it with) made for a
fabulous Thanksgiving Day feast.
Julio's wife Elsa with Julito licking his fork clean!
Kris with Roberto and sweet little Wilson Cristobal.
Cesar and family.
The youngest McKinney very obviously enjoying her oreo dessert.
Julio and family.
Roberto and family.
Sweet Aura before she said goodbye.
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