Thanksgiving 2009

Reflections on Thanksgiving 2009:  We had been having major issues with the electricity and did not expect to have power all day.  This was our last Thanksgiving in Zambia and our largest as well.  

It was what some might call a minor miracle--the electricity stayed on all day while we did our cooking and baking! I held my breath every time I put a dish into the oven, hoping that the power would stay on long enough to cook it. I breathed a sigh of relief when everything was hot and ready.

Our Thanksgiving guests began arriving at 6:00 just as the sun was going down. We were about to gather at the table when the seemingly inevitable happened-- the power went off. We ate our feast by candlelight. Just as we finished dessert, the power came back on at 8:50 p.m. David called it another TIA (This Is Africa) experience.

We ended up with 21 for dinner with an interesting mix of ages, stages, and cultures. We had five Peace Corps volunteers from our area, plus American missionaries, Zambians, a Peruvian, and a South African family.  Our youngest guest was baby Lennie who came from the Haven orphanage with Meagan Hawley.  

Once again we give thanks for the blessing of friends and fellowship in a foreign land. God is good all the time, and God is good everywhere.

Shown in the photo: Peace Corps Volunteers Krista, Brittany, and Tim; Missionaries Sheri Sears and Rod Calder.

Thanksgiving 2008

Part four of a series of re-posts of Thanksgivings in Zambia

Guests in 2008:  Richard Krogsgaard, Kimberly Burns, Deb Rakowski, Meagan Hawley, Kapree Harrell, Robby Banda, Karen Johnson, Sheri Sears, Angela Glenn, Brittany Freitas, Sue Krogsgaard

Our Thanksgiving table was surrounded by a wonderful mix of people. Six Peace Corps volunteers from all over the United States joined us, plus Canadian and American missionaries and a Zambian co-worker. After last year's Christmas turkey adventure, we settled for mesquite marinaded grilled chicken. We managed to have lots of Thanksgiving traditional side dishes, including cranberry sauce, green bean casserole (with homemade onion rings!), fruit salad, and lots of pies.

The electric company cooperated and we even had power all day--a rare blessing that we greatly appreciate. Thursday evening David pulled out the multimedia projector and screen and we watched a movie on DVD.

As always, we love visits from the Peace Corps Volunteers. The stories of their adventures living in the bush leave us laughing and full of admiration for the work they do. And I could not ask for a more appreciative group to cook for!

Thanksgiving 2007

2007 was the first year we had Peace Corps Volunteers with us for Thanksgiving.  These incredible women made the holiday extra special:  Deb Rakowski, Jalle Gibesa, Angela Glenn, Jennifer Dyson, Heidi Joseph, and Karen Johnson.  

We had a fun and interesting Thanksgiving gathering at our house this year. Five Peace Corps volunteers arrived at Namwianga on Wednesday to spend the holiday with us. They stayed at the large guesthouse but ate most of their meals with us. They came prepared to cook and bake dishes for our feast, and on Thursday morning we had three kitchens in use—the guesthouse where the PC women were staying, the Hamby guesthouse kitchen, and mine. We had a short power outage around 10 a.m. that gave us a bit of panic, but the power came on again after about 30 minutes and the baking continued without any major disasters. 

Don Oldenburg had contacted the manager of the Spar grocery store in Choma weeks ago and asked him if he could get us two turkeys for Thanksgiving. We had high hopes that this manager could pull it off, but alas, it was not to be. When Don and Laura went to pick up the turkeys on Wednesday, the manager informed them that the turkeys had come in, but they were of such poor quality that he wouldn’t sell them to us. David grilled chicken instead.

We had two more Peace Corps workers who came in on Thursday—one made it in time for dinner and another arrived in the evening. Our other guests were Don and Laura Oldenburg, Sheri Sears, and Richard and Sue Krogsgaard. Richard and Sue are Canadians who arrived at Namwianga in August. They missed the Canadian Thanksgiving Day in October, so we thought it was appropriate that they share in our feast.

And feast we did! We managed to have many traditional American Thanksgiving dishes: stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple pie, rolls, mashed potatoes, green beans, and even jellied cranberry sauce that some recent visitors brought with them in their luggage. There were no Macy’s parades or football games to watch, but we did have lots of laughter, sharing, and fellowship.

Sara and John were in Searcy with David’s sister and family. We were able to talk to them via Skype and even saw them through the web cam. Later we talked with David’s parents and watched the last minute dinner preparations going on in the background. When they announced that dinner was ready, David’s dad had all of the family hold hands in a circle and then asked David to lead the prayer for the meal. From 10,000 miles away we shared in the Thanksgiving gathering with our family. God is good, and we are thankful.

David's father died in September of the following year, making our memories of the Thanksgiving Skype session especially sweet.  

Thanksgiving Photo

Here is a belated photo of our Thanksgiving gathering--I couldn't get the blog to post photos until now. We had seven Peace Corps volunteers from Southern and Lusaka Provinces, Don and Laura Oldenburg, Sheri Sears, and Richard and Sue Krogsgaard. It was a delightful group.

Visit from the Peace Corp

On Wednesday we had a delightful evening with a group of Peace Corps volunteers who were holding a leadership camp at Namwianga. GLOW Camp stands for Girls Leading Our World, and the purpose of the event is to encourage young women to develop their leadership skills. Each Peace Corps volunteer in Southern Province was invited to bring one outstanding girl from his/her village for three days of classes, group sessions, team building, and fun.

We were part of the fun element as we hosted the group of 11 volunteers (10 women and one brave guy) and 14 girls for dinner and a movie on our veranda. The Peace Corps workers were thrilled to enjoy American niceties like salad with Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, canned peas, and chocolate cake. In our conversations with them, we learned why this was such a treat.

Their regular routine in the villages is pretty rugged. They live in thatched huts, carry water in jerry cans from a well, and walk or ride bicycles for transport. Some live hours from the nearest town of any size at all. One woman told of having to have a new house built because her first site had so many snakes. Another described carrying water in a 20-liter can on her head from the well.

As you can imagine, the volunteers found their housing at Namwianga luxurious by comparison. The girls stayed in the school dorm, while the Peace Corps workers stayed in the guesthouses where they had hot water, flush toilets, and real beds.

The girls and the Peace Corps workers had a good time watching the movie “Rudy” after dinner, a fitting tie-in with their day’s discussion of short- and long-term goals. It was a joy to host this group, and we hope they will be back again.