Give Thanks

Its difficult to believe that it’s the end of November when the weather is a cool 85 degrees with high humidity & thunderstorms almost every night.  If it wasn’t for calendars & facebook reminding me what time of year it is, I might have missed Thanksgiving!

The US Ambassador's house

Super excited about dinner

I got the opportunity to accept an invitation to have a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at the US Ambassador’s house, only 15 Americans from the ship were invited & I was one of the lucky few!  The food was amazing, everything you could imagine- turkey, gravy, 3 different types of stuffing, green bean casserole, mac & cheese, potatoes, cranberry sauce.  I felt like I was home.  We ate outside under a covered patio, the cool tropical breeze made it very enjoyable. 

We ate & ate until we all felt overly stuffed, then we went back for dessert!  It was nice to just sit & talk to other Americans (from the ship, or from the embassy or just living in the country).  We didn’t have to explain what Thanksgiving was, why we eat the foods we eat or try to convince people to try things like pumpkin pie. 



My American family

Yes- I ate everything on my plate

Wishbone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we sat in the ambassador’s living room just talking, too full to move.  The power went out at one point, but we didn’t care, just a reminder that we were still in Africa.  The house staff brought out candles & we were all amazed because we haven’t seen lit candles in a long time (open flames are not allowed on the ship, so no candles).  Even when the lights came back on a half hour later, we couldn’t blow out the candles quite yet, though when we did, we fought over who would blow them out!  I hope we didn’t make the ambassador think we were crazy or something!

Sunset from the Ambassador's house

What a fun, memorable night!  I wasn’t with my family, but I was with my American family, for which I am thankful for.

Blessings