Thanksgiving

It’s my favorite holiday of the year! Although I am currently lamenting the fact that my host family doesn’t have an oven [no pie… strike that, no baking for the past 3 months. That problem needs to be fixed and STAT] and people don't know that today is normally my favorite day spent in the kitchen with my family – no, especially not you Grade 5, because two of you cursed at me today and 11 others I had to confiscate pens from for shooting spitballs at each other… but I digress. I will be cooking a modified dinner for my host family shortly, and hopefully this will go better than the red beans and rice fiasco, fingers crossed![note: it went wonderfully yum!]

I will now share the lists I have crafted of what I am thankful for. Let’s start with American things I’m thankful for:

·      Hot showers

·      Frozen strawberry margaritas, and Mexican food.

·      Brunch, namely bagels

·      Properly functioning toilets

·      American television and movies. Can’t even get started on this topic.

·      Having free and instant internet at hours that aren’t ungodly

·      On that note: youtube and hulu.

·      My friends and family. Would probably have had a mental breakdown if not for the wondrous packages that arrived last/this week.

·      Things that are logical to me. Won’t go into this either.

·      Not being two and a half hours away from the nearest friend. Aka any form of a social life.

Namibian things I’m thankful for:

·      My host family. I think my host mom had some kind of feeling that I had hit a rough patch, and last weekend she bought a huge delicious chocolate cake for the 4 of us just to be nice! And then she took us out to lunch Saturday, and made custard with peaches [super nice fruit] on Sunday! I actually feel like a part of this family, I’m going to miss being around them so much!

·      Fat cakes

·      The sunrises/sunsets. When I start biking to school in January I’ll get to see them a lot more consistently, so pumped. Also the stars, wow.

·      Seeing the ocean every day at my site.

·      Luderitz in general. Even though the wind is seriously the most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced [sand blizzards every other day = slizzards = so much sand/dirt in my eyes and all over my body/clothes, all the time] I have a temperate climate generally.

·      Learners telling me “miss you are looking beautiful today!” a couple mornings a week.

·      The fact that when on the ‘highway’ there are most often no rails to prevent the obstruction of the road by baboons, all sorts of antelope, ostriches, and up north all the awesome animals like giraffes and elephants!!!

·      The singing and dancing. I have a mission to learn an Owambo dance in the course of my 2 years. I will probably fail miserably since it requires a sense of rhythm, but I’m going to try anyway.

·      Smarties and Cadbury bars. And Mexican Chili chips [it’s the closest to Mexican food I can get!]

·      PCNam Group 34. I guess they’re technically Americans, but they’re in Namibia. I can’t believe how close we became after just 8 weeks, but they’re my NAMily here, and I know I could text or call any of them if I ever needed something or had a problem. I don’t know if I could name 37 people in America I could comfortably call anytime about anything. 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!