We are thousands of miles away from the United States, thousands of miles away from the friends and family we would normally been around on Thanksgiving. We decided that even though all the above was true, and Thanksgiving doesn’t exist in Senegal… we were going to celebrate and be thankful anyway!
We invited some of our closest friends here, and gave them a glimpse of some Thanksgiving traditions. A very small amount of turkeys get imported in, but aside
from being hard to find, the price gives me the impression that they all flew first class to get here. So, we ate smoked chicken instead. You read that right, it was smoked. One thing this Texas boy has missed since being in Senegal is smoked meat. Well, last week my language helper and I were able to find this ingenious piece of engineering.
What can’t you make with a re-purposed metal drum and rebar?
We also had all the fixings of mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, etc. We even had someone who generously sent us pumpkin pie filling, so there was pumpkin pie and coconut cream pie too. We felt God’s blessing in “the little details.”
The food helped provide a little bit of comfort and fun, but as we went around and mentioned what we were thankful for, the food was the last thing on my mind.
“Je suis reconnaissant pour ma famille qui sont au Etats Unis, et pour la famille que Dieu a donné ici au Sénégal.”
“I am thankful for our family back in the States, and also the family that God has given us here in Senegal.”
The traditional Thanksgiving food was nice, but without hesitation I would sit around a bowl of rice and fish with the same people tomorrow. We are thankful for God’s blessings in the “big details” too.