Thanksgiving!

As difficult as it was to spend my first Thanksgiving away from my family (and my first in 4 years away from eddie), I had a really great Thanksgiving here in Mauritania with all the other PCVs. About 25 of us got together and tried our best to transport all of American traditions here.
That started with a party Thursday night with Mariah Carey being played at midnight (because the Christmas season officially starts the day after Thanksgiving haha). Friday we went to the market early (10 am our time, 5 am your time) for some black Friday shopping (thinking of dad of course getting up at the crack of dawn). Unfortunately, the concept of sales doesn’t really translate here hahaha… below are some pics of use in the market getting frustrated when some of the shopkeepers tried to rip us off… normal black Friday shopping frustration, Mauritanian style.

Then we spent the rest of the day cooking a huge Thanksgiving feast (because the teachers had school on Thursday we had our big dinner on Friday instead) and was it a feast… I am still amazed at some of the great things we can make out of what is available in Mauritania (although some of it was boxed food sent from America too help us out). We had Mashed potatoes, gravy, pasta salad, okra casserole, squash, stuffing, duck, barbeque chicken (brought to you by Ryan), sautéed veggies/beef, cornbread, banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, and carrot cake. It was absolutely amazing… and all done with two burners, a toaster oven, and an open pit grill.

The rest of the night was sooo much fun… the Thanksgiving themed hats were a huge hit (thanks mom!) and after a little nap following the outrageous amount of food I ate, I was ready for round 2 of the party. All and all, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend what could have been a really difficult day. It was so nice to talk to everyone back home, I could just imagine you all sitting around at Grandmas and Papas passing around the phone (sorry about the little delay, I’m so used to it I kind of forgot how obnoxious it could be!) I’ll be spending the rest of the day today starting to make some Christmas decorations for the regional house and bringing the spirit of the season to Africa!