Chuka, one of the American volunteers, had invited me to a Thanksgiving dinner a couple of weeks ago, but I had declined thinking I'd still be in Mombasa. Since my plans had changed I called up him and Chogoria to see if they were still planning on meeting up with some other volunteers.
There was something magical about that food, I don't know what it was, but it was easily the best thing I'd ever tasted. Maybe it was because I'd missed last Thanksgiving too and had been deprived of stuffing and mashed potatoes for so long. Or maybe because it was really refreshing to escape from my Kenyan life for a night and be stereotypically American, right down to the canned Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, stuffing and gravy from a box, and Mac & Cheese, in the blue box of course. All had been shipped from the US to various volunteers and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, all was shared and devoured.
There were two volunteers from Denmark and a girl from Sweden who were very much excited for their “first Thanksgiving” and wanted to know whether or not the macaroni and cheese was traditional. We all agreed that it wasn’t, but still a crucial addition to our meal.
A few volunteers had brought, and were wearing, aprons they’d bought at Makena. The girl whose apartment we were at even had Makena tie-dyed couch covers. At Chogoria's suggestion, I recently submitted Makena to four travel guide books as they aren’t listed in any now. If they’re accepted, they’ll get some free advertising for the tourists that visit Meru. The emails I received in return, although they were most likely all automated, sounded promising.
After dinner we played a game called “Celebrity” which starts with each person writing down five famous people or fictional characters. It’s a lot like taboo in that the, in this case, Tupperware container full of slips is passed around and each person has one minute to describe as many slips as possible with their team guessing the correct answers. Once all of the names have been guessed, and duplicates taken out, you go through the slips again, this time explaining each person with a single word. We didn’t make it to the third round, but if you do, you play charades and act out each slip.
There was something magical about that food, I don't know what it was, but it was easily the best thing I'd ever tasted. Maybe it was because I'd missed last Thanksgiving too and had been deprived of stuffing and mashed potatoes for so long. Or maybe because it was really refreshing to escape from my Kenyan life for a night and be stereotypically American, right down to the canned Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, stuffing and gravy from a box, and Mac & Cheese, in the blue box of course. All had been shipped from the US to various volunteers and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, all was shared and devoured.
There were two volunteers from Denmark and a girl from Sweden who were very much excited for their “first Thanksgiving” and wanted to know whether or not the macaroni and cheese was traditional. We all agreed that it wasn’t, but still a crucial addition to our meal.
A few volunteers had brought, and were wearing, aprons they’d bought at Makena. The girl whose apartment we were at even had Makena tie-dyed couch covers. At Chogoria's suggestion, I recently submitted Makena to four travel guide books as they aren’t listed in any now. If they’re accepted, they’ll get some free advertising for the tourists that visit Meru. The emails I received in return, although they were most likely all automated, sounded promising.
After dinner we played a game called “Celebrity” which starts with each person writing down five famous people or fictional characters. It’s a lot like taboo in that the, in this case, Tupperware container full of slips is passed around and each person has one minute to describe as many slips as possible with their team guessing the correct answers. Once all of the names have been guessed, and duplicates taken out, you go through the slips again, this time explaining each person with a single word. We didn’t make it to the third round, but if you do, you play charades and act out each slip.