The Best Thanksgiving Since the 1st One
I am confident when I say that my thanksgiving this year was the best thanksgiving that I have ever had. Pilgrims and Indians would be jealous if they how good ours was.
My WR team and I are on an island Named Ometepe right in the middle of lake Nicaragua. An island made up of two volcanoes, coffee shops, a wonderful temperature of 85 degrees all the time, and the most beautiful sunsets that’s I have ever seen. This is where we celebrated thanksgiving, and I loved every minute of it.
We have worked at Cicrin Orphanage for the past couple off weeks and we thought it would be a good idea to have an old-fashioned thanksgiving dinner with them. As Tiffany led up the whole thing by thinking of dishes, making runs to the store and setting everything up we had everything in place for the special day.
We woke up and started the day just like any other, with breakfast and some good work outside. We then went into town and talked with our families and said “happy thanksgiving” to them, and then made our way back to the orphanage to start cooking.
The guys got to throw around a football, play music, and swim, while a few of the girls prepared the feast while not letting us in kitchen to eat all of the food before it was time for dinner. Tiffany, Angela, Jen, and Brittany were not only making a meal for the 14 of us, but they were also preparing a meal for 20 orphans and staff. They had a big task ahead of them.
A few hours past and right around 6 as the sun had just gone all the way down, they called us in for the amazing thanksgiving feast…
We sat down and looked at our plates with huge eyes and mouths watering as we decided what we were going to eat first. On our plates there was green bean casserole. Deviled eggs, garlic potatoes, delicious stuffing, onion rings, and Roberts’s mom’s famous fried chicken, which was the best-fried chicken that I have ever had by far.
As we sat around old and new friends, and ate our food, we made sounds of satisfaction with each bite. After we had already eaten too much, Robert brings out desert, and at that point my heart melted with joy. He had prepared a Yuka pie. If you don’t know what Yuka is, it is very similar to a pumpkin and can be used a pumpkin substitute. The Yuka was cooked under a layer of marshmallow and if you didn’t know it was Yuka, you would have thought you were eating the best pumpkin pie desert that you have ever tasted.
After and hour of stuffing our faces, everyone got up and said what they were thankful for, which made for a great ending to a perfect thanksgiving.
This year I really got to see and understand what thanksgiving is all about. It’s not about the food, even though food is delicious, but its about who you are with and recognizing all that we have to be thankful for. I am so thankful for being here in beautiful Nicaragua with people who are in love with Jesus, and desperately want others to know him. I am thankful for all of our new friends here at the orphanage, and the conversations that we get to have. I am thankful that I got to really see what thanksgiving is all about.
