Thankful Turkeys
As I listened to Mia quietly singing Johnny Appleseed this morning I realized that today HAD to be the day that I found time to sit down and write on our blog. We have had such good intentions to write (originally our goal was before Thanksgiving!) but it seems that the business of life takes over if you don’t make it stop. So this morning I’m stopping to tell you how we are.
First I must say that Steve did a GREAT job of highlighting our lives recently, but I want to go back and tell you more about our Thanksgiving celebration. We knew that this would be our first holiday celebrating without our friends and family and “typical” holiday feast. As a result we decided to do something totally different so it wouldn’t feel quite so sad. The kids had school off (a perk of going to an American based school since Mozambicans don’t celebrate turkey day) so we packed up and headed to the beach. It was a little crazy getting out of town (some things don’t change even when you move across the world!) but we finally pulled out of the driveway loaded down with enough supplies for a small village. You see our trip to the beach was also our first attempt at camping in Mozambique! So we packed a tent, air mattresses, sheets, clothes, beach supplies, food and water for 4 days. I think our guard had a good laugh at the Americans that day! We drove 3 hours south to a town called Xai-Xai (pronounced Shy Shy). As a surprise for us my very thoughtful and well-connected scheming husband had procured a turkey for us to have on Thanksgiving Day. We were all delighted and made a quick stop in Bilene at a South African run seminary to pick up our killed and dressed bird. (FYI in Mozambique if you don’t specify that you want your bird dead you get a live one!) Then in an attempt to compliment the bird we stopped along the road to buy other Thanksgiving fare – potatoes (sweet and regular), green beans, fruits and cashews. Well to make a long story short the sweet potatoes weren’t actually potatoes, the green beans were a different variety that were purple and green and tasted more like chickpeas and the big watermelon actually turned out to be a jam melon (yes used to make jam, not to eat) which tasted like slightly sweet zucchini! However the turkey was delicious (the owners of the campground cooked it for us in their oven), the mashed potatoes were very good (especially considering they were cooked on a camp stove) and the young berry jam that we brought in place of cranberries (which are not available in Mozambique) was quite tasty. The owners also made us some gravy to go with the meal! By the time everything was ready it was dark outside so we sat at a pick nick table aglow with the light of citronella candles, under the huge starry sky of Africa listening to the crash of the waves of the Indian Ocean. Lucy led us all as we prayed for our delicious meal and we went around the table talking about what we were grateful for this year. We most definitely missed our loved ones as we made new “Africa” memories that day. When we finished we headed “home” to our tent. As I lay listening to the noises of rural Africa that night I was overwhelmed with gratitude!
Here are a few of our “thanksgiving” thanks:
Friends and family. God’s love. The beach. Turkey. A home (not just a house). God’s provision. Africa. America. The opportunity to be living, working and learning in Mozambique. New friends. People who believe in us. God’s protection. School. Kaleb, Lucy and Mia. God allowing us to be involved in what He is doing in the world. Smart minds. The opportunity to see beautiful places and amazing animals. Our past experiences, which prepared us, a little bit for our present opportunities. Wisdom, direction, passion, hope and joy. Emails. Books, crayons, music, great technology, the Internet. New experiences that are growing us and shaping us into better people. Portuguese. The fun of having dinner under the stars at the beach. Tommy!
Tomorrow is Kaleb's 8th birthday. I marvel that eight years have flown by so quickly! I feel like it was just yesterday that the doctor handed me a tiny, crying bundle and said, "Congratulations you have a son!" I felt so completely inadequate to take him home and care for him. Now I look at a tall, smart, confident, happy, healthy eight year old and breath my deepest gratitude to God for all the times He's intervened and covered over our mistakes! I know that Kaleb is becoming the person that he was created to be more and more everyday. He is a sweet boy full of knowledge, love, consideration, character and a quite a bit of boyish mischief! I look forward to watching as he rises to the challenges of life and grows older and wiser everyday.
On Friday Kaleb finishes school for the winter holiday. It's a little strange considering the temperatures here hover around 38 degrees Celsius (about 100 F). There is no snow for sledding or making snowmen over break. Although we're happy not to be freezing in the north, I must say it feels a little less like Christmas with this weather. I did see a couple of guys unloading live Christmas trees to sell on the corner the other day. They were funny looking scraggely trees reminiscent of Charlie Brown's little tree, but they were green with branches for decorating. I'm guessing they didn't have that Christmas pine smell though! It made me realize that our choice to move to Africa requires us to establish new traditions for our family celebrations. Ways to prepare for and inspire us to remember that even though it doesn't FEEL like Christmas it still is. It's a good lesson in walking by faith and not by sight. Realizing that just because something doesn't look or feel the way we think or expect it should doesn't mean it isn't so. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see! (Hebrews 11:1)
In the hustle and bustle of this busy holiday season we find ourselves more and more thankful. We are looking forward to a different kind of Christmas this year. Like other Christmases before, one full of happy memories and good times, but less commercialism and more focus on what really matters. A celebration of what the holiday is really all about. We are hoping that this will be the beginning of our children valuing the season for the giving and not the gifts, the people and not the products and the time to be together and celebrate our blessings. We hope and pray that you will find peace, joy and gratitude in this season and many blessings in the New Year!
First I must say that Steve did a GREAT job of highlighting our lives recently, but I want to go back and tell you more about our Thanksgiving celebration. We knew that this would be our first holiday celebrating without our friends and family and “typical” holiday feast. As a result we decided to do something totally different so it wouldn’t feel quite so sad. The kids had school off (a perk of going to an American based school since Mozambicans don’t celebrate turkey day) so we packed up and headed to the beach. It was a little crazy getting out of town (some things don’t change even when you move across the world!) but we finally pulled out of the driveway loaded down with enough supplies for a small village. You see our trip to the beach was also our first attempt at camping in Mozambique! So we packed a tent, air mattresses, sheets, clothes, beach supplies, food and water for 4 days. I think our guard had a good laugh at the Americans that day! We drove 3 hours south to a town called Xai-Xai (pronounced Shy Shy). As a surprise for us my very thoughtful and well-connected scheming husband had procured a turkey for us to have on Thanksgiving Day. We were all delighted and made a quick stop in Bilene at a South African run seminary to pick up our killed and dressed bird. (FYI in Mozambique if you don’t specify that you want your bird dead you get a live one!) Then in an attempt to compliment the bird we stopped along the road to buy other Thanksgiving fare – potatoes (sweet and regular), green beans, fruits and cashews. Well to make a long story short the sweet potatoes weren’t actually potatoes, the green beans were a different variety that were purple and green and tasted more like chickpeas and the big watermelon actually turned out to be a jam melon (yes used to make jam, not to eat) which tasted like slightly sweet zucchini! However the turkey was delicious (the owners of the campground cooked it for us in their oven), the mashed potatoes were very good (especially considering they were cooked on a camp stove) and the young berry jam that we brought in place of cranberries (which are not available in Mozambique) was quite tasty. The owners also made us some gravy to go with the meal! By the time everything was ready it was dark outside so we sat at a pick nick table aglow with the light of citronella candles, under the huge starry sky of Africa listening to the crash of the waves of the Indian Ocean. Lucy led us all as we prayed for our delicious meal and we went around the table talking about what we were grateful for this year. We most definitely missed our loved ones as we made new “Africa” memories that day. When we finished we headed “home” to our tent. As I lay listening to the noises of rural Africa that night I was overwhelmed with gratitude!
Here are a few of our “thanksgiving” thanks:
Friends and family. God’s love. The beach. Turkey. A home (not just a house). God’s provision. Africa. America. The opportunity to be living, working and learning in Mozambique. New friends. People who believe in us. God’s protection. School. Kaleb, Lucy and Mia. God allowing us to be involved in what He is doing in the world. Smart minds. The opportunity to see beautiful places and amazing animals. Our past experiences, which prepared us, a little bit for our present opportunities. Wisdom, direction, passion, hope and joy. Emails. Books, crayons, music, great technology, the Internet. New experiences that are growing us and shaping us into better people. Portuguese. The fun of having dinner under the stars at the beach. Tommy!
Tomorrow is Kaleb's 8th birthday. I marvel that eight years have flown by so quickly! I feel like it was just yesterday that the doctor handed me a tiny, crying bundle and said, "Congratulations you have a son!" I felt so completely inadequate to take him home and care for him. Now I look at a tall, smart, confident, happy, healthy eight year old and breath my deepest gratitude to God for all the times He's intervened and covered over our mistakes! I know that Kaleb is becoming the person that he was created to be more and more everyday. He is a sweet boy full of knowledge, love, consideration, character and a quite a bit of boyish mischief! I look forward to watching as he rises to the challenges of life and grows older and wiser everyday.
On Friday Kaleb finishes school for the winter holiday. It's a little strange considering the temperatures here hover around 38 degrees Celsius (about 100 F). There is no snow for sledding or making snowmen over break. Although we're happy not to be freezing in the north, I must say it feels a little less like Christmas with this weather. I did see a couple of guys unloading live Christmas trees to sell on the corner the other day. They were funny looking scraggely trees reminiscent of Charlie Brown's little tree, but they were green with branches for decorating. I'm guessing they didn't have that Christmas pine smell though! It made me realize that our choice to move to Africa requires us to establish new traditions for our family celebrations. Ways to prepare for and inspire us to remember that even though it doesn't FEEL like Christmas it still is. It's a good lesson in walking by faith and not by sight. Realizing that just because something doesn't look or feel the way we think or expect it should doesn't mean it isn't so. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see! (Hebrews 11:1)
In the hustle and bustle of this busy holiday season we find ourselves more and more thankful. We are looking forward to a different kind of Christmas this year. Like other Christmases before, one full of happy memories and good times, but less commercialism and more focus on what really matters. A celebration of what the holiday is really all about. We are hoping that this will be the beginning of our children valuing the season for the giving and not the gifts, the people and not the products and the time to be together and celebrate our blessings. We hope and pray that you will find peace, joy and gratitude in this season and many blessings in the New Year!
posted by Sniders in Africa at 12/14/2005 11:01:00 AM
<< Home