Guatemalan Things I'm Thankful For (A Haiku)
Fellow volunteers,
Saludar-ing everyone,
mangoes, and hammocks.
I have this book. It's kind of like an art journal, I guess. It's my Thankful Book, and I've had it since high school. Every once in a while, a make a new page about something else that I'm thankful for. When I went away to college, I left it at home, and a couple months later I asked my mom to send it to me. When I went into the Peace Corps, I left it at home, and a couple months later I asked my mom to send it to me. It's such a simple thing, but it's probably one of my most treasured possessions. Not only do I love being able to paste another thing I'm thankful for into that book, it's also one of the most comforting things to look at when things start to go wrong.
This Thanksgiving was probably one of my favorite weekends I've had in Guatemala. It probably helped that I was coming directly from a pretty disastrous CODEFEM meeting, so anything would have automatically had a leg up in comparison, but it was also a really great weekend.
Three of my fellow vegetarian volunteers and I decided to have a turkey-less Thanksgiving at Carmen's house. Well, not completely turkey-less, because Carmen made a turkey piñata to substitute for the one we wouldn't be eating.
We slept in late on Thursday and, after watching a couple Thanksgiving themed episodes of How I Met Your Mother, started cooking away. Brynna made pumpkin pie, I made Daddy Greg's famous vegetarian gravy and mashed potatoes, Carmen made stuffing and broccoli salad. Britini came later with a delicious Guatemalan style green bean casserole with, of course, Tortrix on top. We beat up poor Thomas the Turkey with the neighborhood kids (who then ran around the yard with the piñata pieces pretending to be turkeys themselves), told each other a silly and a serious thing we were thankful for about each other, played cards, and rang in the Christmas season falling asleep to Love Actually. Friday we enjoyed Starbucks, a movie, AND the Guatemalan circus. Bible joke telling clowns, and all.
Then, during my five hour bus ride home, while packed seven to a seat on a chicken bus that broke down no fewer than four times during the trip, I made a mental list of everything I'm thankful for. I tried to pick something out that I could put into my book, but it was hard to choose. I wanted to be thankful for Thanksgiving, but isn't that redundant? I decided I didn't care, and made my Thankful Book a Thanksgiving page, turkey piñata and all (and, of course, a little note recognizing my redundancy).
The way I see it, that Thanksgiving page includes all the things I'm thankful for on the holiday, like (insert sappy plug about all the things I'm thankful for in life here): my family, my friends, all of the opportunities I've had in my life, lazy Guatemala weekends, Google Translate, libraries, my lime green VW Bug, full seasons of Boy Meets World on DVD, my little toaster oven, and so, so much more.
While we're on the theme of thanks, a big thank you to everyone that has supported me over the past year-and-then-some while I've been busy riding chicken busses and the roller coaster that is the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer. Near and far, I love you all SO much, and could not have survived it all without you!
