November 22, 2008 Thanksgiving Gathering

I actually get not one but two Thanksgiving feasts this year. The second will be on Thanksgiving Day, and will include about a dozen Peace Corps Volunteers and about an equal number of Moroccans. This requires a lot of food, so I’ll be spending most of Wednesday baking with my sitemate “Fatima”.

But today, the Saturday before, I gathered with a mostly-overlapping group of PCVs way up a different mountain. We huddled around his wood-burning stove and watched his TV and ate mountains of chicken, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and desserts. A wonderful time was had by all.

Lhumdullah.

(When I’ve explained Thanksgiving Day to Moroccans, I usually translate it as “Wess n Humdullah” – the Day of Thanks to God. They don’t understand why we take a day to do something they do in every conversation – literally, the greeting ritual isn’t complete until both parties have said lhumdullah – but they understand the importance of it.)