Thanksgiving Abounds

Even though this was my first Thanksgiving outside of the U.S. it was still quite celebrated here in Pohnpei.  I was blessed with the opportunity to celebrate several times throughout the weekend.  I started it of on Thanksgiving Day with just a small "Thanksgiving-ish" meal for Laurel and me.  Turkey is not much of an option here, so I opted for roasted chicken instead.  I picked up a local pumpkin and local yam.  It was my first time to cook local yams so I got some advice for a few locals before attempting my own.  I was told boiling them was the best, so I turned them into mashed potatoes.  Throw on a side salad and we had quite the Pohnpeian Thanksgiving feast!

To top it off, Maryanna surprised us with dessert!  Let me tell you, anything cooked in coconut milk is absolutely delicious.  You can't go wrong!

Uht pilawa (bananas cooked in coconut milk)

Laurel and I decided to end the meal by sharing all the things we were thankful for starting with all the letters of Thanksgiving.  It was a lot of fun as we had a mixture of serious and silly things.  It went something like this:

T - teaching
H - happiness
A - avocados in the market (or arsenic in apple seeds that give them an almond flavor)
N - novelty of each day
K - kindness of strangers
S - sunrises and sunsets
G - grace
I - infinite love
V - volume control (when you can't control the volume of the dogs, roosters, cats, pigs, or people it makes you even more thankful for the volumes you can control)
I - income
N - night skies
G -generosity of people we've met here

You may or may not know that it is an Eastup family tradition to have a bonfire the Friday after Thanksgiving to roast hotdogs and make s'mores.  This is one of my favorite times of year, so I decided I needed to bring it to Pohnpei.  I had been saving coconut shells to burn in our little fire pit on the porch in hopes that this event could happen.  I invited my host family and my WorldTeach family to join in the special occasion.  I was so thankful I got to introduce more people to the fun of the Thanksgiving fire, especially since s'mores are not a known item here. Now this in not an easy feat.  Laurel and I literally went to every single grocery store in Kolonia to round up all the needed items.  Wall-Mart has hotdogs, buns, and graham crackers, Yoshie has the chocolate and marshmallows, Palm Terrace use to have graham crackers but just sold out, A-One has mustard, and Ace has ketchup.  It's such an adventure, but I was just thankful to finally find all the things we needed.

My months of collecting coconut shells

We have made fire!

Mike's excited!

Hotdogs are roasting

Hotdogs are Jay-Jay's favorite; by the end of
the night he had eaten 3 hotdogs and 2 s'mores.
His little tummy wasn't feeling so great :)

The lovely ladies I am so thankful to live with

After hotdogs it was s'more time!!!  For several, this was their first time to ever enjoy the delight-fulness of  an ooey-gooey s'more.  I love first-timers!

Ready for assembly!

The fire had burned down to the really hot embers, which
are perfect for getting the marshmallows golden brown
on the outside and gooey on the inside

Jay-Jay went straight for the double

Maryanna did a great job of following the instructions of
proper s'more assembly

Eat up!  You're not doing it right unless you have sticky marshmallow oozing out :)

We love s'mores!

  S'mores are a hit!  It won't be long before they're the next big craze in Pohnpei I'm sure. 

And to cap off the night with a bang, Mike brought sparklers for us to play with.  With the weather and the sparklers I had to remind myself that we were celebrating Thanksgiving and not the 4th of July.

It was obviously a great night filled with many things to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving celebration #3 happened Sunday afternoon at the U.S. Embassy residences.  One of the ladies that works for the embassy is great about hosting one and all for monthly dinners.  This month she decided to make it a Thanksgiving dinner.  It was complete with turkey and dressing and pumpkin pie!

The whole spread

A variety of salads and breads

The traditional turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce

Can't forget the dessert table!

The whole night was finished off with a great view of the sunset.

I feel like I got it all.  I had a Pohnpeian style Thanksgiving, Eastup Thanksgiving, and a traditional American Thanksgiving.  I am truly blessed in so many ways!

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

What an awesome God we have!  I am eternally thankful for all He has done in my life!  And I am thankful He has made you part of my life :)