Thanksgiving in Cambodia

For all those concerned, I did not starve on Thanksgiving here. It wasn't exactly the same as home, but it was great nonetheless.

On Thanksgiving day, we went over to the pastor's house for breakfast. His wife, Jenny, is a fellow American, so we had some time with her and helped prep a little for their dinner. She invited a few Cambodians over to eat with her that evening.

Brittany and I had our own little celebration by the light of a cell phone up on our roof. We had six Cambodian friends join us to eat chicken, rice and soup...with watermelon and baby oranges for dessert. Not the traditional meal you think of when Thanksgiving is mentioned, but we are getting used to things not really being what we are necessarily used to.

On Black Friday, I did get up at the crack of dawn, but not because I wanted to catch all the good sales. Our Cambodian roommates just get up that early! And they are happy to get up at that time...almost every day. So at 5:30 when they were having a very loud sing-along and making breakfast, I wanted to be sleeping since there was no store to rush to. (I didn't actually make it out of bed until 8.) We had a amazing Thanksgiving lunch over at another American pastor's house with many other ex-pats (which just means people who are living here that are not Cambodian). Most were American, but there were a couple Canadians and Austrailians in there too. That was a bit more like home...with stuffing (at the first bite, I almost burst into tears of joy!), cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Notice I did not say anything about turkey. Chicken works as a good substitute for turkey here, but I have to admit, I missed the turkey a little. Our neighbors across the street have a turkey running around their property. We hear it "gobbling" almost every day and as Thanksgiving approached, we wanted to ask them if they would consider letting us "have" the bird. We didn't ask, though. We ate chicken instead, and it was good. We stayed all afternoon playing games and enjoying the fellowship.

And as of today, I am used to the Christmas season "offically" starting...getting out the tree and decorating...all that fun stuff. It's a little different here, but I am looking forward to it.