wooden shoes and windmills

A Happy (be-lated) Thanksgiving to Americans the world over. As hard as it can sometimes be to celebrate American holidays outside the country, mine was a Thanksgiving that will not soon be forgotten.

It started with the saga of the pie. I had been invited to the home of an American man and his Australian wife who I know from church. They normally have a Bible study in their home on Thursday nights but yesterday, in honour of the holiday, they were having a special dinner. Everyone was bringing something to contribute and I had been asked to bring a desert. At first I was quite keen on making a pumpkin pie until, after visiting the market, I realized pumpkin - in any form (not whole and definitely not canned) - is very hard to come by in this country. Period. Pumpkin is typically used to feed pigs here, and therefore is not eaten by civilized humans. As a result canned pumpkin does not exist in Holland. I was not defeated. I switched my focus to apple - which the Dutch have PLENTY of - and took an apple crisp instead.

I arrived at the apartment with very little trouble - in other words I didn't get lost as per usual - and was ushered into a warm, fantastic smelling room filled with people. There were seven countries - Nepal, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Holland, Australia and America - represented at our Thanksgiving table that evening, and plenty of delicious food. Besides the usual turkey and stuffing we ate an Ethiopian noodle dish called Bami, couscous, sweet iced tea (sans ice), and a variety of salads. My Australian hostess even went through the much be-laboured processes (due to the country's lack of pumpkin and pumpkin-related products) of boiling, scraping and pureeing to make the most delicious pumpkin pie.

After dinner we sang songs of worship of thanks to God and had a time of sharing and prayer. It was awesome and not like any Thanksgiving I've ever experienced.

Hope yours was just as memorable!