HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! This was definitely my first time celebrating Thanksgiving outside of the States, and it definitely took some effort. I had been trying to come up with a way to celebrate with my family all week. The night before Thanksgiving I told my 6 year old host sister that the next day would be a holiday. She told me it wasn't true. I continued to insist on it, and she told me to stop talking, haha. But she was curious enough that she walked into the kitchen and asked her mother. She then walked back out to me and said "I told you there wasn't a holiday tomorrow," (in French, of course). My host dad then walked out of the house and I told him that the next day was a holiday and he said "oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving!" very enthusiastically. So I looked at my host sister and said "I told you there was a holiday tomorrow." I then told her and my host brother Mohammed that no American children have school on Thanksgiving and that no one works. They could hardly believe it. Mohammed was very jealous that he had to be in school when other kids didn't have to.
After my classes I made a trip to the biggest most American supermarket in Dakar with one of the other Rotary Ambassadors. We searched and searched for anything that remotely resembled thanksgiving… pumpkin-flavored anything, cranberry-flavored anything, or turkey. We were very disappointed not to find a thing. I even looked through the toys to try to find an American football, but they didn't have those either. Instead, we ended up getting chips and pop (to serve for the football game-watching portion of the holiday) and then ice cream cakes as a special dessert. I also bought some paper and markers.
When I got home, I gathered the kids together and taught them how to draw turkeys by tracing their hands and then coloring them in. They absolutely loved it and wouldn't stop making them! Halfway through that production, I got out the chips and Fanta which everyone enjoyed. I told Mohammed that I had looked for an American football but couldn't find one. He disappeared into one of the bedrooms and came out with a rugby ball that an Irish girl had given them. So, we made our way into the backyard and played a very weak version of American football with a rugby ball, but it was tons of fun. Afterward the father came out and told us we were throwing the rugby ball wrong and gave us lessons on how to play rugby.
Afterwards, I headed to the Baobab Center where I take language classes to have Thanksgiving Dinner. The Kalamazoo College students who are studying Wolof at the center planned a huge catered Thanksgiving Dinner for the students and the professors. There was also a "Get to Know American Values" cultural orientation right before the dinner. The session lasted an extra hour and a half, so I was there for an hour and a half of it as I waited for dinner. But the conversation was interesting to hear our professors give mini-presentations on things like personal space and individuality, which are very different in the States than they are here. The professors all found it very interesting and made lots of great comments and asked lots of great questions. Things like children moving away from their family at age 18 is such a foreign concept to the Senegalese.
After the conversations, the one American who works at the center told a very detailed version of the Thanksgiving story which I had never heard. I found out later that she had wikipedia'd it and put three stories together to form the one she told. Afterward, it was time to eat! The Kalamazoo girls made salad and mashed potatoes. The rest of the food was catered by 10,000 Girls (the organization I will work with in January and February). There was turkey and stuffing and corn bread and all sorts of things. With the spices used it was a pretty southern Thanksgiving, but it was absolutely delicious. All the Senegalese people ate the food very quickly and then left to go home. All the Americans sat around talking until about 11pm. It was relaxing and great! Much of the conversation was about the States, which I haven't talked much about with other Americans in quite some time, so it was nice.
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