The McKinney Family Journey in the Ulpan Valley: Dia de Gracias

If you had asked me a year ago where we would celebrate Thanksgiving in 2012, you would not have received this answer. But our Dia de Gracias was indeed a day on which to be thankful and to celebrate the many ways we are blessed.

To say we had a “cultural exchange” would be an understatement. It was more like the actual first Thanksgiving than any other I have experienced, since, as I have been reading to the kids in school, the first Thanksgiving was comprised of very few Pilgrims and over ninety Native American Indians. Our Thanksgiving was comprised of eight Americans (half of those my children) and 22 Guatemalans!!! That’s right….we had quite a full house, but it was delightful. Before lunch, we explained why we celebrate Thanksgiving and it was translated into three languages! After lunch, we watched the movie “Tangled” in Spanish with English subtitles.

We decided, if we were going to share our feast, it only made sense to share it with our team…most of whom are Guatemalan. So the preparations and plans began and we invited our team. The fact that we had to celebrate on the weekend (due to the work schedule of most), we assumed that most would not be able to come since they do not stay here on the weekends. We were wrong!! Every person we invited came, brought their families, plus a few extras. It was fabulous and certainly a day where we celebrated how thankful we are to be surrounded by wonderful “family”. Also an example of the “loaves and fishes”---we prayed during all the cooking that we would have enough food for the masses…and we put left overs in the fridge, had it for dinner last night, and probably have enough for 2 more meals (feeding 10 people)!!!

So, you may be thinking, how on earth did you prepare a Thanksgiving dinner with no oven?? Well…. When it comes to cooking in the valley, creativitiy and flexibility are the name of the game. DeeDee is fabulous at finding no-bake or stove-top recipes on the internet. She found one for candied sweet potatoes and for a no-bake pecan pie. The pecan pie didn’t work out because the grocery store was completely out of pecans and pie crust….enter flexibility—plan B: Jello Oreo no bake dessert! Not very “Thanksgiving-ish”, but fit the bill for something sweet. The rest of our menu was creamed corn, green beans, stove-top stuffing (brought from the states by Papa back in October), and a big-ol Butterball turkey. How on earth did we cook a turkey, you may say??? Ah, my friends, you have not met Kris and DeeDee (with help from the Colvett family last year J). It is like they have accepted cooking in the valley as their new-found challenge in life. The pinnacle being cooking the Thanksgiving turkey.

Last year, they dug a pit, built a fire, and buried the bird. And it was the “best Thanksgiving turkey they had ever eaten”. So this year, we planned to do the same thing. Dug a pit, built a fire, and buried the rosemary-honey-butter-garlic covered bird wrapped in foil, banana leaves and chicken wire. But as things go in life, nothing ever stays the same….so when we pulled the “wooster” as Shirley Temple called it, out of the pit, it was not done. Not sure why--- colder this year, bigger bird, fire not hot enough??? So many factors. With an hour and a half left until lunch, Nina, Kris & DeeDee swoop into action and created an oven on the griddle of the stove. By the time everyone arrived, the bird was cooked and lunch was delicious.

Kris & DeeDee digging the pit

Dancing Beauty and Shirley Temple helping to get the fire started.

Fire going....now for the bird!

All wrapped up & ready to cook.

Hot and steamy...just out of the pit....

But not quite done....so the make-shift oven is created.

I have been learning much about thankfulness during my time here in the Ulpan Valley. Here are some of the highlights of thankfulness for our family:

Katy: I am thankful for a roof that keeps us dry, warm blankets to sleep under, plenty of food, money to buy propane and kerosene, friends to laugh and cry with, family that prays faithfully for us, the joy in the faces of my children.

Little Man: I am thankful for family.

Dancing Beauty: A good nights sleep & everyone we live with.

Shirley Temple: I am thankful for Little Monkey, Daddy, Mommy, Nina, Sarah Beth Lown, Kris & DeeDee and our clothes.

Little Monkey: Food, milk, my family.

Mark: I am thankful for sunshine. It gives us power, it brings us happiness, it dries our clothes. It makes me thankful when I walk out of our room in the morning and it’s sunny.

We are also profoundly thankful for each of you. Your prayers and support are so very evident in our lives right now. We are grateful for the finances you gave to send us here, for the emails of support, the comments on the blog, the phone calls, the care-packages sent with teams. You all are amazing and we are so very thankful for you. Here are a few more pictures from our day: