Thanksgiving 2011.

Thursday November 24th, was incredibly un-thanksgiving-like. My day consisted of planning meetings and then doing my first of a series of career seminars for the teenagers. It was an incredibly stressful and crazy day of rushing here and there, getting things organized, talking to this person and that person, making sure things got to where they needed to be, etc. At the end of the day my friend, Dan (the other American here), and I sat together, completely exhausted and said to each other, "I can't believe its Thanksgiving. All the Americans are sitting on their lush sofas watching football and eating tons of food right now." We looked at each other for a moment to try to read whether we were sad to miss out. "Nah, its better here!!!" we both smiled. But actually, on Saturday, we ended up hosting a VERY LARGE Thanksgiving dinner for 25 people (3 of which were American), showing the other nationalities what it was all about! It really felt like I got in my holiday after all.

One of the Friday rituals is to go do our food shopping and have breakfast together and this photo shows some of the volunteers with me as we finish up a nice breakfast at a place that is supposed to be Hawaiian, called Kawaii. The Zulu people working there say in a monotone, boring voice, "Aloha" to greet costumers. Its SO ridiculous.
I just have loved to get to know the volunteers. They are all so special and supportive and have become my family. The sad part of it is that they leave so soon, most of them leaving before Christmas. But they have truly been such a team and support for me in my work.