Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Well, I can't believe it is time for our second Thanksgiving in Zambia. Our first one, a year ago, did not require much thought on my part. We had been here less than a month and some new friends invited us to spend it with them. This was my first time to meet most everyone there. We had a nice time, but it was the first time I had spent Thanksgiving anywhere but with my family so it was very different and I missed the familiarity.

This year, we will be having Thanksgiving dinner at our house. We have invited friends who have become part of our family (The Allens and Kanyangas) plus a family that is new to Lusaka and Brad's company. We will total 19 which thrilled me because then it really feels like home. In all my excitement, I failed to think about details....like where we would all sit. I have a large dining room table, but I will be short 2 places for adults and then there's the small detail of not having but 4 dining room chairs (they have all fallen apart one by one and are no longer repairable--brad has repaired them each at least 5 times) plus 2 desk chairs.

So I bit the bullet last week and ordered 8 new dining room chairs. They were supposed to be ready by Wednesday, but in order to get them on time now, I think I am going to have to say wait on the stain and we'll stain after Thanksgiving. I'm really excited. It will be nice to have chairs that I'm not afraid that my company will fall through to the floor!! I am having them made out of Mukwa which is a beautiful heavy wood that many things are made out of here. The other common one is pine, but with the dry air, the pine ends up drying out and splitting a lot of times. I have taken a piece of one of my dilapidated chairs so that the color can be matched to the table.

I think I have decided we will take Wednesday and Thursday off school instead of Thurs./Fri so that I can get all the cooking done. Going from being responsible for a side dish and a dessert, to being responsible for the main course +, is a huge step and quite intimidating! Brad is going to smoke a turkey and we'll also be baking a ham. (I'm hoping my sweet cousin Brent will remind me of his fantastic recipe). I'm going to try to make my mom's dressing (without sage which apparently isn't to be found in Lusaka) and milk gravy. I have been fixated on cranberry sauce because it's just something that goes with turkey. A precious friend has given me some so now it will feel like a real thanksgiving :) (once the green beans, chocolate pies, and ambrosia are also ready to go with it!).

I purchased my Turkey last Friday which was evidently a stroke of genius because according to my friend Karla, Shoprite (the grocery store) was over run with Muzungus (aka-foreigners) on Saturday morning. She said she didn't know there were so many expats in Zambia, but there evidently were and they were all in shoprite. There were no turkeys to be found anywhere that morning. Whew!! Close one. Would be pretty bad to invite people over for turkey and then not have one!!

We decided to also have a ham which from the last year's experience we knew would not be found in the grocery store. But a friend of mine has been telling me about a butcher she likes to use and that they have the best ham she has found here. So I stopped by there today on my way to the vegetable market and thought I'd see if they had any. When I walk in, I really don't recognize anything in the case except some type of ribs and possibly some sandwich type ham?? So I'm a little doubtful I'll find what I'm looking for, or at the very least, I will have to order it. So when it's my turn, I ask for an uncooked ham (sorry for the repeat to those of you who have been on facebook). She asks "Green?". I say I don't know what that is (a common statement to come out of my mouth here in Zambia). She says "salted." I tell her no, I want a fresh, uncooked, unsalted ham. She excuses herself, comes from behind the counter and goes into another room where I hear a saw and she comes back with the majority of a pig leg (hind quarter as my cousin Chris was so kind as to impart correct terminology to me) minus the hoof but plus the skin. It's a bit much for me, so she takes it back and I hear the saw again and she returns minus the hip joint (I think......my pig anatomy is sketchy). I say "OK" and she drops it in a grocery sack and Olivia and I walk out carrying a grocery sack with a pig leg sticking out the top. A scenario I've never quite pictured myself in, but surprisingly normal feeling after a year in Zambia.

The girls were a bit grossed out, yet intrigued and periodically take a peek at the pig leg in the fridge. So......that's about it for our Thanksgiving prep! I'm tired just thinking about tomorrow and ever the more thankful for all the work my mom and grandmother and aunts have always put into our Thanksgiving feast. We will be having our dinner at 2pm (6am CST) and then plan on the usual lounging and snoozing and then back for evening sandwiches.

So tomorrow will be a very busy day that will begin with shopping and then be filled with meal prep for Thursday. Charity will be getting her first introduction to Thanksgiving as I happily put her to work helping me :) (Though she was appalled mom, when she walked in and saw me crumbling a beautiful pan of cornbread for the dressing--she gasped and said "oh--what are you doing?!") :)

I will miss you all dearly! I love you dear family and friends. I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving! Much love from me and of course the fam.

Zookeeper