Thanksgiving in Zambia

On Monday I headed back out to the CRC on my bike.  I made my usual stop at Zambikes to bring all the men sweets and get my bike tuned up.  I also wanted to see if the owners (who just so happen to be American) were back from Mozambique.  I walked into the house and sure enough they were home.  I proceeded to invite myself to their Thanksgiving feast and fortunately they approved of the idea.  I was bound and determined to eat something other than Nschima and beans for dinner on Thursday.

I offered to bring mashed potatoes because frankly without any electricity or ingredients there’s not much else to offer.  So I’m going to walk you through my Thanksgiving Day.

Here’s the bag of potatoes that Innocent brought for me the previous day.  At this point it’s about 8:30 AM and I’m already starting my preparations for a dinner that starts at 5:00 PM.

Thankfully Jackie helped me peel the potatoes.  First time I’ve ever used a knife to peel them.  It took me almost two hours to peel and cut all the potatoes.  Good thing I started early.

While I was peeling the potatoes I realized that I was also going to need some milk and butter.  The nearest shop is a 30 minute bike ride so around 11 AM I hopped on my bike and rode to the farm shop. 

On the way I ran into these beauties.  The one on the right is Miriam who’s married to Martin (works for MWB) and her baby Elizabeth.  I also finally met Gertrude, Lubinda’s wife (also works for MWB) and her two kids, Jacqueline and Joseph.  It was so fun to visit with these gems.  They live nearby each other so I paid a visit to both homes.  Miriam loves to dance so while we were at Gertrude’s home we put in some music and danced for a bit.  These Zambians know how to dance.  I’m hoping that it will rub off.

While Miriam and Gertrude were escorting me back to the main road we passed this woman plowing a filled.  They wanted me to stop and do some plowing myself and just laughed at me when I made my futile attempt.

I finally made it home around 1 PM and had some beans for lunch.  I put the potatoes on the fire around 2 PM and studied with the kids for a bit.  At 3 PM I prepared the mashed potatoes. 

At 4 PM I was ready to go.  I put the potatoes in a big container which fortunately fit in my backpack.  I was worried about carrying them on my bike but it all worked perfectly.  It took me about 45 minutes to get there with a few stops along the way to visit with friends.

When I reached Zambike, I was pleasantly surprised to find a full house with a kitchen bustling with women preparing the feast we were about to partake of.  I didn’t know anyone but my two white Zambike friends that I had only met two other times.  It was fun talking to all these white people and finding out what they were doing in Zambia on Thanksgiving Day.

At about 6:30 PM the food was ready so we prayed and began the feast and boy was it a feast.  I hadn’t seen this much food for a long time.  I was in heaven.  I LOVE FOOD!!!  Of course I had a big grin the whole night.  Here’s the line up for food.

See how happy I am with all this food.

Once dinner started I sat by all the Zambian guests.  For some reason I feel more comfortable with them than the muzungoos.  I loved chatting and laughing with them.  There were so many people and they just kept coming.  It was quite the party and I was so glad I invited myself to the occasion.

 

For sure this was my favorite part of the night.  Look at all those pies in Zambia.  It’s like manna from heaven.

     

A little after 10 PM my new Zambian friends gave me a ride home.  It’s not safe to move around at dark so I was grateful for the ride.  I also got to talk to my sisters.  They were so nice to call and it helped me feel not so far from home.  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and I was grateful to be so fortunate.