Thanksgiving Round 2

This year I celebrated Thanksgiving Week with the students at the school by making a 'Thankful Turkey' and showing Pocahontas. While Disney's Pocahontas is very unlike what really took place its a good, kid friendly, film to illustrate the voyage over to the New World and the differences between the native culture and the settlers once they arrived. I managed to find it in Bulgarian, dubbed and not with subtitles, so the little kids could watch it without falling behind in reading. They seemed to enjoy it, the Meeko and Percy antics are universaly funny and they were laughing quite a bit.

The 'Thankful Turkey' was a group craft project that we put together. I cut out paper feathers and had the kids write down things that they were thankful for. I collected them all back and made them into turkeys. With all the feathers from 2nd-8th grade we had enough to make two turkeys and put them up in the hallway for everyone to read.

On actual Thanksgiving day I cooked a small dinner for myself and my landlady Stoika. I have been trying to explain what stuffing is since its one of my favorite holiday dishes and I thought it would be easier if I just made it. I had difficulty locating a turkey this year so we had roasted chicken, but everything else was traditional; stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

Over the weekend I traveled to a friend's village to help with an event at her state run boarding school. We had different activities set up in different rooms/areas for them in the morning. We made hand turkeys and headdresses, silly putty, chocolate chip cookies and played sports ranging from football and American football to baseball. In the afternoon we all split up into four groups and had a scavenger hunt around the village. My team won.

This guy caught on quite well with football

Joe showing kids how to throw a football

making silly putty

making chocolate chip cookies

making chocolate chip cookies

headdress table

completed cookies

monkey in the middle in front of the school

Nichole before the Scavenger Hunt

The winning team before we were assigned our kids

scavenging

hunting

scavenger hunt fun

returning from the scavenger hunt

baseball

That night we all had a festive dinner in a closed down restaurant space in the center of the village. They let people use it for birthdays and celebrations and they let us have it for Thanksgiving. There was a ping pong table, darts and a very large area to set up a table; and dance later too. I brought a pumpkin pie, mulled wine and some cranberry sauce; everything else was supplied by the group. I helped with preparations; slicing and all that fun sou chef stuff when needed. We cooked three fresh turkeys purchased and dried in the village, mashed potatoes, zucchini casserole, carrot and orange salad, two types of stuffing, deviled eggs, baked pumpkin, root beer cookies, apple crumble and of course gravy.

Dinner Group Shot