Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year, for 27 years of my life, Thanksgiving meant going to my Grandma's house in Sheboygan, eating a lot of food, hanging out with my cousins while the guys watched football, and going home to prepare for shopping on Friday.

Last year and this year have been very different.  Last year it was hard because I was far from my family and I had to work, but on the Friday after, a group of American friends and I had a GREAT Thanksgiving dinner.  For the first time since I was probably 10, I had turkey.  Kristin, one of my friends, had brought cranberry sauce and stuffing from the States.  I managed to find a delicious pumpkin pie here in Lima.  It was a different, but a great Thanksgiving nonetheless.

This year I´m having a harder time.  I have very few American friends here now.  There was a Thanksgiving planned, but it got cancelled.  My Grandma from AZ is in WI with my family.  My dad's 60th birthday was yesterday.  I almost started to cry in the taxi on the way to school this morning.

But, even though things are different, and I am far from home and at work again on Thanksgiving day, Thanksgiving is about being thankful.  No matter where I am in the world, I have so many things that I am thankful for - mainly all the people in my life - Paolo, my parents, my siblings (and in-laws!), my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, my Peruvian fam, my friends back home, my friends here. But I am also thankful to have a decent job and a nice lifestyle.  I am thankful that I am healthy and (usually) happy.  I am thankful for all the opportunities life has given me.  I am really thankful that at least I will get to go home in 3 weeks for 3 weeks to spend Christmas with the fam... and to be able to go to my sister-in-law's baby shower!

Every day, I see a plethora of poverty here.  While Peru has taught me to be quite "hard" on the outside, these people tug at my heartstrings every day.  On Monday at CAS, my students had a little party for the kids.  My students didn't want to do it... fortunately enough between me, my co-teacher, and a few more positive students, we convinced them it would be a good gesture.  One female student brought in religious bracelets to give the children.  I was standing next to one little boy when he received his.  The look on his face evoked emotions I can't describe.  He just seemed so thankful for the tiny gift - it was as if he had never received one before... and it's quite possible he hadn't.  Those little boys have literally next to nothing, and every little thing means something to them.  I hope life changes for the better for those kids, but I know quite well it won't.  But there is always hope.  And hope is something everyone should be thankful for.

I hope all of you have a lovely Thanksgiving with your family and loved ones.  Enjoy it - there are a lot of people who do not have the opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  (Gobble gobble!)