Giving Thanks

      Thanksgiving came at the perfect time in our semester. As we are nearing the home stretch of semester, Thanksgiving was a perfect day for me to stop and reflect on how thankful I am for the opportunity of this semester abroad and all the blessing it has brought into my life with it.

To celebrate this American holiday, we prepared a large feast to share with our Peruvian friends and family. I was amazed at what we could whip up from Peruvian ingredients. In the end we had a very thorough Thanksgiving meal. Some girls from our group also prepared a program to explain the tradition and food to our Peruvian guests. Yes it was a bummer not to be able to celebrate with my family in the states, but our evening was a pretty good replacement. I ended the night with a very full, happy, and grateful stomach, but also content heart.

we gathered in the industrial size kitchen of the University to cook the large things like the turkey and mashed potatoes

our feast!

It was fun to see the reactions of the Peruvians to our food. Stuffing was a weird idea to them, but the biggest shock was that we would put marshmallows and brown sugar on our sweet potatoes. Here in Peru they are not eaten with anything other than chocolate. 

Our feast! complete with desserts of brownies, apple and pumpkin pie!

being on the decorating crew we went right to work making the classic hand painted turkeys

We were pretty proud of our work, in Lori's words "They don't have Thanksgiving here, but we sure made it look like they do!"

the crew for our presentation of explanation

To share the holiday with the Peruvians was very special for a couple reasons. The first reason being that we could teach them a little of OUR culture and make them try OUR food. But more than that, it was very special to share with them the things we are thankful for, to spend time focusing on God and his goodness in our lives. In return we also had a chance to sit and listen to their thanksgiving. The night was very special filled with joy and contentment.

so ready to enjoy some american food

I just had to include this cause as always Misti was stunning during sunset :)

Before I end this blog I want to state some things that I have been thankful for here in Peru:
-my fantastic Peruvian sisters and mother
-my friends here in Peru with me that are there to rejoice and mourn with me
-the beauty of Peru and the amazing opportunity I have to experience it through many excursions and daily wanderings
-the rich culture here in Arequipa that has taught me the importance of a greeting
-a chance to experience God here in Peru and be reminded of his ever present and inexhaustible faithfulness, love and joy.
-as crazy and hectic the system seems at first, I am thankful for the combis here in Arequipa that have taught me more about public transportation, and also allowed me to be free within the city
-the faithfully sunshiny weather here in Arequipa
-the watchman on my street that always takes time to say "Muy buenas tardes Señorita" (very good afternoon miss) as I come or go
-family in the US that takes time out of their busy schedule to skype with me and hear about my latest adventure
-friends who send me letters or quick reminders on facebook that they haven't forgotten about me

I am thankful for all these things and more during my time here in Arequipa, but in these past days I have also begun to think about the beautiful things of my home in Michigan. I don't know if it's because I have begun to listen to Christmas music and it makes me nostalgic or just because 4 months is a long time, but I have begun to think of the comforts I left behind when I came to Peru.
-hugs from family members
-late night talks with siblings
-fuzzy socks
-cuddling up against the cold to read a good book
-watching movies on my sofa in the basement
-playing with my dog
-baking with out worrying about improvising ingredients or adjusting for the altitude
-hot chocolate
-snow :)

Finally, I am thankful that I have all these cozy memories to look forward to upon my return.
I feel that the only proper way to conclude this blog post is that I am extremely blessed and there are so many things about travel and my homes in both Arequipa and Michigan that I will never take for granted. God is good and his love endures for ever.