Thanksgiving in Kenya

It’s been nice being back in Oyugis. At the beginning of this week my organization and I went on a search for a turkey for the Thanksgiving lunch we were having. We have seen turkeys around but of course now that we actually wanted one we couldn’t find any. My coworkers called friends of friends of friends. I don’t know how many times I heard them say on the phone, “Turkey, adwaro (I want) turkey. Eeee (yes), T-U-R-K-E-YYYY” because turkeys aren't the most sought after creatures here i guess. Eventually we found a guy who knew a guy who knew my coworker who lives 15 km outside of town. During the search I had told my coworkers it wasn’t a big deal if we couldn’t find one, we could just have chicken. But, they insisted, they told me they wanted me to have turkey on my holiday like it should be traditionally. Wednesday night one of my coworkers came to the office with the turkey tied to the handles of the motorbike. We locked it in a room in the office and it met its end on Thursday morning.

I didn’t do the slaughtering, it still freaks me out, but I watched and took pictures. Meanwhile, another volunteer, Denae, had come for Thanksgiving and helped me cook during the morning. We made green bean casserole (which turned out a little soupy but was still good), stuffing (which came out amazing), and an apple pie. My coworkers helped out and made mashed potatoes (not American style though it had hard boiled eggs, cilantro, and carrots, interesting…), ugali, some meat for the people who were afraid to try turkey, and some vegetables. Ugali is a kind of cornmeal that everyone eats in Kenya it’s thick and is usually used to eat and pick up other food with it. When everyone saw our stuffing they started calling it American ugali. The stuffing, turkey, and apple pie went over very well. Almost everyone there had never had turkey before.

I have to say, Thanksgiving in Kenya is way more of a process than in the states. We made our own oven by lighting a fire, then using a HUGE pot where we put sand in the bottom another pot inside that pot with the turkey in it, then covered the whole thing with a metal lid and put hot charcoals on top. We had boiled the turkey beforehand so it didn’t take a ridiculous amount of time to cook. It was really fun because my coworkers love cooking so they were watching us cook and asking us about the recipes.

Even though we were cooking turkey and everything, it only really felt like Thanksgiving at one point. That was when Denae and I were chopping green beans and listening to Christmas music. I have to say, I hadn’t cried from missing family/friends while being in Kenya until the other day when I was explaining to my coworkers about Thanksgiving and how it’s a family holiday. Honestly, I think if I hadn’t been doing this Thanksgiving event I probably would have completely forgotten it was Thanksgiving. I am glad I got to spend it with some other volunteers and my organization, though.