Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

Particular holidays give that real sense of home for me, and thanksgiving is one of my favorites. I love the idea of great home cooking, and the smell of turkey throughout the house sends me drifting to familiar youthful memories from when I was a kid. (My mom was and is, a fabulous cook.) I can also safely say that Les is a terrific cook too. Les's thanksgiving dinner is a blend of family recipes and her own special way of making the perfect turkey. However, we are in Cambodia....

This year is different. We couldn’t find a turkey (although some of our American friends, who have been here for a while, have secured a turkey for their American thanksgiving at the end of November). We are just rookies out here I guess. Les did however, find a place where we could trust the cooked chickens and she purchased 3 for the large group attending our place. Despite the odds, we still managed to have a really good Canadian style thanksgiving party here in Phnom Penh.

We hosted about 25 Canadians and a few Americans at our house on Saturday night. We had people from Kelowna, Brampton, Saskatoon, Calgary, Winnipeg, Abbotsford, and a few more from the eastern side of Canada. It was great to share this holiday with so many fellow Canadians, all who were related to a ministry field in way or another. There was a kindred spirit to the whole evening.

Everyone managed to find an item to bring to the gala event. We even had Angela (a teacher at Logos) bake a pumkin pie while 12 year veterans Bill and Ilana (from Owen Sound) made a pecan pie and another pumkin pie! They even brought Whip Cream ($8/can). I was in heaven! We did not bring the turkey but in the process of trying to find one, we found a really good meat shop across town and I purchased a ham! (ASIDE: There is nothing like taking a 2kg ham and placing it under your moto seat for safe keeping! Here I was, in the scorching sun, driving my moto and I was sitting on my ham! Priceless!)

Les made her sweet potato pie with marshmallows on top- a family favorite. It looked a bit different from the Canadian version, (the marshmellows melt and brown differently and the sweet potato has a different color) but it sure did taste good. I think that was the case with many of the foods we had, they all tasted or looked a bit different. Yet at the same time they still tasted great and all the food looked great on the Thanksgiving table.

Our principal Dan, from Kelowna, even managed to find a can of cranberry sauce. We got it to the house and I realized, we don’t have a can opener. (We haven’t opened any cans since we have been here). I found a solution, I found our meat clever. I used it to slowly start to cut and wedge open the can. The only thing I kept thinking was, “don’t lose your fingers, cranberry sauce is not worth it”. Thankfully, no injury resulted.

After everyone introduced themselves and said where they were from, we said Grace and we made a special note of thankfulness for God’s mercy and grace to everyone out here. Once everyone loaded up their plates, we then asked everyone to take food from the table situated on the first floor and then head up the minor 4 flights of stairs to our roof top deck where the view is nice and the air can flow (at least a little bit). We enjoyed everyone’s company and the food was perfect. Actually I made a rookie cambodian thanksgiving mistake with my jello fruit salad. I placed some fruit salad on top of my plate of food and started to head up to the stairs. By the time I made it to the top, my jello salad had completely melted into a red liquid pool. I guess the 35C temperature had something to do with that. I had to drink the warm red liquid from my plate (it was a bit gross), but I tarried forth.

We had a couple of very dear Americans who were our guests. These ladies are from Logos school and it was just wonderful to have them share the evening with us. I wish we had more room to invite so many more. Jana, a YWAMer originally from Abbotsford had a chance to come out to our place for the evening too. She’s been out here for about 3 weeks with her group, she’s the one with the least experience in Cambodia. (Although we weren’t far behind with only 2 months under our belts.) Jana was gracious to help clean up the mess with us. Actually, we wished she could have stayed and cleaned up the whole house (kidding!)

All in all, it was a great way to spend our first Thanksgiving in Phnom Penh. We miss many of you back home, but it was nice to spend it with a group of people who actually know who “Stephen Harper” is. Through hosting this meal, we have had an opportunity to bless many of the Canadians who are here alongside us. We might as well put out an invitation instead of wait for the invitation. The Lord’s Blessings to you all this Thanksgiving holiday. I hope your turkey is tasty!