Thanksgiving is a super special time for my family, it’s tied for Christmas as my favorite holiday. We’ve celebrated with my cousins and uncles and aunts in Virginia for the last 12 years. We eat delicious food, play our annual Hundersmarck-Willing-Landes-Delvalle family football game, watch the Macy’s day parade and open Christmas presents (yes we celebrate early together and yes it is awesome.) It would be so nice to be there with them to see the leaves change colors and walk around the crowded house in a warm comfy sweatshirt and catch up with my cousins. While I wish I could be there, I’m really happy to be spending this year with another family of sorts. All the Northern Cape crew and some of our North-West Province buds are together for a three day thanksgiving event of epic proportions. We've got four turkeys. enough said. It’s gonna be crAzZzy. There’s lots to celebrate cause we have soooo much to be thankful for—I mean shit, we’ve survived almost five months in the African bush!

Some more thoughts on being thankful…

Things I have been thankful for in the past and hope to be thankful for again in the distant future:

--my mom’s cooking. I daydream about my favorite things she makes way too often, I even dreamt about her pound cake the other night… I have a problem.

--Sunday morning bike rides on the Hawthorne trail with my dad

--FLORIDAAAAAA

--Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks

--washing machines

--indoor flushing sanitary porcelain toilets

--air conditioning, it’s getting hotter by the day and I’m starting to mellltttttt

--Reese’s peanut butter cups.. what the hell kind of country is this without Reese’s ?!?!

--clean feet. It’s impossible to tell whether they are tan or just constantly caked with dirt.

--water security. Clean, consistent, available water. Thoughts that occupy my mind: is the tap in the yard pumping water today? Is it going to turn off soon? Did that donkey just rub its ass on the tap? (I wish that one were a joke.) Do I have enough boiled so that if the power goes out I have enough to drink? Is this going to be the bacteria filled gulp that destroys my insides? Is there enough to do my wash? To take a bucket bath? Am I using too much?? Ahhhh it never ends. Everyone around me is dehydrated, no one drinks enough water. I watch kids at school literally fight each other for a cup of dirty water. Every time I see it I think about how I sat in college classrooms for four years listening to Political Science professors tell me that the wars of the 21^st century are going to be fought over water and other depleting resources. I finally get it. God, do I get it.

Things I am thankful for “now now” (“now now” is an African phrase that means “right this second,” not in a half hour, not in three hours, not tomorrow, but now now)

--this crazy mixed up astounding challenging beautiful life

--my health. I realize how important this one is more everyday. I’ve had my fair share of stomach and intestinal issues so far, but I try to do everything I can to stay healthy and take care of my body. So many people around me don’t have the knowledge or the means to take care of themselves or their families. Healthcare? Forggettaboutittt. Theres a clinic in my village but the closest hospital is two and a half hours away and it’s a mess—one doctor, blood on the floor, women giving birth in the hallways, I watched a man die right in front of me when I was there…not an experience I’ll soon forget. There’s lots more death around; it knows no mercy and no age. There are funerals every weekend in my small village. One human life means something different in Africa. In first world countries if a person dies before old age it’s this horrible tragedy, an anomaly almost- we think we have this natural born right to live a long and healthy life, myself included. That mentality is a privilege. Here the opposite is far too commonplace. If you’ve got your health, well then baby, you’ve got a lot.

--my education. I cannot accurately express how lucky I feel to have had a good education. I’ve always known that if I work hard, I can be and do whatever I want.. that is so simple, yet SO HUGE. My only problem is figuring out exactly what it is that I want to do, and that is not a real problem at all. Most people on this planet, especially girls, can’t even dream about freedom like that. Education is the key, the answer, the light, the way, the truth... and everyone should be given the chance to learn and grow and feel empowered and make a better life for themselves regardless of where they happened to be born. Getting off my soapbox now now.

--for my parents who have always loved and supported me to the ends of the earth and back. They really are the greatest. For Laura, for Ryan, and even occasionally for Justin (J)

--for my FRIENDS. You know who you are and you know that I love you. I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving!!!

--my German host family, the Rappolds, who I love, and who love to read my blog (Euch gebe ich einen “Shoutout” : Ich bin echt dankbar fuer alles was ihr fuer mich getan habt. Ihr seid ein wichtiger Teil in meinem Leben- aber das wisst ihr schon ;) They were the first ones who taught me how to make a home for myself in a place very far from home, how to understand and appreciate a different culture, how to learn a new language…that experience was the single most influential one of my life, without which I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.

--reading!!! I LOVE TO READ! I love that I love to read, and I love that I have endless hours to read. I’m devouring books like they’re going out of style. If I can instill a small part of my enthusiasm for reading in my students, that would be so great. That’s as sustainable as it gets.

--the stars! cause I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find a way to throw them in there. Nature in general is pretty cool I guess.

--my blackberry aka my crackberry aka my window to the outside world

--for the long and much anticipated summer vacation that is so close I can almost reach out and grab it

-- for aMericah

-- for Africa

--for all that I’ve experienced and all thats to come

and MOST IMPORTANTLY….for the shower I just took.

Thank YOU, Danke, Ke a leboga, Ke itumetse thata thata!

Happpy Thanksgiving!!!