African American Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back in America. Here in South Africa it’s a non-event and everyone goes about business as usual. Fortunately for me and my fellow volunteers, our “bosses” – Living Hope volunteer coordinators Mike and Pam Talley – are Americans, and they threw a great Thanksgiving bash today. The festivities included turkey on the table and Dallas Cowboys football on the TV, the latter made possible by satellite TV and a DVR recording of the Cowboys-Redskins game two weeks ago. We also tossed a football around in the parking lot – a curiosity to the neighbors, who mostly know rugby and soccer – and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Speaking of food, I’ve had some interesting African dishes lately, including crocodile kebabs (extremely tasty), zebra (tough and not so tasty), eland (a kind of antelope; quite tender and flavorful), and kudu (another type of antelope). I am thankful for many things and grilled animal flesh is one of them.

I’m also thankful that Black Friday doesn’t exist in South Africa. No Thanksgiving holiday means no day-after-Thanksgiving retail insanity. And that’s a real Christmas blessing. It’s strange, though, heading into Christmas season in a sunny, 80-degree climate. Also, schools around the country are beginning summer vacation, traffic is picking up and the locals are complaining about tourist season. Sound familiar, Hilton Headians?

Next week, I’ll be immersed in the Christmas spirit in a big way. Living Hope puts on multiple Christmas parties at each of its six locations – for staff, for clients (e.g. health care patients, the homeless) and for children. The two weeks after that (my last in the country) will be occupied mostly with Holiday Club, which is a longer version of after-school Kids Club. With three hours to fill each day, it should be interesting. It’s enough of a challenge trying to keep them attentive for just one hour. As with pretty much everything else I’ve experienced here, we’ll make a plan, carry out about 20 percent of that plan, and wing the rest – and by God's grace it’ll all turn out just fine.