Thanksgiving Recap!!

Aaaaand were back…but just for a moment. November/December proved to be quite the whirlwind and now as I write this in the third week in January, I’m just now feeling like I have exhaled….only to start back up in Feburary…but you’ll have to read about that later. Right now I have to give you account of what went down in December…wait did I update on November?

Okay Maybe this will actually be a quick review of my faboo Thanksgiving. I can posts about Dramatic December next 

I wish I could remember Thanksgiving actually. All I remember fully is that I kept calling it an uncharacteristically fun weekend in Guayaquil. 2 of my friends from my language group came from the Campo and the Oriente to visit little ol me and we had a blast.

I think the festivities started Wed. There about 6 Guayquil volunteers so counting all of and our friends and significant others that came to visit, we already had the makings of a big family feel for the Thanksgiving.

So many reporting Thanksgiving to be their favorite holiday it was interesting. I like Thanksgiving for the fact that it’s a non religious holiday and therefore everyone celebrates it, at the same time, get together and shamelessly pig out. I however am not comfortable with the seedy history of Thanksgiving which you have to explain to your Ecuadorian affiliates that want to know why all the hooplah for this holiday they clearly don’t celebrate. All in all since most of the volunteers were serious about getting their celebration on, much effort was put into making sure we rung in the holiday in proper form.

I also work with the U.S. Consulate and The Colegio Americano which = more gringos who wanna get down in an good ol American Traditional way. For starters We were invited to a potluck dinner on Wednesday by the Consulate. Eeeek I’m expected cook something? Ah no worries I now have the dish I can always bring whenever faced with a potluck…Salad! Pam and I made giant salad that we put in two giant containers and took to every party we went through from Wednesday to Saturday. It was a very humanitarian Thanksgiving dinner, as the affiliates of the consulate brought food and the kids of the school where we had the event were able to eat and enjoy a Thanksgiving feast. They even sang songs for us and did a little presentation in English. We all have had to do our little “Thank you for coming…” introduction speeches in Spanish since we got here, so we could totally relate to the stuttering nervous girls who were attempting to speak our native tongue. It was really really sweet.

We thought the evening would end there but the good times were flowing and we all hadn’t been together like that in forever, so we went back to a friend the house of a friend that works for the Consulate (translation is livin large and fabulous). He’s a former PCV (as so many foreign service people are) and understands how it is. So of course even though we know better, upon arriving to his house we are all but kissing the ground as we pet the carpet, marvel at how clean, how nice, how cool, how big etc it is. Conversations flowed effortlessly until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore.

For us that was just the intro to Thanksgiving day…the Real Holiday. First on the agenda (well after a fitting breakfast of left of pie, green beans and cake) we met at the Colegio Americano bright and early…but definitely not on time lol. I mean you try getting 8 girls together and out the door! Plus we had to take a cab which PCVs just don’t do if they don’t have too cause frankly we can’t afford it. So we had to organize that as well. The only reason time was even an issue was because I was supposed to be playin in the flag football game we were attending. Yeah that sooo did not happen. When we got there the Consulate vs the Teachers and Staff were duking it OUT. When I thought flag football I was thinking Powder Puff…This was more Capture the Flag meets Rugby and people were out for blood. I DID get a jersey with my name, but I was just a cheerleading on the (BLAZING HOT) sidelines. There was no way I was getting in that game, even if the sun as bien fuerte as it was.

I also realized since I am linked to both parties…to play for just one of the teams would have been choosing sides! I’m the Peace Corps! I’m all about the Peace! They were out there warring, so that’s how I reasoned with my teammates who wanted to throw me in the game. We had a nice time and met some new friends. Also, my fellow vols were able to put faces on the names of people I talk about in my daily life.

As if we didn’t already have enough dinners we were going to we were invited to a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner with the Consulate folks. This would have a been a no brainer and an easy “yes” however we had plans much later that night to attend our very one quaint little Peace Corps Volunteer potluck dinner in Porto Ondo (no clue how to spell that!) the site of a Natural Resources Volunteer in Omnibus 99 (i.e. she’s been here almost 2 years…). If we had cars…we could easily hop parties…but some of us had cookin to do for our potluck and we all had to get back together and hose ourselves off from sitting out in the blazin heat. (I guess one day I have to break down how the North and the South are two different worlds and how we PCVs live in the south and the people with money live in the North and how it’s totally baffling how we are gingas and don’t have money…)

So, Jen, Pam and myself were all about fittin in as much Thanksgiving grubbing as we could (that’s how the huge salad got incorporated as the fall back contribution to every party) while our other half needed to get home and actually make real delicious dishes such as carrot cake and cookies!!! Molly (one of the other Guayaquiñas) always split custody of our visitors so we decided, those who wanna go to the dinner can come with me. Those who can bake and actually want to sit still for a minute can go to the bakery home of Molls  Oh the only way this was EVEN an option though was one of the new guys in Homeland Security offered to give us a ride…SWEET! Alright I think we had about 2 hours between when we left the Colegio and when we needed to be ready….wwwweeelll since we all insisted on taking public transportation back south that pretty much ate up our two hours. So we were getting called to get picked up before we had even walked in more door for showers! They just don’t understand how we be livin! Anyway, we scrambled, ran ourselves crazy...ran around outside trying to find our ride (only getting ourselves just as sweaty as before our showers…but whatever!) but finally we were in a car with AC on our way back up north. The house of full of people and TOTALLY FABULOUS! That is what living abroad should look like. I mean marble pillars, pool right outside with a fountain, beautiful gigantic kitchen perfect for entertaining all the gringos in Guayaquil for Thanksgiving. I usually don’t even CARE about home furnishings and such, but Peace Corps will take you there, believe me.
Oh and OMG!! THE FOOD!?!?!?!? It got to be ridiculous. WE PIGGED OUT! It was completely insane and so much fun. It really felt like Thanksgiving. I just wish our families had been with us. We recapped fun moments of the football game, we were basically interviewed about the Peace Corps and just laughed and talked about life in general. It was a nice time for sure. Being in the Peace Corps people don’t really mind if you eat and run, and while we had been there a few hours it still felt a little rushed as we had to duck out to go to our NEXT dinner. We waddled out of the door to our next destination (by car! Que Suerte) with our Consulate friend (we weren’t sure how we were going to get to Porto Undo at first) we arrive (with Salad in hand of course) to the Very PeacE Corps Potluck. More Volunteers had come in town and everyone had contributed such delicious dishes. I don’t know how they did it. Pefect Carrot Cake, Baked Mac and Cheese (using Campo cheese! There is no Kraft here people..), Apple Pie, Ice Cream, Rice (but not plain white, you know mixed rice…) Cake, Oh Stuffing, I can’t even remember…It was soooo good and so fun. Jen, Pam and I were trippin. We were SOOOOO Stuffed but Kept.on.eating. It got to be insane, but if you can’t do it Thanksgiving, when can you!?
We played games and even had a coloring contest. We got some goods from Lisa (the 99 vol) I even got a guitar! So all in all it was a blast! After that I felt like, alright I survived a real family holiday away from my family. I of course was thinking of fam and friends that whole time…thinking this is fun, but if my fam/friends were here it would be even BETTER! But I still stayed in the moment and enjoyed myself.

Oh there is so much more to the Uncharactaristically fun weekend in Gquil that I haven’t even gotten too. Like the bday party we went to celebrating the life of once othe Colegio teachers. There was a bar crawl (that we missed since we had been shoppin in the Bahia all day …I don’t recommend it!) and a Chiva (read: double decker party bus) We sat on the roof, had noise makers and a cooler full of whatever you wanted! Pam opted to sit in the bus like a civilized human while Jen and I chose the roof lol. We also got prime spots sitting ON the cooler, making us the bartenders as well as the guests. We went ALLL over Guayaquil…the South AND the North and that is no short distance. We ended our journey in Urdesa at the fabulous apt of some of the teachers. WE made still MORE great new friends and danced that night away. I don’t know how we were even standing but we got home at some crazy hour in the morning. I never go out here cause I don’t feel safe, so it was just fun being out and feeling safe and being around friends.

Even after my guests left, and I swore I was going to take it easy on Sunday to recouperate from the those 4 days of hittin it hard. There was another surprise bday that needed to be celebrated…by hiking up waterfalls. I can’t even get into, it was so ridiculous and so fun. Waterfalls so steep you needed ropes to get up, and sketchy latters. There was cliff diving, rock sliding and good times all around. I lost my one and only sweater on the bus and we had to take an hour and half bus standing up on our way back…but it was so freakin fun. So all in all Thanksgiving “weekend” which really was Wed-Sun was actually way more fun than I anticipated. I also anticipated this to be a blog over my December…and it totally wasn’t  So stay tuned and thanks for following my crazy story telling…I guess I have a problem with tenses in Spanish AND English!