Thanksgiving in Bolivia

We had a wonderful time celebrating our first holiday here in Bolivia. I imagine that many of you realize that Bolivia doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, so Thursday certainly did not feel like a holiday to us, as we spent the day in language school, just like every other day. It was hard to be away from family and friends, knowing that everyone was getting together and spending the weekend with family. But we were determined to make the weekend special, even if it was going to be different than normal! So I (Jennie) was dead set on trying to make a pumpkin pie. This was a tall order for several reasons. 1) I had never made a pumpkin pie before. 2) They don't have canned pumpkin here. 3) They don't have real pumpkins either! But after talking with other missionaries, I was told that there is a large squash type vegetable, that with the right spices, could work to make a pumpkin pie. So, with a little help from the internet, I figured out how to make a pumpkin pie from this. (See below)

I am very thankful for the family and friends that sent pumpkin pie spice from the States! Our teachers were intrigued by the description and thought of pumpkin pie so I took one pie to the language school for the teachers to try. Pumpkin pie is is a pretty difficult taste to describe, so I thought the best thing was for them to try it. Luckliy, they all thought it was delicious! (By the way, I didn't tell them that it was my first!)

On Saturday we got together with Derek, Claire, Noelia, Linda (Claire's Mom) and Jan, our pastors wife. Jan and her husband Phil have been missionaries here in Bolivia for over 30 years. Jan graciously hosted us, and cooked up a 6 pound chicken. (Turkeys are pretty tough to come by.) We all brought over our favorite Thanksgiving dishes and had a really nice time. By now it was really starting to feel like Thanksgiving!

Jan, carving up the chicken.

Finally, on Sunday we invited two of our Spanish teachers, Patricia and her sister Maria Elena and their children over to try some of our traditional Thanksgiving day foods. It was really fun to watch them as they tried all the new things. We had a great evening together!

Patricia, Carla, Jennie, Ella, Maria Elena, Neithan

The kids were fast friends

John did things with his face that Carla had never seen before!

At first the kids were a little timid, but by the end of the night it was high-fives all around!