Navita in Rwanda: Thanksgiving

It can really suck not being home for the holidays when family and friends are all together eating delicious, traditional Thanksgiving food. Luckily, my friends here in Rwanda were going through the same thing so it only made sense to band together and prepare a traditional (or as traditional as we could make it) Thanksgiving meal!

The cooking process was arduous but completely worth the effort. My good friends Sierra, Tristen, Georgina, Megan (my roommate) and I worked collaboratively to make all the potato dishes. We also helped Megan with her delicious dish of carrots and beets. The day before Thanksgiving we headed to the market to pick up potatoes and other ingredients. We were hoping to make a tasty sweet potato dish but it didn't quite work out how we hoped - we were only able to find white sweet potatoes as opposed to orange ones and unfortunately none of us were certain how to cook the white sweet potatoes. In the end we bought a large bag of carrots and beets along with 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of potatoes!!! Looking back, it made absolutely no sense to buy so many potatoes but we figured better to have too many than too few since we were cooking for about 40 people.

By the end of the night, my back was killing me from washing, peeling, boiling, and mashing so many potatoes. We had whipped potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, and spicy baked potatoes! The whole process made me realize what I'm thankful for this year - having family, friends, and a boyfriend who supported and encouraged me to work in Rwanda (even though I know they would prefer that I stop leaving the country all the time) and making friends in Rwanda who have been like family.

With less than 2 weeks left to go before I'm home, I'm equally excited to be going back home and deeply sad to be leaving the incredible friends I've made here. It's hard to find people who will sit with you and cook 55 pounds of potatoes. =)