Nine Steps to The Making of a 40 Person Thanksgiving

Almost 400 years ago, a group of Pilgrims followed their religious beliefs to the new world. They didn't know what they'd eat, who'd they meet, or where they'd end up.

Nearly 400 hundred years later, I filled out a Peace Corps Application. I didn't know what I'd eat, who I'd meet, or where I'd go.

Within a few years, and after helping the Pocanocan (sp?) tribe sucessfully massacre one of their enemy tribes (I've been watching History Channel's America the Story of US recently), the Pilgrims sat down to a feast with their Pocanocan allies.

After a few months of English teaching, map paitning, community diagnosing, we PCVs too would share a beautiful thanksgiving with our local friends. Fortunately, the only massacre would come in Kelsey Ward's performance in our 5K Turkey Trot (see results below).

The idea for our Thanksgiving, as I imagine the idea for the first Thanksgiving, came after a series of casual conversations. After explaining the idea of Thanksgiving to my Jangas friends, we decided this was definitely something we could and should do. As much as I complain about Perú's potatoes, their abundance and low price certainly helped come Thanksgiving. Quickly the event picked up speed.

I'm not sure if the Native Americans ran into the same problem, but fuck it's easy to invite people! After extending more invitations than I had money, I realized that with Peace Corps Volunteers and community members, we were looking at a dinner for around 50 people. Woops.

Quickly Beth Methink and I (both with strong Wisconsin routes) started planning the food:

For those planning a Thanksgiving dinner for 50 people I recommend the following items:

-18 Kilos of Sierra Potatoes
-12 Kilos of Apples
-12 Kilos of Sweet Potatoes
-A few kilos of Broccoli, Green Beans, Onions, Carrots, Celery
-2 8 Kilo Turkeys
-An Adobe Oven the size of a small church
-Lots of community friends including host-brother Marco, and host cousin Cabo
-16 Peace Corps Volunteers, including Ian Arzeni, Elke and Christopher Huey
-Paciencia y Flexibilidad

This planning was all fine and good, but just like the first American Pilgrims, just crossing the ocean wasn't enough—we wanted a real challenge.

Why not have the community Thanksgiving Feast on the same day we plan a 5K? In a casual conversation (I need to start paying more attention to these) Beth mentioned that she ran a 5 K every Thanksgiving. This conversation quickly turned into about a month of race planning. Solicitudes were written to petition police to secure the route, the health post was asked to accompany with an ambulance, prizes were requisitioned, clean water and bananas were purchased, tv advertisements were made, t-shirts were printed, English classes were invited, decisions were made, arguments were had, and chalk for arrows were laid. All this for the 5K? (calculated it was actually only 2.8 miles)--the First Annual GRAN MARATÓN DE JANGAS at about 10,000 Feet above Sea Level.
So after a month of planning, there we stood on Saturday Nov. 27, 15 Peace Corps Volunteers, 8 “host country partners” (to use PC jargon), ready to start The GRAN Maratón de Jangas. At 9:30 (about half an hour past the race's scheduled start—right on time in Perú), the Ambulance beeped its horn, and after I reminded people that the beep was actually the race's starting gun, we were off.

Not affected by the altitude, Kelsey Ward a La Libertad volunteer who lives at sea level won the female category. A guy from Yungar, the town over smoked all the guys from Jangas and the States. Three continents were represented—our NGO friend Dominic from Germany also ran. In other categories about ten or fifteen kids ages 6-14 also competed in the race. We then awarded the prizes —which included Cristal Beer shirts donated by the local Catholic church.

After the race's excitement, we quickly turned our attention to cooking. If the Peace Corps teaches you one thing, it's that by taking advantage of your local resources anything is possible. Having no real cooking skills, and after making my applesauce the night before, I served as the decider. My job was to help people solve their problems—which involved mostly telling people that we didn't have the necessary cooking utensil, and then letting them come up with a creative way around it.

Throughout the day I was asked questions about whether we had a whisk (we didn't, but could forks work?), could we put the turkey in before 2 o'clock (we couldn't, but we can eat later), does our town have apple juice (no, but why not borrow a neighbor's juicer to squeeze two kilos of apples?), did we have a pie crust (nope, but how about a frying pan with metal handles?), a rolling pin (why not a nalgene water bottle?) etc and etc. Without a pumpkin pie can mix, PCV Claire had her mom send her the recipe for pumpkin pie made with real pumpkins. Claire diligently copied down all 9 steps, including the ninth—ENJOY. Those pies were damn good.

At about 9 p.m., after delivering a very corny speech about the first Thanksgiving to explain to all our Peruvian friends why we had spent the day preparing sweet potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, applesauce, fresh broccoli, fresh vegetables served with a pineapple reduction (I told you anything was possible—thanks Ian), apple pies, pumpkin pies, and banana pudding—we all (about 40 people in all) sat down to enjoy the feast.

After enjoying the food we moved onto a tradition we just couldn't share—the great American tradition of dancing in a goofy circle instead of what to us is awkward Peruvian one-on-one dancing. For the rest of the night 15 of my good Peruvian friends watched us make asses out of ourselves dancing the shopping cart, the sprinkler, and anything else that was popular in the late 90s. Maybe next year.

At midnight we passed out, tired from running and dancing, and full.

As the shirts we made say (and the Pilgrims who first arrived some 400 years ago in America would have made), “Fuck Me, Nothing's Easy.” But sometimes it's not about where you're going, it's about enjoying what you're eating, where you are, and most importantly who you're with.