As everyone starts (is way into, I know I know) to get into the holiday spirit, I will regale my reading public (the 10 family and friends that read this piece of work + 1 or two unfortunate people in Russians that have stumbled to this address after some odd google searches...) with the story of the 2011 Peace Corps Perú Thanksgiving.
As all of you know (unless you're just getting in from a bizarre google search somewhere in Russia) last year I organized Thanksgiving. This year I didn't. Oddly enough it wasn't as stressful. Our job was to be in Trujillo on Thursday. Check. Our job was to eat ceviche on Friday and swim in the cold Pacific Ocean and play frisbee. On Saturday we ran the second annual Peace Corps Turkey Trot. The course was along the beach, to the dock, to the rock, to the dock and back. Ancash friend Kyle Blair would have won the race had he not confused where the finish line official towel was. Congrats goes to La Libertad volunteer Chris Wilson who won many events that day.
Fortunately for us, we had some heavy hitters added to the roster—Kate brought some serious sweet potato biscuits and Julianne brought some serious southern cooking in the form of sweet potato and brown sugar.
The list:
20+ Peace Corps Volunteers
4 Turkeys
15 Kilos of Potatoes
Kilos and Kilos of Apples
10+ Desserts
3 Beach Days
More Sugar than I'd like to admit
With so many delicious dishes prepared, what did I make you ask? Please. Meyers make applesauce. That's how we do. From the first Peace Corps get-together on (July 4th, 2010) I have prepared applesauce. With some help from Liz, we rocked the apple sauce. We joked that it was probably the best of all dishes—we kidded ourselves with this. Until Erin's host brother, who speaks pretty good english (just doesn't have all his idioms down), asked “what is this apple dish?.” Erin responded that it was applesauce. Her host brother says “it kills me.” A job well done. While I am very excited to be home for Thanksgiving next year, I will definitely miss my Peace Corps friends. After two years we've got this thing down to a science, and I might be a little culturally shocked when we actually celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday next year. A crazy month past Thanksgiving, and I give thanks for health, friends and family—back to the basics.
From Russia (Perú) with love.
Wait, Dubs, you never explained what happened to your ankle! I assume it got better since you were able to run the Turkey Trot. I didn't realize you made applesauce-I've made it using an applesauce-maker thing (delicious!), but your way is probably way simpler. I imagine you boil the apples then mash them, right? However you did it, applesauce is awesome.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you do for Christmas? Did your family come? I assume you didn't make it back to the US or I would have heard (maybe? Has it been that long since we talked?!).
Since I've finally caught up on your blog (didn't realize it would only take ten minutes or so), I'm about to write you an email! Finally! Thanks for the update, and tell us about Christmas/New Year's!
-Jean