Thanksgiving

A lot of you probably wonder what do I do for major American holidays such as Thanksgiving. Well, its really not all that different from what you do back in the states, I eat! However the prep work is a little different, i.e. everything is from scratch.

One of my fellow volunteers calls me up Tuesday and asked if I would like to have a real American thanksgiving this year. Um, of course I do so I told her I would help. So we plan a menu and agree to go shopping on Wednesday. When I say “go shopping” I don’t mean we met up at the local Wal*Mart and walked around the store throwing everything into the cart. Oh no, nothing close. Megan calls me and tells me she is going turkey shopping at the moment and asks me to come. So I find her, and she is sitting with someone who owns turkeys. He agrees to go get the biggest one and bring it back to where we are.

About 15 minutes later a white Mercedes pulls up and the men pop the trunk and there is a live turkey just chillin’ in the trunk. I of course have to take photos with it but ultimately decided the bird seemed a little small. So our turkey search wasn’t over, but in the mean time we needed to go and get all of the food stuff for dinner at the market place. Thank God someone we knew offered us their car and driver to help with the shopping so Megan and I didn’t have to bike 7 miles with kilos of potatoes and everything else. The market was a relatively normal event for us but as we were crossing the street, heading back to the car the day took a drastic change.

I look left, no cars, I look right, all clear so I start to cross the street. Next thing I know I am pelted from the left side and I am on the ground. I see out of the corner of my eye a motorcycle just a few feet off to my right smashed up on the ground. Once I realize I had just been hit by a motorcycle, I start to check to make sure no bones are sticking out. There wasn’t! But I have road burn on my left leg from my knee cap to my big toe. My right foot is a little banged up. I got hit in the head my the rearview mirror so I have a bump behind my left ear, don’t worry I don’t have a concussion though, my right hand took a little beating and I have bumps and bruises all over. Once I get to my feet I realize the huge crowd forming around this white girl that is all banged up. Megan grabs her water bottle and pours it all on my leg to wash out the rocks and dust while the Malians were screaming that I needed to go to the hospital.

Given normal circumstances, in America I probably would have gone to the hospital to have my leg looked at but here, in West Africa, absolutely not. They would have just poured pure alcohol over my leg and I would have passed out from pain, not to mention Mali is not world renowned for their cleanliness in the medical field. So I thought I couldn’t do worse than the hospital here and decided I should just be taken to someone’s house where I can clean everything really well. So the driver went and found me a block of ice to ice my head while he drove Megan and I back to someone’s house where I could clean out my leg.

At the house, I found the bathtub, and start running water over my leg. Just the water burned so bad but I knew I needed to wash out all the dust and rocks so bit the bullet and cleaned it out really well with soap and water and iodine. I dressed my wounds and bruised ego while Megan went and looked at another turkey.

She came back with a nice looking bird so we had someone kill it and clean it and throw it in the fridge for us. That’s about when I called it a day and gimpily rode my bike home the 7 miles.

On Thursday morning, bright and early around 9 o’clock I set back out on my bike to trek the 7 miles again to help start prepping all of the food. Megan and I had to peel and cut all 3 kilos of potatoes and sweet potatoes without a peeler, wash all the veggies, cut them, steam most of them and prep everything. Thank god we had a Malian cook the bird for us so that was one less stressor for us. But in order to have pumpkin pie we had to carve the pumpkin, boil it, steam it, puree it, and strain it in order to get the stuff Americans pour from a can. Somehow however around 4 we had everything done. The bird was out of the oven and cut, the potatoes were mashed, the green bean casserole was cooked, the gravy was done amazingly I might add, the apple pie was in the oven and the pumpkin puree was waiting for a pie pan to cook. After seven hours of preparing and a lot of googleing later I could not believe we pulled together a full thanksgiving dinner with very limited resources and the most surprising part was everything looked and smelt amazing.

Final count was 11 people, I was a little concerned that there wouldn’t be enough food for everyone but we were going to have to make due at this point. Around seven everyone was there and the reheating process began. So we fired up the oven and reheated everything, set out a buffet spread of deliciousness and released the dogs to the food. By the time it was all said and done, I had snacked on everything all day and wasn’t all that hungry but, come on you can’t pass up a thanksgiving dinner in Africa. So I pilled my plate high and joined the others.

To Megan and my surprise everyone raved about every single dish! People even went back for seconds and one guy even did thirds and there was plenty of food left over! I managed to find room for seconds. I was shocked that everything turned out good, there were no fires, no one got food poisoning and it turned out to be an over all enjoyable experience. However I don’t want to be in charge of another large scale dinner for a long time, maybe not until next year’s thanksgiving.

I just have to say this one more time, I, the girl that can barely make mac and cheese pulled together a thanksgiving dinner that people actually eat, willingly!!

Let the holiday season begin!

P.S. Expect pictures in the coming week, once I get my new camera cord.

Yay, new site!

Corinna Merrill
Corps De La Paix
B.P. 117
Segou, Mali
West Africa

New mailing address

I feel like the country bumpkin in the big city for the first time. I forgot what it was like without all of the amenities of America. By no means have I cross the Atlantic but coming from my Guinea village to the sprawling metropolis of my new town where I hear I can get ice cream and yes, even Frappuccinos. Well they aren’t the real thing exactly but I hear they exist and I will be trying them out one day soon. There is a tourist market therefore; there is pizza, hamburgers, really awesome souvenirs and one hotel even has a pool. I will have to control myself not to go out every night and get a ham and cheese crepe or a half chicken in a cream sauce but even worse, the souvenirs are so nice, and I want them all.

Yesterday I went down on the Niger River bank and stumbled across a place the dies fabric. I hung out with the men there for a while and then they took me upstairs to the Cabana in the sky overlooking the river. It was like Disney meets Africa. I fully intend to return to that magical place to die my own piece of cloth along with enjoy a cold coke in the Cabana in the sky.

I also went house hunting. I looked at several different houses. Some were too far from work, some were too big, some were too small, but I found one that was just right. It’s a nice apartment overlooking a mango tree and a quiet dirt road. I will be living in the second floor and on the flat roof I will sleep during the hot season. I’ll pull my mattress and mosquito net out and sleep under the stars like all of the other Malians. The best part is, I have running water, a flush toilet and get this, electricity all in my house!!! Therefore, music and movies are welcome (note new mailing address). Really, I listen to my iPod all the time and I need new music, so have your kids, your friends or even yourself pick some of your favorite new songs and send them over.

Well, I have internet access now everyday so expect more blog updates along with more e-mails from your number one favorite person in Africa, other than Madonna (if she is still here).