Dear Readers,
I'd like to take the time to update you on Thanksgiving... even though it's only a week before Christmas! I'm not even going to attempt to justify it either!
As the only people at the Finca that really have much of an interest in celebrating Thanksgiving (it's an American holiday after all!), the missionaries really take it upon themselves to go all out and make the day a fun one for all of us and 50 of our closest friends. Everyone split up and worked in teams on various different foods common to thanksgiving in the states; I elected the pie team. There were only two of us on the team and we had 18 pies to make, so initially it looked slightly intimidating. We'd established that we were going to make seven pumpkin, seven apple, and four pecan pies, and a buying trip to San Pedro Sula the week before insured that (nearly) all of our supplies arrived on time. Unfortunately, due to a translation mishap, that didn't include corn syrup for the pecan pies. We received regular maple syrup instead, so we decided to just mix a bunch of sugar and water on the stove instead. After about eight hours of pie-making the day before (when we finished all seven of our pumpkin pies) and perhaps eight hours the day of, we finished the last of the pecan pies right before we served the pies at the end of dinner. This wasn't without help, derived from several of the retirees and some of our past Finca volunteers that were visiting for the weekend.
My favorite part of the baking process was a stressful moment when our sugar and water mixture failed to actually turn into corn syrup. I just might've panicked and chosen to dump a whole bottle of maple syrup into the pecan pie mixture instead.
Fun fact: That works! As someone jokingly commented, they weren't sure whether they were going to be eating a thanksgiving dinner or a pancake breakfast, but other than the maple smell that filled the house right before the feast, it worked like a charm!
During this time, the rest of the house was busy preparing the rolls, the turkey (s!), the stuffing, the green bean casserole, you name it. Basically everything that we wouldn't be able to have in Honduras that reminded you of Thanksgiving was there, and it only cost about $18 a missionary to buy enough supplies for all of the 60-ish people that came. I suppose that's kinda a lot for one meal, but when it's a once in a year deal, I'd say it was worth it.
During the baking process there was even a scheduled short break for an american flag football game mixed in... during which I played quarterback for one of the teams and scored the game losing touchdown on the last play! We lost 21-14 (or 3-2), but our team had the ball last. My stats included one passing touchdown (a pass of about 5 yards that my receiver (Harrison) did a great job to turn into 60) and one interception to go along with the trick play touchdown reception that ended the game.
I gotta run, so I can't talk about anything more at the present time, but Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas to y'all from the Finca!
