Thanksgiving has turned into one of my favorite holidays during my time here. I don’t think I ever really appreciated it before. Of course as a kid it was great because any big family get together was something to look forward to but as I got older it got less exciting, I was never a huge turkey fan, and my thoughts often turned to the horrible Black Friday shift I would have to work the following day bright and early (well I guess it’s not so bright at 5am).


Despite its questionable historical origins this is one of the only holidays in America that is not completely overblown. Don’t get me wrong Christmas isn’t a much of a deal here so I really missed the month long extravaganza of Christmas cheer in the states but it’s also pretty over the top. Despite Black Friday, Thanksgiving has remained a fairly understated holiday and I can now really appreciate it (plus I think I can now fully appreciate most Thanksgiving food).

Here in Peru, unlike Christmas and Easter, most volunteers don’t travel too much for Thanksgiving but Peace Corp does graciously give us 4 days vacation. Last year a big group of us got together in Ancash, a big mountain region, and held a huge Thanksgiving with a Turkey Trot 5k and dinner for Volunteers and Peruvians alike in our friend John William’s site. This year we repeated the tradition but with a twist. This year we headed to my friend Erin’s site, Puerto Malabrigo, a fantastic beach town outside of Trujillo known for having the longest left breaking wave in the world thus a big surf spot.

We spent Thursday in Trujillo then Friday shopped for what we needed and headed to the beach. Erin’s family as well as her former site mate’s family graciously offered up their kitchens to us. I don’t know if they had any idea the tornado they were allowing into their homes. During Friday evening and Saturday morning roughly thirty gringos were in and out of their homes frantically cooking, chopping, and baking away. A married couple, the Cobbs, of volunteers offered up their turkey which they had been fattening up all year for this purpose and we purchased 2 more 12 kilo turkeys in Trujillo. Let me tell those farm raised turkeys and the Cobb’s turkey were so ridiculous different. The Cobb’s turkey looked like it was the other turkey’s baby.

Saturday was the Turkey Trot in the morning then at about 4pm we sat down for dinner. Erin arranged for us to eat in a restaurant across the street from her house. About 30 volunteers, close to 20 Peruvians and a few surfers for good measure sat down and after a few palabras (speeches-it wouldn’t be Peru without em) we shared an amazing meal together. Our feast was made up of 3 Turkeys, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, 3 different types of salad, green beans, sweet potato casserole, sweet potato biscuits, spicy corn bread, squash soup, fruit salad, chocolate cake, apple pie, pumpkin pie, strawberry pie and banana pudding.

That night we had a bonfire and sitting there on the beach surrounded by friends all away from home you had to appreciate the situation. Most if not all of us there have completed at least 1 year of service if not more and after preparing and sharing such a meal you couldn’t help but be thankful.