I look at this picture and think that the ocean might secretly be filled with chocolate fudge :)Yes, I spent Thanksgiving on a beach, and I still enjoyed most of the same traditional foods--turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, other assorted salads, pies... And the next day we sat in the sand and had turkey and avocado sandwiches for lunch. Thanks to the SPF 70 sunscreen that my Aunt Mary sent me, I did not burn! So even though I did miss spending Thanksgiving with my family, you should all be very jealous of the Thanksgiving feast I did get to share with other volunteers and some of their Peruvian host families :)
This was the second Thanksgiving I've spent in Peru, the first being when I was swore-in as a Peace Corps volunteer and we had a party for our host families in Lima. I'm having some trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that I have been a volunteer for a full year now--so much has happened, and yet it seems to have flown by! My first site and all the good times (but sadly mostly bad times!) that went down there, and then my site change to Viru, Katherine's and my family's visits, and all of the other traveling I've done are all mixed up in my head as some huge life-changing series of events, although I'm not entirely sure yet how it has changed me. For a while I know I was much more pessimistic, but now I'm back to being more optimistic, so what's the net change there? My Spanish is much better? Maybe when I am back in the States for the holidays I will be able to see more specific differences.
Whatever the outcome of all of this craziness has been, I am overall very thankful for the experience. I have met a lot of amazing people (hi Greg!) that alone have made some of the worst of what I've experienced worthwhile, and I have gotten to travel high and low throughout a country that has a lot to offer. I've learned a lot about myself, too, and will learn even more once I put all those pieces together into a more coherent picture. And I am also very grateful for the family and friends back home that have provided invaluable support--I could not have done this without you!
Happy Thanksgiving from Peru, and I can't wait to see you in person--I'll be back in the States December 14th until just after New Years. The excitement is making me a little less than productive, so I think now I'm going to go make myself some checklists... :)
