happy thanksgiving

What a lovely day! As I am responsible for preparing the medicines on Tuesday and Thursday at the orphanage, I went into work on thanksgiving, prepped meds and then took massive amounts of passport-esk photographs.

Do you remember the woman I talked about back in October during the raw day post about a month and a half ago? Well, her name is Alemash. Her and her two kids, Baby and Mitu (nicknames) are now patients at the Mother Teresa clinic. I ran into her earlier this week and we decided to meet for coffee after work. This divine appointment is so dear to my heart. Alemash is one of the kindest and most generous woman I have met here. I felt so privileged to spend the afternoon with her and her loving kids. She shared so much of her life with me ­ through pictures and stories and sweet and not so sweet memories. We talked about her son who had past away, about her husband who left her once he found out she was positive and about her time working for Europeans in Addis. She is currently looking for work (unemployment is a HUGE issue here) and has not yet told her two children they are positive.

We drank coffee, ate popcorn, laughed and danced. She is Ethiopian Orthodox, so we also talked about God and how he is sovereign over our lives.

I hope to meet with her and her family again next week. We took a few pictures together, so I will develop them and share them with her. Praise the Lord for this sweet new friendship.



--

After this sweet blessing, I got to return home to a magnificent banquet.


Here is the feast Kate created for Thanksgiving. (shout outs to Asni, jess, amon and nama who also helped). We were all SO impressed, not only by Kate's incredible culinary expertise but also by her detective skills in finding the ingredients for these dishes...

Just a little taste of what I mean: with her perseverance and a little divine intervention, she managed to purchase the last turkey in Ethiopia, and since it was not able to thaw in the frig, she cuddled with the darn thing all night, changing its water every 3 hours until it defrosted. (yeah,
that is DEDICATION!)

Our extensive meal included a turkey, sweet potato biscuits, green beans, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, wine and apple pie and sweet tea - all made from scratch.

What made the experience even more special was that Jessica Merriam's parents sent her a package which she receive on Thursday afternoon ­ and inside were thanksgiving napkins and other decorations for the table. Talk about perfect timing! We enjoyed the meal and all shared what we were thankful for which was a very special time for our little family.

I am not exaggerating when I say its one of the best meals I have EVER tasted. GO BEZ KATE! Betam Betam Torro!

Here is Amon after no more food would fit in his mouth. One of our favorite quotes from the evening is from Rob as Amon is enjoying his first bite of our feast, he slowly and brilliantly slid his fork of food into his mouth and followed the bite with a grown of satisfaction and after rob observed this mini program, he said wow, I just enjoyed your bite!