Giving Thanks for this Weekend

With Patrick home visiting family, I had not looked forward to Thanksgiving this year with much wild excitement, fully planning to put it out of my mind and treat the week like any old week. Despite my Scroogeness, I ended up having a really great holiday weekend.

Thanksgiving Day, after a long mobile clinic on shaky, not-quite-recovered-from-mysterious-illness legs, Sol and I headed up the mountain to meet a young couple working through the MCC. They, too, had to work on our American holiday, so we agreed to meet and celebrate together later in the evening. They turned out to be the kind of people you felt you had known for a long time, and I was immediately comfortable in their presence. They were equally as uninspired as I to take a gobbling turkey from life to platter via a long process of slaughter, de-feather and de-gutting, so instead they shared a really yummy carrot soup which was perfect for my beat-up insides. I spent the evening with new friends, delicious food and great conversation. I smiled all the way home with a sleeping Solomon in his care seat, happy for a night out, a body that was feeling more like my own again, the contentedness of a yummy meal and the prospective of more fun times with such great people. Unexpectedly, I had found myself in the company of new friends on the holiday, and the country felt all the more beautiful and "homey" for it.

Friday night, I made dinner for Silvia and Yvertha as a thank you for their week long TLC. We had a truly American home-style meal of baked chicken with spices, potatoes, carrots and onions. I even made a experimental sweet-potato pie and a huge green salad with all the vegetables I could find. Faithful to holiday tradition, we all ate too much and toasted to a meal shared. We talked the evening away covering everything from the evolution of Michael Jackson's career (and nose) to Haitian politics and religion. GREAT night-- felt like a dinner with family. And that is maybe the highest compliment I can give for a moment.

Yesterday, we three females and Sol had a day at the beach. Girls Day Out, we called it. Yvertha had been to some beaches with friends but said that Silvia had been only a very long time ago, so it was going to be a treat for all. We arrived early enough to get a favorite spot on the beach with the most sand and the gentlest waves.

After we were all safely in our spandex, we hit the surf. Yvertha had a ball with Patrick's snorkel and hunted fish. Silvia jumped up and down, immersing herself in the ocean and laughing with Solomon. In all her excitement she soon started sputtering, having bounced to a place where her toes no longer made contact with the sand, and Yvertha and I had to pull her back into the safely shallow surf. Sol lazily floated in his floaty, splashing and laughing at us vying for his attention. I soaked in all the happiness around me.

Silvia prays every noon, and certainly didn't let a public park stop her. In all her beachy happiness, she wasn't going to keep her prayers quiet. I looked up suddenly as here came Silvia from her beach chair, walking back into the surf, praying to God at the top of her lungs, thanking him for the day, asking for his presence and protection for all the people swimming, driving, working, all people both healthy and sick; she finished with a song. Silvia is a woman who knows who she is and doesn't spend a lot of energy on self-consciousness or shyness. For that and more, I love her.

We played all day, splashing, floating, burring each other in the sand. Solomon REALLY enjoyed the sand, throwing it, handing it to people, digging up rocks (to put in his mouth). I ran into a friend on the beach--the driver for the guest house--and he came over and got buried as well. We ate big beach meals, lazed and napped in the shade and let the surf wash over us.

Great day. Great weekend. One not only to enjoy with all its good food, conversation and fun with friends, but a weekend to remind me of all I have to be thankful for. During the course of the last few days, Solomon and I have skyped and received phone calls from friends in KC and Denver, from Patrick and his family in Iowa, and from my family celebrating Thanksgiving together at my brother's house in Kansas. The Skype camera has been passed from one face to another so we could see people we've long missed, hearing their voices and laughing together at Solomon's antics of "so big" and "stink face." Solomon was especially happy to see "DaDa" who sits before the camera in layers of clothes, looking rested and happy as his nephews tackle him from behind. Thanks to modern methods of communication, our family is here with us in a small way, and that is all I need to make the holiday complete.

So this Thanksgiving, I give thanks for health, good food and new friends who have pulled us into their lives in Haiti. I give thanks for a little boy who has changed Patrick and my life, for an incredible husband who is my best friend and still makes my heart beat fast. I am thankful for a safe home, for stimulating work, for the challenge of our days. I give thanks for friendships that stay strong despite change and miles between us. I celebrate a family so great that it hurts when I'm not with them. I celebrate sun and sky, ocean horizons and green palm trees. May you too find yourself reflecting on all that there is to be thankful for, and throw up some celebration in the process.