Thanksgiving - Guatemalan Style

We had a GREAT opportunity this week to celebrate Thanksgiving with our neighbors.  One advantage of living away from the States is it forced us to dig a little deeper and reach out a little farther than we would have otherwise.  

Do Guatemalans celebrate Thanksgiving?  Nope.  

Did that stop us from joining in with all of our local neighbors?  No way!

Our kids gave a "presentation" of the history of Thanksgiving, which some of their friends translated into Spanish for our guests.  After hearing how Squanto the Indian helped the Pilgrims to survive in their new land, we appreciated even more what our neighbors had all done at one time or another to help us get the hang of living here in Guatemala.  From the doctor next door that helped curb our panic with our first sick kid, to our landlady who helped us work out our several-month-long telephone and internet hookup issues.  

We ended up with families from four different countries (USA, Guatemala, Columbia, and El Salvador), and it was an opportunity to get past the daily "hola" and "what a beautiful day" ruts that are so easy to get stuck in, especially with another language.

We got to watch the neighbor kids make funny faces as they tried American food, and we laughed with their parents as we told them about our kids first times eating the local food too.  We talked about everything from blueberries to southern accents, and colonial Williamsburg to Bogota Columbia.

We are so blessed!