Thanksgiving celebrations

Living overseas, especially in a part of the world that is very different from western culture, we often have to celebrate our holidays in a much different way.  This especially holds true for Thanksgiving, which is a thoroughly American holiday. 

Over here, we celebrate it twice which is our normal practice when it comes to sharing our customs with the students.  Things still operate pretty much as any normal day, we still have classes on both Thursday and Friday so there's no Black Friday shopping madness for us (not that they even know what that is or have big sales to go along with it). 

Our first celebration is with all the students on Friday night.  We all go out to a Muslim restaurant (because some of our students and staff are Muslim and therefore cannot eat at any place that serves pork) and eat a large dinner that has no resemblance to what we would typically eat in the US.  During the meal, we share with our students the history behind the holiday and just have fun.  Once everyone has had their fill then the real fun begins.  I am not sure when this tradition started, but the teachers then have to give a performance which is followed in turn by both of the grades sharing their own performances and giving gifts to each teacher. 

Saturday we had a baking party at C&D's apartment in preparation for our American only meal on Sunday.  I attempted crescent rolls again, this time I didn't realize I had only put in half of the amount of yeast the recipe called for until I was almost done kneading the dough.  The rolls were still yummy, but a little denser than the way they are supposed to turn out.  We started in the afternoon and after everyone else was done baking by the time mine were on their second round of rising so to pass the time we played a game of Settlers, ate dinner (I think I had most of them baked by this point), and then watched a Bollywood movie called "The Three Idiots."  We had a blast and had "aal iz well" stuck in our heads for several days.

Sunday we gathered for a short meeting then started heating and preparing for the feast.  We found one of the few turkeys in the country and had some items from the US specifically designated for the day such as cranberry sauce, stuffing (from a box... I know...), pumpkin pie filling and a bag of pecans to make some pies.  Locally we are able to get potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and things like that to round out the side dishes.

All in all, even with the events of Thursday overshadowing things a little, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Some of the girls

The boys

Fruit salad... sprinkles make everything better, right?

The staff singing "If you're thankful and you know it"
just replace "happy" with "thankful" and you'll get the gist

Grade 2 singing

The guys are "rapping" a comedic story.
The one on the left is holding a type of percussion instrument
which when translated means "fast boards" that he is keeping
rhythm with the "rapped" words.  Apparently this a traditional
form of entertainment.  Who knew they also invented rap
music?

Grade 1 singing the chorus of "You raise me up" about 8 times
in a row