Talk about perspective.
One year ago today, on Thanksgiving, I was in Ngara, Tanzania. One of the poorest places in the world. About this time of the day, I was doing the best I could with what I had to prepare my traditional family sweet potato casserole dish for our evening potluck. I had to improvise on several ingredients, but sweet potatoes were in abundance. The dish turned out deliciously sweet, but the casserole this time had a puke-green appearance. Less than appetizing to say the least. Despite my disappointment in its visual allure, I brought it along to the dinner anyways....
Our Thanksgiving potluck consisted of about 30-40 people...many Americans, but also other people from various countries including Australia, England, France and many local Tanzanians. Turkeys were very expensive, so I can't honesty remember if we had one or not, but I know that we did have a large spread of amazing food. Before dinner, we all made a circle, and went around and said what we were thankful for, teaching our non-American guests our homeland tradition. Some comments were in English, and those that weren't and were in Kiswahili were translated for us. Simplicities of thanks seem to be international, as those who were local appreciated their health and their families, as all of us from abroad missed ours.
This week, Tanzania keeps popping back into my mind. I received a newsletter via email from the nun at the Orphanage for Street Boys (Nazareti), where I taught hip hop dance. She included pictures of each of the boys and updates on their progress. It had me almost in tears in front of my computer. And earlier on in the week, my old co-worker, Shannon, tagged me in a post, as she was volunteering at a craft fair in Austin, TX to help generate money for WomenCraft. This week was also my mom's birthday (and for those of you who may not know, my mother passed away 7 years ago now...geesh...). She was one of the most generous and thoughtful people I have and will ever know, and her spirit has certainly also been with me this week.
Today, I will be spending Thanksgiving in Portland with some of my nearest and dearest friends and family. People I have known for 20+ years and love the most. I will drive to their house, sit in their heated living room drinking top shelf wine while nibbling on gourmet treats. And through all of it I will reflect on how damn lucky I am. I will think of the people of Ngara today, many families just trying to assure they have enough semi-clean water for the day to make due. The boys at the orphanage who are elated to be where they are simply because they can count on 3 meals a day, feel safe and know they are loved. And I will also reflect on who my mother was, and how I so sincerely hope that I can bring as much joy, passion, and happiness into as many people's lives as she did. She spread soul sunshine.
Week after week and year after year I am gently, or sometimes vividly reminded of how blessed I am to have such an amazing network of friends and family, and am equally excited and humbled to see how it has expanded and grown over my past year of travels. Cheers to all of you. Happy Holidays, and I hope that today you are finding your own special ways to count your blessings :)
One year ago today, on Thanksgiving, I was in Ngara, Tanzania. One of the poorest places in the world. About this time of the day, I was doing the best I could with what I had to prepare my traditional family sweet potato casserole dish for our evening potluck. I had to improvise on several ingredients, but sweet potatoes were in abundance. The dish turned out deliciously sweet, but the casserole this time had a puke-green appearance. Less than appetizing to say the least. Despite my disappointment in its visual allure, I brought it along to the dinner anyways....
Our Thanksgiving potluck consisted of about 30-40 people...many Americans, but also other people from various countries including Australia, England, France and many local Tanzanians. Turkeys were very expensive, so I can't honesty remember if we had one or not, but I know that we did have a large spread of amazing food. Before dinner, we all made a circle, and went around and said what we were thankful for, teaching our non-American guests our homeland tradition. Some comments were in English, and those that weren't and were in Kiswahili were translated for us. Simplicities of thanks seem to be international, as those who were local appreciated their health and their families, as all of us from abroad missed ours.
This week, Tanzania keeps popping back into my mind. I received a newsletter via email from the nun at the Orphanage for Street Boys (Nazareti), where I taught hip hop dance. She included pictures of each of the boys and updates on their progress. It had me almost in tears in front of my computer. And earlier on in the week, my old co-worker, Shannon, tagged me in a post, as she was volunteering at a craft fair in Austin, TX to help generate money for WomenCraft. This week was also my mom's birthday (and for those of you who may not know, my mother passed away 7 years ago now...geesh...). She was one of the most generous and thoughtful people I have and will ever know, and her spirit has certainly also been with me this week.
Today, I will be spending Thanksgiving in Portland with some of my nearest and dearest friends and family. People I have known for 20+ years and love the most. I will drive to their house, sit in their heated living room drinking top shelf wine while nibbling on gourmet treats. And through all of it I will reflect on how damn lucky I am. I will think of the people of Ngara today, many families just trying to assure they have enough semi-clean water for the day to make due. The boys at the orphanage who are elated to be where they are simply because they can count on 3 meals a day, feel safe and know they are loved. And I will also reflect on who my mother was, and how I so sincerely hope that I can bring as much joy, passion, and happiness into as many people's lives as she did. She spread soul sunshine.
Week after week and year after year I am gently, or sometimes vividly reminded of how blessed I am to have such an amazing network of friends and family, and am equally excited and humbled to see how it has expanded and grown over my past year of travels. Cheers to all of you. Happy Holidays, and I hope that today you are finding your own special ways to count your blessings :)
