November 2006
Costa Rica
The U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving seemed to incite a lot of curiosity here at the ILCO. People asked me, �Is it true that Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas? �, �Are are the stores closed? �, �What do you do to celebrate? �, and �What is Thanksgiving? What are you celebrating? �
To the question of what we celebrate on Thanksgiving, I recited the story of the Pilgrims and the Indians and how they sat down and ate a great feast together. The more I told the story, however, the more I began to question if I remembered it truthfully, or if this idyllic historical account was simply a fairy tale; perhaps of what we wished had happened between the Pilgrims and the native population of the United States. You have to admit, if you look through US American history textbooks, �friendship� is not exactly the best word to characterize the relationship between the native population and those arriving from Europe. Curious, I did what anyone looking for truthful and factual information does; I visited google.com.
After reading several articles and filling myself with facts I�ll never need to know, I decided that this idyllic tale of unlikely friendship must have actually happened (although, unfortunately, the relationship between the settlers and the Native Americans would not stay so friendly for long). For those of you that don�t know, the first year the Pilgrims spent in the United States was filled with extreme hardship, cold, and hunger. The native population helped to teach the new settlers how to hunt and gather food. Were it not for their generosity and helpfulness, it is unlikely the Pilgrims would have survived. The year following, the Pilgrims experienced a great harvest. To celebrate this harvest, they had a celebratory feast, to which they invited the people who had helped them survive the past winter: the Native Americans. It was truly a celebration of not only of thanksgiving for a great harvest, but also for a wonderful friendship.
This Thanksgiving I spent the day at work and, in the evening, shared a treat of pumpkin bars with the group of people that had come to an evening video-forum to watch and then discuss the film North Country. On Saturday, ELCA missionary pastor Stephanie and I prepared a Thanksgiving feast, filled with the favorites of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, pumpkin bread, corn pudding, green bean casserole, and more goodies, and shared it amongst a group of friends. It was wonderful to introduce and share this tradition of thanksgiving and friendship with guests of Costa Rican and Swedish nationalities. It was also wonderful to think of all the friendships that I developed over the past year and a half.
One of these friendships is with Reychel. Reychel lives in Chilamate, near Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui�.and she is five years old. She may not be the kind of friend with whom I go to the movies and share my biggest secrets and life dreams, but she exemplifies the most important quality of friendship: love. Whether I visit Chilamate or she is at the ILCO office to attend an activity, she is always excited to see me and runs up and gives me a hug. Even though I often have to say no to her request to come and play because of other current responsibilities, she understands and never tires of asking again the next time. She is truly a blessing to me and brightens my day anytime I see her.
These types of �unusual� friendships are not uncommon in my life here. Some of my favorite memories include times when the kids who were shy at my first or second visit now tell their parents that I am their �amiga, � or when grandmothers sit down for a chat with me, or when, at my invitation, a friend from an indigenous community attended a party with me and then shared with all those present a tale from his native Maleku culture.
So this Thanksgiving, I am able to truly celebrate a multitude of things for which I am thankful. Yet I also celebrate friendship and the many people in which friendship is manifested for me, even if it is in unlikely locations, such as the Pilgrims and Native Americans experienced in the very first Thanksgiving (which, for those of you wanting to know, occurred in 1621).