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| Our neighbors who live upstairs joined us to celebrate |
From the Dutch to the Spanish, Aussies to the Japanese, the country of South Africa has had its fair share of foreign visitors throughout history. Nevertheless, the one group who never made it to the shores of this beautiful land were……...the Indians and pilgrims! There has never been a feast of Thanksgiving celebrated in South Africa, thus resulting in the absence of one of my favorite holidays of the year, Thanksgiving. Once my fellow Americans and I came to this realization a few months ago, we knew exactly what we had to do. We were going to bring Thanksgiving to South Africa, the American way. With 13 Americans in the GRS family, we could not let November 24
th pass us by without recognition. How un-patriotic!
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| Me, Kimberley intern Lauren, and my 2 roommates Rebecca and Kelly |
Preparation for our feast began Wednesday night when my roommate Audrey, whose parents were in town for the week, teamed with her mom to bake four AMAZING pumpkin pies. We walked into the house after having been out with our friends for a few beers and the aroma of pumpkin filled the house! It was so wonderful and definitely made the realization of Thanksgiving so clear to all of us. We couldn’t wait for the next day to come.
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| Laura, the master chef, is on the left |
Sure enough, Thursday morning came and the cleaning and cooking began around noon. We swept, vacuumed, mopped, and surprisingly turned our intern house into a semi-decent looking home! The question of whether we could actually keep it this clean for more than a day made us all laugh because we definitely knew the answer to that….no way. Nevertheless, it looked good for the day and that was all that mattered. The kitchen quickly became an assembly line and mashed potatoes were first on the list. Expecting a group of about 50 people, we knew there had to be tons and tons of food because we didn’t want anyone to go hungry on the one day you are supposed to leave feeling overly full. So the peeling, cubing, and
boiling of the potatoes began, headed by my roommate, Andrew. Working beside him was another assembly line of interns headed by Rebecca, who was in charge of the stuffing. The preparation fro the meal was certainly one of the most fun parts of the day. Here I was, with all my friends in the kitchen, just chopping away and having a great time together. This was what Thanksgiving was all about. The potatoes and stuffing turned out to be a success and next up was the chicken. Yup, that’s right, I said chicken. Apparently the turkeys that live in South Africa max out at about 9 pounds. The thought of a 32 pound turkey, such as the one my parents had in there own fridge back home, would have made the butcher look at you like you had three heads (which did in fact happen to one of my roommates). Thus, we decided to make some alternative choices for meat to serve, and this included cooking 4 chickens…..the other white meat. My roommate Laura spearheaded this job, as she was the master chef among us all. In the meantime, my roommate Charlie took over the grill and cooked up some pork, sausage and steak along with grilled peppers and onions. I began to laugh when I realized how non-traditional our meal would be with pork, steak, chicken, and even lasagna (compliments of one of our office friends). But then I realized that this was perfect, an international feast of internationals.
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| All the interns! |
The invitation invited everyone over for 4 pm and the first group arrived around 4:20. We weren’t quite ready when the guests arrived, as we were still running around doing last minute preparations. We even had to phone up our neighbors who live above us so we could cook a chicken and the corn soufflé in their oven! I was still at the stove sautéing my green beans when they walked through the door as well. Lucky for us, everyone was content to relax on the porch with a few beers in hand. The crowd began to roll in around 5 pm and by 6, we had a full house. Luckily, the meal was finally ready! I couldn’t believe how much food we actually had been able to make. It was incredible looking at the table. We had chicken, turkey (compliments of Audrey’s parents), grilled pork, sausage, steak, cranberry sauce, gravy, roasted butternut squash, pounds of mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, a green salad, lasagna, sweet potatoes, grilled vegetables, corn soufflé, and a whole table of desserts waiting for us. It was such a good feeling knowing that we had nothing to worry about in terms of our guests leaving hungry. My roommate Laura gathered everyone around the buffet table, thanked our guests for coming, and told them to dig-in!
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| My favorite guests, Ivan and Benjamin (Center and Right) |
All the food was a smashing success. Everyone loved it and there was plenty to go around, including leftovers. We were able to provide everyone that left with a little ‘to-go’ assortment of all the extra food that they wanted. It was great! The dessert was a great success as well.
I had such a wonderful time visiting with everyone. My favorite guest that arrived was Ivan, our office doorman, along with his friend, Benjamin. Those two guys make me smile each and every morning that I come into the office and I couldn’t have been happier to share this day with them. I also got to visit with my boss’s wife for the first time, as well as Ntuthu’s (our bookkeeper who I work next to) two little boys. It was such a happy
and fun time for everyone. There were drinks flowing, guitars playing, and singing throughout the night. By 8 pm, people started trickling out and by 9, the house was empty. Clean-up was surprisingly quick, compliments of the paper and plastic ware that we used. By 9:30, you would never have known we had a crowd of 50 people at the house just 30 minutes prior. My roommates and fellow intern friends finally sat down for the first time all day, took our shoes off, and talked about how great the night had been. It truly was the best Thanksgiving away from home that I could have ever asked for. Although I missed my real family in Rhode Island, I had a tremendous time celebrating with my South African family. I felt extremely lucky to be blessed with so many amazing friends and such a great group of roommates. This would definitely be a Thanksgiving to remember for years and years to come.
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| Trevor licking the Green Mint Pie dish clean |
boiling of the potatoes began, headed by my roommate, Andrew. Working beside him was another assembly line of interns headed by Rebecca, who was in charge of the stuffing. The preparation fro the meal was certainly one of the most fun parts of the day. Here I was, with all my friends in the kitchen, just chopping away and having a great time together. This was what Thanksgiving was all about. The potatoes and stuffing turned out to be a success and next up was the chicken. Yup, that’s right, I said chicken. Apparently the turkeys that live in South Africa max out at about 9 pounds. The thought of a 32 pound turkey, such as the one my parents had in there own fridge back home, would have made the butcher look at you like you had three heads (which did in fact happen to one of my roommates). Thus, we decided to make some alternative choices for meat to serve, and this included cooking 4 chickens…..the other white meat. My roommate Laura spearheaded this job, as she was the master chef among us all. In the meantime, my roommate Charlie took over the grill and cooked up some pork, sausage and steak along with grilled peppers and onions. I began to laugh when I realized how non-traditional our meal would be with pork, steak, chicken, and even lasagna (compliments of one of our office friends). But then I realized that this was perfect, an international feast of internationals. 
The invitation invited everyone over for 4 pm and the first group arrived around 4:20. We weren’t quite ready when the guests arrived, as we were still running around doing last minute preparations. We even had to phone up our neighbors who live above us so we could cook a chicken and the corn soufflé in their oven! I was still at the stove sautéing my green beans when they walked through the door as well. Lucky for us, everyone was content to relax on the porch with a few beers in hand. The crowd began to roll in around 5 pm and by 6, we had a full house. Luckily, the meal was finally ready! I couldn’t believe how much food we actually had been able to make. It was incredible looking at the table. We had chicken, turkey (compliments of Audrey’s parents), grilled pork, sausage, steak, cranberry sauce, gravy, roasted butternut squash, pounds of mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, a green salad, lasagna, sweet potatoes, grilled vegetables, corn soufflé, and a whole table of desserts waiting for us. It was such a good feeling knowing that we had nothing to worry about in terms of our guests leaving hungry. My roommate Laura gathered everyone around the buffet table, thanked our guests for coming, and told them to dig-in!
