Thank you

Every so often Thanksgiving falls ever so fittingly on my mama’s birthday, and today is one of those special days. So today I just want to give thanks for my little mama, who is the greatest blessing a girl could ever be given. It’s amazing to think there’s someone in this world who has devoted her whole life to loving me. What I ever did to deserve this I’ll never know. Possibly I was something exceptional in a previous life. I just feel so overwhelmed with gratitude when I think about my relationship with my mom. Nothing hidden, nothing fake, nothing forced, just the most beautiful natural easy friendship. To be able to laugh about something random the exact same way, with the same depth and the same interpretation, nobody else understanding it the way we do…that’s one magical thing. What else to say? I am too choked up, at a loss, no way of comprehending this fortune I inherited just by being born. I love you Mom, I wish you the happiest of birthdays, and I thank the universe for working so magically.

It’s only 9:30 and this is already turning out to be one amazing Thanksgiving. My cabin-mates and I sat around giving thanks, not kumbaya style or anything, just talking about the foods from the farm that we love, admiring the beautiful weather. We were in the midst of a cold front, endless drizzle all day, but TODAY is all sunshine and clear skies. Absolutely amazing. We are already starting to prepare our Thanksgiving meal. I’ll be making camote (sweet potatoes) and cornbread. Martha is making a pie from a beautiful fragrant squash from the farm hoping it’ll be pumpkin-y. I was going to make stuffing but passed the responsibility to Justin, which is just as well cause I was just going to wing it. The three other volunteers are working today, so we’ll see if they are going to have any energy left to cook anything. Maybe we’ll have some more tilapia from the farm (turkeys are very expensive here). Regardless of it turns out, it’s going to be a joy to prepare.

We are extremely blessed here on the farm. We went around the table this morning and named our top 3 farm foods (yeah, totally cheesy and my idea). My top 3, in order, are:

1) aguacate (avocado)

2) jugo de caña (sugar cane juice)

3) banano (I'll let you figure that one out)

My oh my, the food, the food! So many runners-up…fresh squeezed orange juice, plantains, tilapia, pejibaye (a small starchy palm fruit that tastes more like a vegetable), oh, and all the fresh herbs…basil, rosemary, mint, lemongrass, and the heavenly smell off the oregano. Sometimes I carry some around in my pocket just to take whiffs when I’m doing some boring farm work. And though we don’t grow them on the farm, the pineapples in town are incredible and only like 75 cents!

I’ve grown to appreciate some totally random things too, as we live so minimally here. For example, ziploc bags and paper towels, which our host doesn’t provide, are like gold. What he does provide is oatmeal, rice, beans, pasta. So we eat oatmeal just about every morning, which gets pretty old. Today we threw in like 6 raisins that we found, which was so exciting. Every time we got a spoonful with a raisin we celebrated. I never would have thought that a raisin could make me so happy. Then there’s my ipod, which is my savior. Serves as entertainment and a clock while I work, ear plugs when I sleep, and a very effective way of ignoring (or pretending to ignore) Frank.

Lastly, the lovely volunteers here who I would go crazy without. A big thanks for them. Excuse the excessive cheesiness...and HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all!