It's Thanksgiving once again, the Ultimate American Holiday - A time for Family, Football and Food! Here in Kigali (Rwanda), Thanksgiving took on a slightly different meaning, or at least within our group. In honor of our American connections, we were given a long weekend with two days off of school. However, the rest of the life continued with on with the majority of our host nation completely unaware of the significance of this traditional Thursday.
This year Thanksgiving basically meant two things:
1) CHICKEN!!!
A rarity in Rwanda, Turkeys are nearly unheard of and those few that do exist make a poor Thanksgiving feast. Thus this year our protein was supplied by poultry of a different feather, cousin of the turkey, the Chicken! An imported expense, chicken has also made only selected appearances on our table during these two months in Rwanda, so to have a whole piece of chicken to oneself was quite a treat.
2) TREE OUTFIT DAY!
Beginning a new group Thanksgiving tradition of our own we instituted Tree Outfit Day. Never heard of Tree Outfit Day you say? Allow me to elaborate: Tree Outfit Day is a day when everyone present is supposed to dress in a tree like fashion. Essentially, green on top, brown on bottom. And, what does a whole forest of trees do once they are up and walking about, why take countless of randomly over-posed photos, Of Course! Thus was tree outfit day - a day of Green fun that helped us all to feel a little more festive in this time away from our traditional family and friends.
Dinner did not disappoint (even though many of us are looking forward to actually having turkey again next year) 
and I think nearly all walked away with that overstuffed feeling. Dessert was scrumcious with apple desserts galore - our pumpkin pie filling was confiscated by the TSA at the airport, apparently Thanksgiving goodness is a security risk of National importance!
All in all it was a wonderful day, beautifully rounded out with phone calls home helping to shrink the distance.
An of course the always awkward holiday "family" photo
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