Oh, Canada! Happy Thanksgiving Take 1.

Over half of the import staff of the Columbus School are Canadian. With three turkeys, many different salads and side dishes, and even more deserts we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in style. Around 50-60 teachers and significant others crowded into the penthouse apartment of Danny, Liza, and Diane.

The day started at three but many, mostly the Americans, filtered in after the American football games had finished. (Several teachers are from Dallas and 2 are from Philadelphia, so the Eagles and Cowboys game took precedence to the food, in the same manner they would in a traditional American Thanksgiving.) People lounged downstairs, on one of several balconies or in the loft eating appetizers, drinking and enjoying good company.

It is impossible to tell exactly how long things take to cook here. The apple pie that we made took over 2 hours to bake. Oven temperature is not extremely consistent. Around five the last turkey had finished cooking. We all dished up and ate, talked and took several rounds through the buffet style line. At around 6 the desserts came out: Bailey’s cheese cake, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie (made from mixes smuggled into Colombia in June for the sole purpose of Thanksgiving dinner), apple pie, brownies and the list could go on.

On Thanksgiving, even if it is October and you are not Canadian, it is a time to reflect on how thankful you are. And sitting in a two story apartment looking over a third world city where a large portion of the population is struggling to eat meat once a week and have one meal a day while we gorged ourselves on copious amounts of food did cause us to reflect. At around 7:00 the most important part of the evening began: an auction to donate money to several charities in the area. Just some of the causes we were supporting were; a soup kitchen in a poorer barrio trying to provide at least one meal a day to the children of the neighborhood, a community center for teenage street girls that teaches them trades such as cooking and crafts so that they can help support themselves, and a sponsorship program for abandoned drug babies similar to Big Brother, Big Sister, where the sponsor takes the child to events, pays for their schooling and provides a responsible role model.

People from the school donated goods to the not so silent auction. Dinners for six, weekend getaways in people’s homes in the country, baked goods, trinkets and small items made by the children who we were supporting, and items purchased at San Alejo craft fair were all up for auction. The goal was to raise 3 million pesos (about US $1,500). The bidding started silently through sign up sheets around the room and then prices were raised through traditional bidding later in the evening. We proudly purchased a beautiful Mola tapestry, two classes worth of subbing (for Sean any Friday afternoon), and chipped in for an Indian dinner for six cooked by Gurjit the drama teacher. At the end of the evening the grand total came in at 4,670,000 pesos. With the average meal costing around 2 pesos, it is wonderful to think about how many children we fed even though it is a mere drop in the bucket.

Be thankful for what you have, the friends who surround you, the food on your table, and what you are able to contribute to the greater good. Happy Thanksgiving.