Thanksgiving in Mali

<Hilary at the upperfalls. So picturesque!

Thanksgiving in Mali is not quite the same as it is in America.
The trip to the grocery store to prepare for your thanksgiving meal is not the same.
We were able to get a turkey. It cost $20 and weighed about 6 pounds. It had enough meat to go around for all of us.
Of course family is no where near by, So we invited Tom & Laura Requadt, and Lee & Susan Hochstetler, with their kids, Laura, David, and Sarah, to share thanksgiving with us.

Everyone brought something they baked, and some american treasures. There was Turkey & Stuffing, cranberry sauce, and apple pie, and pumkin pie, salad, watermelon. (Watermelon is always part of a thanksgiving meal, right?) Lisa made some ice cream to go with pie...
We really enjoyed our meal together.

We talked afterwards about how it would be nice to fall asleep in front of a football game of some sort.
And wondering if the Santa Claus parade was on.
Requadts went back hom Thanksgiving afternoon, and we spent 2 more days with the Hochstetler family. They are in a remote village, and enjoyed being able to share with another family in english.
Their kids are our kids ages. Laura is 14, our Hilary 13, David is 12, our Ben is 10, Sarah is 7, and Caleb is 5. So they played fairly well together.
We enjoyed card games, and watched some intellectual movies like Mr. Bean.
Remember Wizard, anyone?

Yesterday we accompanied them on their way home to their village, and stopped for the second time at the Waruni waterfalls. This was Joannie's first time there, she was amazed to find such a lush oasis of cool & color after walking through dry fields to get there. It is astonishing, even when you know what is coming at the end of the long hike. We stayed several hours this time, enough for Lisa & the kids to go to the upper falls, where the water is much deeper to swim.
The kids did see a small crocodile up there, only about a 3 footer. Interesting to swim with, though...

Joannie, Caleb and I had enough walking so we stayed in the cool lower falls. When we saw them up the cliff we played a little ball up and down the cliff, but that didn't last long. It was a long throw to get the ball up to the top...

After the waterfall/picnic, we said our goodbyes, and headed for home.
So that is how we celebrated thanksgiving weekend this year.
God Bless,
Tom & Lisa

A few pics. These pics didn't come out as nice as I would have liked. Sorry.
A really nice Baobob tree we saw on the way home from the falls


Ben & David making a mud hole at the falls.