A Moroccan Thanksgiving

Last Tuesday I got a hankering for a good ole-fashioned Thanksgiving. So I sent out some text messages to my American friends inquiring about interest for the holiday. As it turned out, everyone wanted to celebrate it and was willing to help out. So we divided up the dishes amongst ourselves. Somehow I ended up with the turkey and the stuffing. We all had to work Thursday evening, so we decided to make it a lunch Thanksgiving. We also decided to try to share our culture, and so we invited five Moroccan friends.

On Wednesday night I went to the grocery store to look for turkey. The butcher told me if I wanted a whole turkey, I had to request it at least two or three days in advance.

The super market is only good for a few things here; it's better to go to the open air market for most things or even the "hanuts", smaller stores located on every block that sell all the staples. So after getting the turkey at the supermarket, I wandered down the street to the market and picked up some vegetables and spices.

I got up early on Thursday morning. After a quick breakfast, I cleaned up a bit and arranged the tables so we could all sit together. I wrote on our whiteboard: "Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for..." in both English and Arabic and left plenty of space for others to write as well.

Then I turned my attention to cooking. The preparation of the turkey and stuffing took a while, but eventually everything made its way into the oven. I have a better appreciation for what my mom does every year now...

I took a shower and waited around. Even though we had agreed upon noon, there were still no guests at 12:45. But then a Moroccan showed up. A little later an American. And then around 1, the last six guests showed up all at once.

We couldn't start just yet; we still had to make the gravy. The turkey had produced much more juice than I had thought it would since it wasn't the full thing. We poured it into a sauce pan, added a little flour, and in no time we had gravy. I gave a brief explanation of Thanksgiving and a blessing and we dug in.
After dinner, we cleaned up a bit and then had apple crumble (the logistics of pumpkin pie were too difficult). And then by popular demand, Daniel pulled out his guitar and gave us a mini-concert.



At various points, the Americans among us left to the other room to talk to relatives on Skype. After my turn, I emerged from my room to find all of the dishes miraculously done and the furniture re-arranged.

Not very long afterwards, people started filtering out. I took a short nap and then got ready for a work.

No football and no real day off, but Thanksgiving nonetheless.