Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  I missed being with friends and family, and the turkey of course.  I searched everywhere here, and after trying to explain what a turkey was, realized they don't have any here.  I was not surprised, but still a little disappointed.  I am one of only 2 Americans on the island, and the other one seems a bit off her rocker.   So I talked to the staff at work about what Thanksgiving is, and they were all excited about it.  So we took a half day off of work, and I bought the biggest fish in the market.  It was 100 SBD or about 15 US.  I could barely pick it up, it defiantly weighed more then me.

We filleted the fish and marinated it with some limes, and everyone cooked food in there Modo, the traditional ovens here.  You basically take everything you want to eat, wrap it in leaves then put hot stones on it all night, and in the morning cooked food.  It is similar to a crock pot only no electricity is needed.  We had Kasava, Fish, Banana Pudding, Potatoes, Fried Rice, lots of fruits, fresh breads, and some beer of course!  Everyone had their kids come and enjoy in the food.  It was a lot of fun, and kind of exciting.  I started thinking that the pilgrims were starving so the Indians brought them food on thanksgiving.  Well I am always hungry here, and the locals cooked all of the food their way, for us to enjoy.  It was easy doing the dishes as well, when you use leaves for all your plates!

We probably had about 50 people come.  The one and only radio station on the island even got wind of it, and said Happy Thanksgiving to all the staff at Dive Gizo.  A guy named Kennedy came, his grandfather rescued and hid JFK and his crew from the Japanese during the war after their PT boat sank.  He was nice enough to bring some Lobster and beer!