First Thanksgiving in Azerbaijan

Last week, both Masazir cluster groups got together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Initially, this seemed like a fairly simple endeavor. One meal where we could come together and celebrate one of America's biggest holidays--each of us contributing a little bit of what felt like home to our collective whole. We decided that a potluck-style dinner would be the best way to go about it. My host family graciously agreed to host all of us at our house. It didn't take long for us to decide that Thanksgiving would be incomplete without a turkey. And it went without saying that turkeys aren't sold in mass quantities at the supermarkets the last week of November in Azerbaijan. I'll spare you the written details of what ensued between 4 PCTs and Franklin, our turkey, the night before Thanksgiving. Check out these pictures instead.

Our Thanksgiving gathering ended up including 11 PCTs, an Az7 who was in town for our technical sessions, both LCFs, and of course, my host family: 19 people in all. The fact that there was a blizzard (those PCTs from the north say I'm using this term rather liberally--but for real, it was a blizzard), that all of Masazir was covered in a few inches of snow, and that none of our houses had electricity this day didn't slow our roll. We were able to cook all of the food using our gas oven and stove. We ended up with a large, traditional spread that included the turkey, a chicken (a last minute addition purchased after we realized how skinny Franklin was without his feathers), a fish, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, waldorf salad, twice baked potatoes, Azeri potato/chicken salad, fruit, a variation of deviled eggs, corn, juice, as well as a pie, cookies and a cake for dessert. Where did all of this food come from you ask? Well, the stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce came in a care package to Hali, a fellow trainee. My host family contributed the fish. Nunu baked the apple pie and cake. Most of the side dishes (waldorf salad, deviled eggs, twice baked potatoes etc..) were made with ingredients from local markets. I had a really good experience with my host mom as I showed her how to make twice baked potatoes. Kartof (the potato) is one of Azerbaijan's staple foods, and I don't know what surprised her more.. 1) that there's a way to prepare kartof that she didn't about or 2) that I know how to cook! I think she was pleasantly surprised on both fronts. Before we ate, we all took turns saying what we are thankful for. The LCFs and my host family caught onto this quickly and took their turns too. During dinner, the LCFs took part in snapping the wishbone. And afterwards, when we were almost too full to eat dessert, we huddled around a laptop and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. My host family loved seeing the same traditions they took part in replicated in the show.

While I missed my family in America tremendously, I felt very thankful to be able to spend Thanksgiving with the family I've created here.