Cusco Celebration

For the past week, Kimberly and I have been living with a host family in Cusco, Peru and taking Spanish classes at a local school. Originally only a three-day stay to prep for our trip to Machu Picchu, we booked an additional week and a half in Cusco after meeting a girl in Ecuador who raved about the awesomeness of the town.

Our host family was a kind, retired couple named Adolfo and Maria. Both spoke very little English, which provided us with additional Spanish practice after class each day. Also staying in their home were six other travelers of various backgrounds who were in Cusco to volunteer for local organizations or to learn Spanish like us. One common factor that we all shared was that the majority of us were Americans who were soon to be away from our families during an important and favorite holiday.

For nearly two decades, my home in Collinsville, VA has been the epicenter for food and family during Thanksgiving. My Mom has four sisters--each sister has at least two children--and we all get along exceptionally well. Add seven awesome spouses and a few kids to the mix, and you have one big happy family. Thanksgiving is, without a doubt, my favorite holiday.

Similar stories around the dinner table each night in Cusco made us all realize how much we’d miss Thanksgiving this year. Our host, Maria, wasn’t too keen on relinquishing her kitchen for a Thanksgiving takeover so we decided to focus on dessert and wine instead.

Thanksgiving 2016, Peru Edition looked something like this: On the menu from Maria was a mushroom soup followed by roasted chicken, rice, and a beet and potato salad. Each housemate brought a bottle (or a few) of wine and Sarah from New York found an apple pie to share from the local bakery. After dinner, Molly from Colorado brought out the game “Left, Center, Right” and we introduced Adolfo and Maria to the game of gambling and luck. The first game we played with fake dollars. The second game we played with Peruvian Sol and Amber from France walked away with S/.24 …about $7.  When laughter fills the room, it doesn’t matter what language you speak.

Later in the evening, fueled by too much wine and probably the desire to replicate the fullness of an actual American Thanksgiving, Sachin from New Jersey provided us with some late night pizza and we watched Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving on YouTube.

We can’t call this a tradition, but making new friends and being able to cheers to good health and happiness embraces the spirit of Thanksgiving no matter the country or circumstance.