Thanksgiving
At its best, when organized around generosity and kindness, Thanksgiving is such a great holiday -- it has as much gravitas and gravy to suit each appetite. A built in community "living gratitude journal" practice. It can be religious -- or not. And if religious, it can honor any deity, individually or collectively. How cool is that? And so ours suited our group just right. The fledgling Pakse group, only 2 weeks arrived, barely settled in 2 country-side homes surrounded by roaming cows and dogs (for the 4 Fulbright English Teaching Assistants, ETAS) and 1 guest house (for me the English Language Fellow). We hosted 3 others arriving from Savannakhet by crammed bus, complete with stools inserted where knees were supposed to be, and 1 from Vientiane by plane. I don't remember our Pakse peeps, especially myself, planning that much for this Friendsgiving weekend. It kind of emerged. Food is always a huge topic of conversation -- anytime, all t...