Turkey Day

I had a truly unique Thanksgiving experience. I headed down to a little town near Odessa in southern Ukraine not far from the Black Sea and met up with several other PVC's to celebrate the holiday. We stayed at another volunteers house and it was like camping indoors. We slept inside but the house was heated by a coal oven/furnace thing that was not the most efficient. You had to go outside for running water and they had a midget sized outhouse. In fact the whole house was made for someone who was a little bit smaller then the average bear. Luckly the volunteer who lives there is 5 foot two or so.
The first night we arrived we went to the local school and did a little presentation on Gender equality that seemed to go pretty well. Then we attempted to teach the kids how to play American Football. Something tells me that this is a sport that will probably never catch on in Ukraine. But we tried. Then we went to see our turkey. I had visions of gazing on a large nicley browned stuffed bird. Instead I looked at this bird and it looked back at me. And gobbled a little. Then gave a surprizing human like scream as the neighbor picked it and its buddy up by the back legs and in one motion chopped their little heads off. I may never eat turkey again. And it really does take about 10 minutes for the bodies to stop flapping around. Then the kindly neighbor showed us how to pluck our turkey and gut it so it is ready to cook. Besides the screaming the rest of it was not that bad and now I can say that I know how to clean a bird. I am not planning on doing it again but at least I know how.
then i read "The Princesses Bride" outloud as everyone fell asleep.
The next day we started our flurry of cooking. We had 15 people to feed and one electric oven and 3 burners to work with. We mill around like cattle drinking coffee and felling relaxed for the first time in weeks. Then we start peeling potatos. And we keep peeling and peeling. Let me remind you that there are not potato peelers in Ukraine, you use a knife. And peeling one potato takes all day but when you need to peel potato for 15 people it takes forever. Then the electricity went out and we begin to wonder it the turkeys would get cooked. Thankfully it went back on in about an hour. The same neighbor who gave us the turky killing demonstration brought over borsht for everyone for lunch and we rotated the 3 bowls so we all got a chance to eat. Then we went to all the neighbors and borrowed a table, plates, and silverware. We made pumpkin pie from scratch, cheesy mashed potatos, 2 turkeys, had cranberry sauce and candy corn from home, gravy, stuffing, and 3 different kinds of salad. It was the best meal I have had since I got here. And even though there were 10 people working in a kitchen ment for 2, we had to wash dishes with well water, and I got blisters from peeling it is one of my favorite days. Check out the following pictures.