The sleepy town of Lawra in the Upper West region of Ghana did not know what hit it last week as Upper East, Central and Accra volunteers descended on Lawsec Secondary School all in the name of American Thanksgiving. The week was fun filled, food filled and friends filled, perfect for my last few days in Ghana (for 2011)...
Part I: S'mores ("I want some more" - "I want s'more")
Tuesday evening saw us starting a fire in the driest season known to Ghana, probably not the smartest of moves, but we (G-dog) managed to keep it under control and not burn down the entire school campus. The two Americans gave the three Brits a step-by-step run through on how to melt marshmallows and create the perfect s'more 'sandwich' using honey made Graham crackers as the 'bread' and Hersheys chocolate as the filling. Having chomped our way through plenty s'mores, we then set the World to rights over a few beers...
Part II: The slaughter!
Wednesday we witnessed the murder/killing/slaughter of our Thanksgiving turkey - SMW! The Abster and Kelly were in charge of slaughtering the 20lb turkey and I think the only way to best describe the event is through photographic evidence...
Part III: Thanksgiving Day
Following the trauma of the previous day, Thursday the long awaited thanksgiving day arrived, as did our cooked golden turkey...
We made 'turkey thanksgiving hands' under the supervision and guidance of the Americans. It did remind me of a primary school class back home, especially when we had to put our hands up to speak and check whether everyone was safe using scissors, but was a very fun kick-off to the days activities. We then proceeded to write on our turkey hands what we were thankful for both in Ghana and at home. Some examples were 'flushing toilets, seasons and raid bug spray to mute all the cockroaches.'
Our thanksgiving dinner was a feast of delights cooked up by the two Americans. It included turkey, stuffing, gravy, roasted veg with...cornbread and biscuits...huh!? This was a challenge for us Brits to comprehend and earnt me a telling off (and deduction of points) when I tried to cut mine with a knife and fork (a new concept to the Americans)...
Following dinner we were all thoroughly fit to burst so spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofas (imagine hard wood here and not comfortable at all) watching 'the game.' Thanks to GB we had a projector to display the bears (cubs) v eagles (penguins) game that Kelly downloaded from a couple of weeks ago. Two and a half hours later the game was over and we were ready for more food...
Part IIII: The morning after...
The last day of our marathon thanksgiving week saw more volunteers arrive for round two. We crammed into one day all the fun we had spread across three and managed to enjoy three times the laughter and happiness as well. With more turkey hands, food, the game, s'mores and camp fire sing-alongs, I don't think any of us could have asked for a better ending to the week...
As you may be able to tell already, it really was an absolutely brilliant introduction to American Thanksgiving (Ghana style) that wouldn't have been possible without the packages sent over by Abbie and Kelly's families...we owe a finger on our turkey hands to all of them for making it possible. Also to the Abster for hosting the week long event, to Kelly for being American and to the others for somehow including me in team UK, although we all know it was team Togo that won the race!
Part I: S'mores ("I want some more" - "I want s'more")
Tuesday evening saw us starting a fire in the driest season known to Ghana, probably not the smartest of moves, but we (G-dog) managed to keep it under control and not burn down the entire school campus. The two Americans gave the three Brits a step-by-step run through on how to melt marshmallows and create the perfect s'more 'sandwich' using honey made Graham crackers as the 'bread' and Hersheys chocolate as the filling. Having chomped our way through plenty s'mores, we then set the World to rights over a few beers...
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| The pledge! |
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| Team UK and team America, united for a photo! |
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| Happy s'mor-ing! |
Wednesday we witnessed the murder/killing/slaughter of our Thanksgiving turkey - SMW! The Abster and Kelly were in charge of slaughtering the 20lb turkey and I think the only way to best describe the event is through photographic evidence...
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| The chase for SMW! |
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| SMW's moms and aunts! |
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| The walk to death! |
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| The Abster questioning her murder skills! |
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| Some may say Enoch to the rescue! |
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| The fight! |
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| The tears! |
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| All hands on deck for the gutting! |
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| The 'Sunlight' clean bird! |
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| The washing of evidence! |
Following the trauma of the previous day, Thursday the long awaited thanksgiving day arrived, as did our cooked golden turkey...
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| The table after we were through with dinner! |
The last day of our marathon thanksgiving week saw more volunteers arrive for round two. We crammed into one day all the fun we had spread across three and managed to enjoy three times the laughter and happiness as well. With more turkey hands, food, the game, s'mores and camp fire sing-alongs, I don't think any of us could have asked for a better ending to the week...
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| Our second day of feasting! |
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| With THE Americans! |
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| Some late night leftovers! |
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