Kids, PCV’s & Lots of Cooking….

I have many great memories from the goings on for the Friday after Thanksgiving and this year was no exception.  Well, besides the fact that we celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday.  Today was filled with wonderful Thanksgiving and Peace Corps activities.

Be forewarned there are a lot of pictures of Pete Isaac in this post.  Pete is an old friend from my Peace Corps Community Development training group and came to play for a few days over the holiday.  It was like having a partner in crime for five days.  We had an awesome weekend and LIVED!!!  Yup, Pete and I have the perfect love/hate relationship, and luckily more love than hate. 

    

We started the day helping Caroline with her Friday English class.  Caroline’s organization works with Special Needs Youth and Adults, so this class is challenging and fun at the same time.  The kids are all fabulous and want to learn, so they try and after a while things stick.  

It is incredible to watch people work hard to learn a second or third language when they likely struggled to learn their first language. 

    

It was a fantastic opportunity to help Caroline.  Amy, Pete and myself had a great time. 

Caroline is amazing with these kids.  So patient and willing to teach the same thing a hundred different ways.  It is incredible to watch her in her element.

          

And then the cooking began.  If one thing can be said about Pete it is that he is a ton of fun.  However, he has never made a pie, so this Thanksgiving it was time for the guy to learn. 

    

First up…Pumpkin Pie…

         

And then there is Apple, Cherry, and Apple-Cherry.  Caroline saved the cherries over the summer, because we live in a seasonal country this is a must.  Although I do believe you could find frozen cherries at Metro.  Huh, might need to look.

And this is for my dad.  Dad and Beth have been sending canned smoked salmon in my care packages.  So I broke open a can.  Caroline added some mayonnaise, lemon juice and parsley…and I made little sandwiches.  It was awesome!  Thanks Dad and Beth for the added treats from home.  They are amazing!!!

Cooking can take a lot out of a guy!

    

And finally there was food.  There were 12 PCV’s and Andrew (Wyoming’s translator and our lone Ukrainian) for a pasta feast.  Nothing like a carbo load before Thanksgiving! 

Yeh, food.  And a ton of friends!!  This was a great Friday!