Tis the Season

The holiday season is officially upon us. One interesting perk to living in a foreign country is the opportunity to celebrate twice as many holidays as normal. Seeing as how Scott and I are oddly dangled between two cultures, we get to adopt the best of both words, thus doubling our merriment… and exponentially increasing our observation of UN educational holidays. Within the last few weeks we have celebrated Thanksgiving, Saint Andrew’s Day, and Worldwide Fight Against AIDS day.

This November Scott and I decided that we wanted to eat a traditional Thanksgiving feast, but we didn’t want to do it alone. Cooking up a giant meal for just the two of us sounded much more depressing than exciting, so we decided to bake pumpkin pies with the Young Women’s Culinary Group on Wednesday and cater a meal for our co-workers on Thanksgiving day.

We were all set for the holiday feast. Preparations for the meal began months in advance when Scott planted pumpkin seeds and sage in the garden behind the house, and miraculously, two pumpkins were ready right on schedule. On Wednesday the cooking group girls were skeptical of a “squash dessert,” but once they saw that the ingredient list contained sweetened, condensed milk and the squash was pureed rather than served in chunks, they were willing to give it a try. We were short on plates, but the girls snarfed down slices of pie out of the palms of their hands, and no one uttered a complaint. Pumpkin pie was a hit.

On Thursday Scott and I scurried around cooking up a storm. In addition to pumpkin pie, we made Hargis family stuffing and gravy, Ansley family sweet potato casserole, and rosemary garlic fried chicken legs. Cape Verdeans are generally not shy about expressing honest opinions, so Scott and I were plenty nervous about the crowd reaction, but our fears were unfounded. We relaxed and began to enjoy the meal as co-workers returned for seconds and asked for recipes. The two of us were visibly beaming with pride. The greatest moment of satisfaction came when one colleague slouched lower in his chair, caressed his protruding belly and moaned that he was “sooo full.” He then returned to the table for another helping of sweet potato casserole - an authentic Thanksgiving experience.

A couple of days later we joined neighbors in a simple celebration of Dia de Santo Andre. Saint Andrew is the patron saint in another community where there were full-scale festas, but in our town the observation simply demanded eating copious amounts of corn on the cob. Done.

Then on December 1st the community gathered in commemoration of Worldwide Day Against HIV/AIDS. The percentage of people affected by HIV/AIDS in Cape Verde is not near that of many African nations, and Cape Verde is determined to keep it that way. In our town the elementary school teachers organized an area-wide soccer tournament as a reminder of the commemoration and had a special assembly for all of the students to discuss transmission and prevention of the disease. Sexual activity starts very early in our community, and so the teachers held nothing back in their explanations. Given the circumstances, I fully support their methods, but I still found it a bit shocking to hear 6-12 year-olds chant in unison the three types of intercourse through which the HIV virus is spread.

Peace Corps is also committed to providing HIV/AIDS education as a world-wide initiative, so I partnered with some community members to host a gathering. A group of 40ish people met to watch AIDS-related film shorts created by youth across Africa and then discuss the films in small groups. While most of the participants were young people, there were a couple of wild cards on the attendance list including a 74 year-old gentleman.

The day after the activity, the gentleman took me aside to express his appreciation that the youth in our town were being taught about AIDS. He wanted to let me know that he, himself, was no longer in a position to worry about becoming infected. He said that although he still talks a big game, he no longer has the energy to go chasing after women aside from his wife.

Just as I thought that the conversation was coming to a close, the elderly man returned to make a clarification. “You should know that in my younger days I was quite the catch,” he said. He continued to detail a few of his conquests as I squirmed searching for an escape. Before I found my way out, however, he managed to get in one last word. “I’ve never caught HIV but I do have an infectious disease that makes it burn when I pee….”

And what do you say to that?

Happy Holidays!!!