Grateful!

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever. ” I Chronicles 16:34 NKJV

First Thanksgiving Celebration in Mekong Land

Of course, thanksgiving is not an official holiday in Cambodia. Besides the USA, only a few countries have official Thanksgiving Celebrations in various dates such as Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia. Others countries such as Brazil, Germany, the Philippines, and perhaps a few other countries celebrate Thanksgiving unofficially.

In the recent past, David and I celebrated Thanksgiving with a special meal with his sister’s family. The usual tradition is roasted turkey, dressing with cranberry sauce, some veggies, and pumpkin, or pecan pie. In America’s southeast region, casseroles are tradition for cooking vegetables, such as green beans or squash casseroles. They are delicious! When I joined David’s family, the Asian eggrolls became an addition to the Thanksgiving family get together. 🙂

This year, since we live in the Southeast, finding ingredients to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal was a challenge. First, dressed turkey or turkey meat is not easy to find. After a few weeks of looking, we were delighted to find one store in the city that sells frozen dressed turkey, imported from another country. However, the price is a bit high. (About $68). Later, we found out we can buy a rotisserie chicken in another store for five bucks! I thought I could cook some veggies and perhaps try to make a turkey dressing or stuffing. However, we could not find sage seasoning in any shops in the city. There are all kinds of cooking seasoning, but no sage. Then another ingredient we tried to look for was canned cranberry sauce. Again, no luck.

When our friends the Mayfields were planning to visit, I requested them to bring a can of cranberry sauce if they find something. And they did. They found a canned cranberry sauce while traveling in Bangkok. Sad to say, when they got to the airport to fly from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, the canned cranberry sauce was not allowed to board the plane. Perhaps it was considered liquid?

The week of Thanksgiving (Nov 19-25) was another hectic week. Besides friends’ visiting, David and I participated in a wedding event of a family member of one of the staff. Then couple of days later, was an engagement celebration/dinner. (Besides learning the language, we are still trying to understand the local’s culture, tradition and values).

On Thanksgiving day, sad to say, I was feeling sick. So, my plan to cook was thrown out the window. So, we ended up ordering Thanksgiving meal delivery from a restaurant. Thank the Lord at least 2 restaurants in the city offered a Thanksgiving meal set of roasted turkey or ham, some veggies, a bit of cranberry sauce and a slice of pumpkin pie! Thank you Lord!

Even though we missed families, we are grateful that we celebrated Thanksgiving with good friends, Martyn & Lynda.

(posted on December 05, 2023, while visiting Jakarta, Id.)