Tomorrow will now be the third Thanksgiving day we have spent away from our family back in the USA. It seems impossible in some ways that we are now in our third year here but in other ways it seems it has been at least five years. You know what I mean….
We will spend the day with lots of missionary friends from the Montego Bay area. Twenty one of us to be exact. It will be our second time getting together with them on Thanksgiving day. Last year we had a group here from North Carolina so we celebrated Jamaican style, with jerk chicken, rice and peas, calaloo, and festival bread. It was fun, but turkey is definitely better.
Two years ago we were living out on the campus of Fairview Baptist College and I had promised to cook up a feast for them to show them how Americans celebrate this holiday. (There is of course no Thanksgiving holiday here) My first shocker was when I went to purchase the turkey. I paid $40 for a 12 pound turkey. YIKES! All in all I spent about $135 to feed eight of us. It was great food and great fun. All but one of them had never tasted turkey or pumpkin pie. Oh, and BTW…no canned pumpkin or frozen pie crust here. I made it all from scratch. I have to say that it was quite yummy.
Here’s the thing though. Jamaicans use turkey neck to season other things. All of them are quite familiar with turkey neck…but they have never had turkey. Which begs the question……..where’s the rest of it?? We laughed heartily at the table with our students that night pondering that question. You gotta admit….it conjures up a silly image in your mind. Is there a headless turkey farm somewhere on the island? Someone somewhere knows the answer to that question I am sure. I don’t know the answer but don’t have time to ponder on it much longer….I gotta go on a hunt for that headless turkey so I can stuff him and cook him up for lunch tomorrow!
This has been the silly rambling of one tired Jamerican….SELAH! <gobble, gobble>
2tiredjamericans 