The northern hemisphere’s Fall is my favorite season.
Football, friends, family. Halloween, Thanksgiving. Cooler weather. Light sweaters and scarves. Boots.
The list goes on and on.
As September approached, I prepared myself for the inevitable homesickness I’d feel. My first Fall in Peru was tough, for a variety of reasons. This year, I handled the Fall much better. Maybe it’s because I knew what to expect. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in my community for much longer.
But in the days before Thanksgiving, I started to feel it. The feelings of missing out, wishing I was at this Friendsgiving or that. Longing to be with my own family. I passed one Saturday night alone in my room, sobbing (arguably that could have also been because I had lower back pain 3 weeks running).
I woke up Thanksgiving morning and did what I could to get excited for the day’s events. I heated up water for a warm bucket bath. Dressed in one of my favorite skirts, put on some make up. I headed to the school, only to leave once I realized my class wasn’t going to happen (student council speeches). And then I made my way 2 ½ hours to Pimentel, where a majority of the volunteers in my region were prepping turkey, mashed potatoes, and a whole slew of other fixings.
I walked in the front door to a friend and fellow volunteer’s host family’s house to find volunteers and several of their Peruvian friends dancing, chatting loudly, snacking on veggies and hummus. When we sat down to dinner, we went around the table, saying what we were grateful for this year. Amongst the volunteers, we all gave thanks for each other, our experiences in Peru. Many of the Peruvians were celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time, and were thankful for that.
In those moments my heart swelled with joy and the feelings of sadness had diminished, if not completely disappeared. I was surrounded by people who were truly grateful, whether they were Peace Corps volunteers or Peruvians. While many of us volunteers might’ve wished to be elsewhere, we made the most of our circumstances and supported each other in the process.
Over the years, Thanksgiving celebrations blur together. We develop traditions and the way we celebrate the holiday doesn’t vary much. But, the two Thanksgivings I’ve celebrated in Peru will always stand out to me—not because I was in Peru, but because the spirit of the day was truly that of thankfulness.
Brittany McGee 