Thanksgiving, A Surprise

Ben and I are in the middle of the rockin blessing of staying with an embassy family this week while we do prep and cooking for the pc family thanksgiving. We've got bagels and fresh pasta, newspapers, Internet, and along with all that - electricity! The family we're staying with is warm and kind, and that's always nice, being so far from our own. Today, I'm thankful for Ben (but that's everyday), and I'm thankful for (what, Claudette? I almost mumbled, I so humbled) my co-workers!
Thanks Peace Corps for giving me a home, away from home, often in no locale at all, where I can pretend for minute that I'm not just a soldier in the struggle for equity, bad hair-cut, ridden with bug bites and rumpled clothes with mysterious holes.
Yesterday, I hung out all day with Kate and Pam at Betty's (classy, lovely RPCV still in-country) cooking - get this - 20 pumpkin pies, magic bars, rice crispy treats, a pecan pies, and muffins. Towards the end of the day, we were all stretching our tired and dry dough-kneading hands and dancing to Estelle's 'American Boy.' Their companionship and the cool comforts of an apartment flat in the city relaxed the stresses of facing constant paucity, and for a few hours I forgot to worry about the Dominican Republic.
Still I came home a little sad. It took hours, lacking self-awareness as I am, to realize I miss Los Angeles and all it's special-to-me people. I would be remiss to neglect Omaha, Nebraska, though, where another set of much-loved people toast life.
I'm off to our Thanksgiving now, I've already eaten too many sweets in-the-baking to want another, but that home-away-from-home thing, I'm making for it.