Thanksgiving happened, but we really missed being with family. A couple of weeks ago our branch president requested that I bake him an apple pie and he would pay me to do it. We had already invited the missionaries to spend Thanksgiving with us so we added the Ramkissoon's to the list. Thursday morning I also invited our landlady, Celia, when I discovered she was alone because Angelo had gone to Trinidad. She is from England but thought we should be thankful all year and was delighted to join us.
We started shopping a couple of weeks out since it is hard to find items when you want it. We found a Butterball turkey breast, which was awesome (I bought 2, one for Christmas). I had to use butter to make the pie crust, Martha Stewart's recipe. I made two and they were very good. I, too, made snail rolls, but without my recipe and tried a similar on off the Internet. They bombed! They were like rocks! Even the missionaries admitted they were terrible. Luckily, I had purchased some wheat rolls from the store, just in case. Of course, we had to have frog eye salad. I could find only one can of mandarin oranges, but I did find mini marshmallows. We did a half recipe and it was a hit.
Dinner was scheduled for 4:00. Everyone was late to dinner so we ate, stacked the dishes, and headed to the branch for a fireside at 6:00 pm with the mission president. The turnout was terrible, so the president regrouped. He met with us, the branch pres and his wife and one elder. Sister Robison met with one elder and the kids who showed up without parents. I made cookies and Rice Krispy Treats. By the time we were ready to eat, ants had taken over the plate of RK treats, so we had cookies. Yes, I was baking and preparing for 2 days!
3 comments:
How fun and unique to have Thanksgiving in another country. It seems like you are pretty safe there., but there must be things that make it different from the US. What are they in terms of a democracy or is it some sort of democracy?
Blake wants to know why are there poor people there? Sam wanted to know what how much our money is worth when we exchange it? Also how much is a CD plyer?
There are poor people everywhere; we just happen to know a lot of them here.
We feel safe here most of the time, probably more so than Trinidad.
The currency ratio is 6 to 1. $1.00 US is worth 6 TT dollars. When we shop we have to divide by 6 to see how much it really costs.
We have priced CD players at about $100 US.
They have freedom of religion. The leaders are elected but the government is corrupt because of all the oil revenue. Lots of people don't have jobs. The highest rated hotels are only 3 stars.
We think the highway repair workers are government jobs, like the ones we posted in front of our house. 8-12 workers show up and only 1-3 are working at any given time. This is common at each work site we have observed all over the island.
The good thing is that like in the US if you are ambitious you can get ahead. There are lots of small businesses everywhere. Lots of legal taxis and lots gypsy cabs (people picking up passengers for money) are to be found. Not many seem to ride the big nice buses. Of course, they have a fixed route, whereas, a taxi can take you much closer to your destination.
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