The Thanksgiving that almost wasnt...Georgian Thanksgiving in Kazakhstan 2!

So...we had this great plan for Thanksgiving. It was great!....

And it totally fell apart.....

Peace Corps warned us about such things. You have one idea of how things should work out...and then you have Kazakhstan reality.

So the plan was that on Saturday we would rent an apartment, cook an American Thanksgiving dinner, go out, have a good time, and then sleep in the apartment. We would gather everyone in the Karaganda oblast and even the country director was supposed to come.

First thing that fell through was the country director. Some things came up and he couldn't make to Karaganda. No worries! We got this!

Next thing that fell through was gathering everyone in the oblast. John's organization invited him at last minute conference that he had to go to on Saturday. Gambril got very sick and couldn't make the 3 hr bus ride. Thats ok. Would have been cool to have 8, but its cool. 6 is a great number. We got this!

Next thing that fell apart was the apartment. So my counterpart said that its normal for people to rent apartments for one day in Karaganda. In American this sounds weird, but this is how Kazakhstan rolls, so Im cool with it. But the one thing that we didn't consider is WHY people rent apartments for one day. Every person we contacted in the newspaper made it sound like we were CRAZY when we asked if they had a working stove/oven. "Why do want to cook?" "Of course we dont have a stove!""Ha Ha Ha" "No!" Then the next person made it all very clear...."This apartment is for 'resting', not cooking" Hm............. resting? So I asked my counterpart what they meant by resting? And she said "you know like if you're on a date" So I said "Why would you need to rest on.....OOOOOOHHHHHH, I see" (why you need an apt for a whole day for such activities is beyond my understanding...but this is Kazakhstan)

So now we have no apt bc none of them have a working stove. No worries! Elena's family offered to host us in the 1st place. They would be cool with having 6 Americans take over their kitchen to cook American food. They've done it before!........

Not this time. There was a muslim holiday this weekend, so they would be having company over. No room for the Americans.

So now we are "Thanksgiving dinner homeless" :(

Ok...lets scratch the cooking idea. It would have been nice, but thats ok. Its less work for us, and plus we are in Kazakhstan! Why do we need an American dinner? We can eat whatever we want!

So lets just rent an apartment, go out to dinner, come back to the flat, have some wine, and then go back out to have fun. Sounds like a plan.

And thats exactly what happened!

There were a few more bumps in the road getting the apartment (nothing can ever be too easy!) but we got it! After hanging out in the apt for a while we went to this great Georgian restaurant. The food was delicious and there was live entertainment! And of course the great company of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers in Karaganda (and surrounding areas)!

Here are some pics from our night!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Be Blessed!