Thanks in Nizwa

I have a lot of things to be thankful for this year. But this year, without a doubt, family takes the cake. And yes, I do really love and appreciate you, my family. But I'm really thankful for the families that have made me feel so at home here in Oman. Being away from home has its difficulties, but I could not ask for better friends, who instantly were like family, here in Muscat and Nizwa.

Thanksgiving passed this year in Nizwa. I rejoined my Nizwa family, carting along my El Paso packaged tex-mex, planning on having a small Thanksgiving to myself and possibly cooking a small treat for my family. Admittedly, it was a strange Thanksgiving... but small and insignificant, it was not. The evening passed with my brother's surprise of dressing up as a pirate for me (partly because I gave them the Halloween costume set, partly because they knew my college's mascot is the Pirate-- hizzah!). My host mother, aunt, sister, and I cooked a half TexMex half Omani meal. Fajitas with goat meat isn't half bad! And 4 trips to the store to buy more bread-- since we ended up feeding 20 people. Oh, and I made Christmas cookies for dessert.

Quite a mix of holidays, granted. But when we sat down to eat, I didn't notice that I was sitting on the floor, Omani style, eating cold goat meat fajitas, or scraping the cookies off the plate since wax paper is no where to be found in the house.... I didn't notice that I was thousands of miles away, away from my family, away from my friends, in a Muslim country, with people who spoke a language completely different than mine. I didn't notice these things.

I noticed that I was surrounded by some of the best friends I could ask for. From my host grandmother- who constantly tells me to keep eating- from my host mom- who tries to explain everything to me, and when I don't understand, we just laugh- from my host uncle- who keeps trying to tell jokes in English- from my little host brothers and sisters- who are fascinated with making funny faces with me-and from my host brothers- who are constantly downloading movies for me to watch.... At that moment around the plastic "table" on the floor, I felt as close to home as I ever could be without the real thing. And when the entire family lifted their palms to pray together, I looked around at a wonderful group of people, said my "Marshall tradition thanks," and when my host mom looked at me, with her smile, asking if it was like home, I smiled back, and was almost the most thankful I've ever been in my life.