Africa Mission: A Sudanese Thanksgiving

Matt, Johnston, Me and Meghan

Saturday, November 24, we celebrated Thanksgiving with several friends from Torit. But before I can dive into the meal I must tell you of our preparations.

To Americans, the Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. This is when it seems the entire country gets up before the sun rises to get to the shopping centers for the big sales. Well, Meghan and I did some shopping on Black Friday: Sudanese style. We left for the market mid-morning and shopped around for a few clothing items before purchasing food for the Thanksgiving meal. In addition to the African gumaas (dresses) we both found, we also purchased things like cabbage, eggs, onions, papaya, bread, egg plant, and other foods. Not entirely like an American Black Friday, but shopping none-the-less.

Our Monkey Friend

Saturday morning, Meghan and I hung Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. Linda and I started the food preparation while Meghan organized the house a bit and set up Thanksgiving-like decorations. I was pretty much in charge of the baking. I made pumpkin bread (this was the closest we were going to get to a pumpkin pie – and yes, Sudan has pumpkin but they are green instead of orange). Since we don’t have an oven everything has to be cooked on top of a gas stove. There is a pan called an Egyptian oven that is very similar to a bunt pan with a lid. You set this oven on top of a fluted metal piece that sets on top of a stove burner so that heat can move through the middle of the pan as well as around the outside of the pan. This is what I used to bake the bread. I also made a chocolate cake. We had some cocoa and Meghan’s home church sent her a can of chocolate icing and some chocolate sprinkles along with some other things in a care package. I also had some chocolate squares so I was able to make a chocolate, chocolate cake!

We also prepared beef in a brown sauce, cabbage salad with carrots, tomatoes and onions, bread and Sudanese cakes (like corn bread), rice, pumpkin leaves in peanut sauce, homemade stuffing, and boiled sweet potatoes. Our dessert table consisted of chocolate cake, pumpkin bread, papaya, and, of course, tea. After all the food was prepared we also prepared for the celebration. Linda, Lyn, Meghan and I all wore African gumaas.

Meghan and Linda Hope

Later that afternoon our guests started to arrive. There were eleven of our African friends that came, making us 18 in total. While we were waiting for everyone to come we set out large pieces of paper and markers for people to draw the things that they were thankful for. Afterwards we gathered together to share each of our things. It was so neat to see the various things that everyone was thankful for!

After Phil blessed the food, everyone dug in. Most of the foods that we had were African-style foods so no one had any problems finding something to eat. When it was time for dessert I was anticipating none of the Africans to take much, if any, of the chocolate cake because they tend to not like very sweet foods (even though they put five heaping spoonfuls of sugar into their tea!). However, I believe almost everyone tried a piece because the cake was almost gone by the end of the night. After our dessert and tea we spent some time singing and then Phil gave a mini sermon on giving thanks referencing 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. We ended the evening in prayer and everyone went on their way. It was definitely a different Thanksgiving than I’d ever had but I was still surrounded by a family of believers.