Thanksgiving and the Great Ethiopian Run

Thanksgiving in Ethiopia

This year marked the first time I've celebrated a major holiday away from my friends and family. Sure, I've missed the 4th of July (2 times), Flag Day, and Veteran's Day, but none of these hold the significance of Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. I like it so much for the following reasons: (1) no presents are exchanged, (2) there is no religious significance, (3) you can eat every kind of pie and cake available and have a solid, undeniable reason to do so. But this year, I was preparing myself not for the traditional Thanksgiving feast, but for a regular Ethiopian meal. Boy, was I wrong.

CHAI has about 30 employees working in Ethiopia, and these 30 employees have quite a few friends and family. All these people were invited to the CHAI house (where I first lived when I arrived, and where I now spend all day working) for a good old American meal. At our peak, we had about 50 or so people here, which felt very comforting, as our usual Thanksgiving is a pretty large family and friends affair.

The organizers purchased 3 turkeys for a very high price, and I was losing faith in our traditional meal when I found them to be kind of larger than normal chickens. However, they were turkeylicious, trytophane filled birds, and when paired with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and all the other fixings, the meal was quite satisfying. Even more satisfying was the rare taste of my favorite autumnal treat: pumpkin pie.

Here's a photo of me and Tim, who is the director for the Health Management Initiative in Ethiopia. I am literally saying cheese at the moment this photo was taken. Unfortunately, we don't have any photos that accurately capture the festive nature of the night.

The Great Ethiopian Run

What I failed to mention about Thanksgiving was that the day started with what would be my one and only piece of training for the 10k Great Ethiopian Run that took place on Sunday - a half walk, half jog for 20 minutes. I figured that this would be sufficient training for the largest road race in all of Africa (over 25,000 participants), especially in a city that's 9,000 feet above sea level and home to many of the greatest runners of all time.

Five of us (Kate, Adam, Peter, Rich, and Fekadu) got to the race feeling good - we were almost certain one of us would win, or, at the very least, place in the top 3 of our age groups. Among us, 3 of us ran about twice a month, and 2 ran about once a week. Needless to say, we were extremely well prepared. Here's a photo of us, pre-race, and a photo of the crowd. Or at least the part of the crowd that we could see; there were green shirts as far as you could see in every direction.

Despite my lack of training, I ran the entire 10k (except in the spots where the crowd was so thick that running was virtually impossible) and finished the race in just over 1 hour. I also ran the whole time not with my coworkers, but with a group of Ethiopian kids who decided to befriend me. It was a great day, and a great Ethiopian experience.