I don’t have time.

It’s too late to prepare a PPT.

No one will know if I mention it or not as it’s not popular here.

Those were my thoughts last Sunday morning as I suddenly remembered: “Oh, my gosh!! This is Thanksgiving Day week. I totally forgot to share with others this cultural tradition in my country.”

The reminder of Halloween had been all over the streets of Laos for over a month. No problems forgetting that one. But Thanksgiving Day is not known much throughout Asia. This special day was about to whiz by me. I had been extraordinarily busy last week as director of the Center: staff meeting, formal visit to a government office, preparing lesson plans, teaching, dealing with a disastrous electrical issue (we almost had the Center burn down!!), not to mention the never-ending unexpected surprises which piled high on my plate, one after another after another.

Honestly, stopping to be thankful was not at the top of my to-do list.

It should have been.

My staff watched my numerous meltdowns as my anxiety mounted. They saw me through with sympathy, concern and tremendous support. But I was so caught up in the duties of my position that it just sent me spiraling into “Get it done and move on to the next shoe that drops” mode.

But . . . . Well, I got inspired on Monday late night, stayed up until 1 a.m. to finish two Thanksgiving Day power point presentations, and awoke with more of a thankful spirit in my heart. The first PPT was for junior high, a 2-part lesson with first the history and later the traditions of the day explained. My beginning English elementary school class would receive the less complicated one, concerning namely traditions and purpose of the day, to give thanks, along with turkey drawings.

The results? See below!! It was a joyous Thanksgiving Day after all.

What surprised them the most concerned the turkey.  Turkeys are rarely found in Laos so many seeing my turkey slide, even with the Laos translation noting it’s a turkey,  immediately shouted, “Chicken!  Big chicken.”

Nope. Not a chicken, my teacher assistant and translator, Santi, explained. It’s a turkey.

How fortunate I was to have pictures of my dad from many years ago, cooking the traditional turkey and all the other popular offerings which land on our Thanksgiving Day tables in America. I only forgot one important item, the stuffing. (Whoops!) I’ll have to add that for next year.

My favorite visual for this presentation was the below. Many laughs followed that one. Laos people may not get the concept of a turkey dinner, or pumpkin pie, or mashed potatoes and gravy but they certainly do understand eating a big dinner and collapsing with a full stomach afterwards.

No translation needed for this one.

At the end of our lesson, we all shared what we were thankful for.

Mother, father, sister, brother, uncle, Laos . . . so many English words were shared. But the one that touched my heart the most was from Pizza (she chose that as an English nickname), one of my youngest students at age 6. Bless her heart, she said, “Teacher Connie!”

And for myself?

So many blessings here and thankfulness from my end for being able to serve in this country, with the support of so many both here in my midst and abroad.

Happy Thanksgiving Day weekend, everyone! I leave you with this very appropriate Native American prayer my mom sent to me: “Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.” Peace and Joy, folks, from Laos.