A Little Canadian Thanksgiving in Nazareth

Last Thursday, I managed to pull off pumpkin pie! I have never made pie before, let at all a pumpkin, but figured with a recipe, how hard can it be? I found out: really hard. First of all, there was a problem of finding pumpkins. We went downtown to the markets, and though we checked numerous stores, we didn't see the familiar orange gourds anywhere. We asked the proprietor, but they couldn't help because of the language difficulty. The program director, Nehi, politely heard my apology and asking forgiveness for even suggesting such a thing, but responded with, 'we have it'. She made a phone call, and informed me two pumpkins would arrive in half an hour. I was horrified! Now I had to locate ingredients. How do you do that when everything is written in a foreign language, called by unfamiliar names? I stumbled down to the hospital kitchen, and enlisted the help of 'Mona' who thankfully had a clue what I was talking about. She gave me, flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, milk, eggs, and a bottle of cooking oil. I had no nutmeg, cloves, shortening, rolling pin, and only a web page of directions. When I got back to the ward, I was quite certain whatever I made would not taste at all like pumpkin pie! By now, though, I was determined to give it my best shot. When I stepped into the occupational therapy common room all eyes were directed my way! Another member of the chaplaincy team, explained the problem I would have with the length of time to would take to bake. I was devastated. Then Stacey

explained someone from her home in the United States had sent her two cans of pumpkin pie filling, and she offered to drive to her home to get it. Stacey advised me to combine the flour, butter, and salt to some water to make the pastry. This I proceeded to do, and when done Stacey was back with the filling and other supplies. The pie turned into a tray of squares as we wanted about 20 people to enjoy a piece. While we added spices to the filling, Dorothy, another volunteer from the chaplain team, carved the pumpkins into jack o' lanterns. Amazingly everything turned out fantastic! I had explained the North American tradition of Thanksgiving, shown pictures of Autumn colours, encouraged all to have a thankful spirit, and topped it off with a taste. It was all very good, thanks to a wonderful team effort. It seems like it was a great hit. It was more than edible, it was delicious. Stacey even topped it off with a spot of whipped cream! What a great chaplaincy team, to make it happen so well! The residents enjoyed the taste, and the jack-o-lanterns were also a hit, making it quite the memorable experience. They have never had anything quite like it!