Hopefully, you know that Thanksgiving is a very American holiday. It’s not as universal as Christmas or New Year’s. Thanksgiving Day — as it stands on the calendar, at least — is celebrated solely in America, by Americans.
Until it isn’t.
I’ve mentioned before that Ukrainians love holidays and festivities and will turn just about anything into a celebration if they can. So, when the chance came for some of my new Ukrainian friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, they pounced.
I have two sitemates, Jody and Crystal. Crystal lives downtown, and works for “Smarter Environment Khmelnytskyi,” which is a city office focused on (you guessed it) city environmental policies. Crystal is actually the second volunteer to work for this organization. Her counterpart Ivan was previously paired with a prior PCV who introduced him to the idea of American Thanksgiving several years ago. The idea stuck, so Ivan sent out a group chat to the three Americans, his coworkers and several other friends.
Thanksgiving dinner was a go!
Of course, it was a little trickier in Ukraine. Because Thanksgiving isn’t actually a holiday here, I still had to work. And I was tasked with bringing some authentic American Thanksgiving dishes to Ivan’s get-together. And, uh, it’s not exactly easy to make American recipes here.
So, the preparations started several days in advance!
Not only do American recipes have to be translated… they also have to be converted. Because — while the rest of the civilized world uses the no-nonsense metric system — we’re still stuck on Freedom Units™️.
Also? Substitutions need to be made. You can’t just go buy a can of Libby’s pureed pumpkin here, and then throw it in a blender with your evaporated milk. Oh no. You have to go buy the GD pumpkin, peel it, dice it, roast it, measure it, blend it and do it all LITERALLY from scratch. Also, pies aren’t a thing here, so we were missing a pretty important thing: A PIE PAN. We had to use a springform cake pan instead, which is why this pie looks a little strange.
However, after a few attempts, HOUSTON, WE HAVE PUMPKIN PIE(S)!
Yes, pies PLURAL. I made one for Friendsgiving and one for my host family so they could try the famous American dish too. Vanya was very happy.
The other dish I made? My Aunt Leslie’s corn casserole.
Thankfully, despite the three days of trial-and-error cooking and baking that had to be done around my work schedule, my recipes worked!
If there are any future Ukrainian PCVs reading this, take my advice NOW: if you get invited to a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner in Ukraine where you’re asked to make a dish, SIGN UP TO MAKE CORN CASSEROLE. This was the easiest of all the recipes I’ve had to translate, convert and modify. Trust me.
The corn casserole was a huge hit to the point that everyone asked for the recipe.
In addition to my pumpkin pie and corn casserole, we had a bevy of other dishes! Ksenia (another one of Crystal’s coworkers) made a salad and cranberry sauce, and also somehow managed to find sweet potatoes somewhere in this country. Jody made traditional stuffing. We even found whipped cream for the pumpkin pie!
Ironically enough, Crystal couldn’t make it, but we still had a blast. It was really nice to get to know her coworkers better!
There was also, of course, a ton of wine and alcohol.
It was such a nice night! Ivan and Ksenia both speak English, so the celebration was very inclusive. They were also happy to translate between their non-English-speaking friends and their non-Ukrainian-speaking friends (the Americans).
We talked, drank, ate, sang, laughed, danced and played the guitar.
It was also nice to hang out with a bunch of other 20- and 30-somethings that didn’t have spouses or kids! Crystal’s coworkers are very modern and seem to fit in more with the Western-style life I’m used to living. It honestly felt like a normal night back in the U.S., and fully reminded me why I’m here doing this, despite all the challenges.
The only shitty part was that because Thanksgiving isn’t a thing here, Black Friday isn’t a thing here either. Which meant I had to be up early for work again the next day.
Oh well. Totally worth it.
And, regarding other non-cross-cultural-Millennial-dinner Thanksgiving celebrations, I also taught my Gymnasium No. 2 English club all about the American tradition of Thanksgiving.
Well, not all about. It was a little, uh, sanitized. I didn’t get into the whole colonization-and-genocide thing. They’re novice English speakers. C’mon.
We also made hand turkeys! Because are you even a Peace Corps Volunteer if you don’t make hand turkeys on Thanksgiving at SOME point during your service?!
Anyway, the Thanksgiving celebrations here in Ukraine aren’t done yet! I have a trip to Lviv coming up so I can celebrate Friendsgiving with several other PCVs, and I’m so stoked.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This post was originally published Jan. 23, 2021. Its timestamp has been updated to better reflect the timeline of my Peace Corps service.
