Thanksgiving!

friday 24th
last night was my 1st ever Thanksgiving. So far as i could tell it was like any other western holiday. a bunch of people in a room eat and drinking and talking, with perhaps a fomral nod in the direction of the origin of the festivity. Our hosts were Christians and went to the trouble of explaining to the non-american guests (ie the majority) what Thanksgiving was about. The folks leaving europe to escape persecution, arriving on the east coast of the US with no food or idea of how to work the new foods in the new land. The native people offered help to the newcomers showing them the techniques that had been perfected and showing them the good land to work, and then how after the 1st harvest the newcomers ahd a big feast and were thankful to god for what they had been given. I'm sure they were very thankful indeed to their god, but i couldn't help but notice that no one mentioned thanking the native people who did all the work. hrm..
anyway, the thanksgiving do was alright, i tried to avoid too much conversation cos, well basically, i didn't know most of the peopel and didn't feel like i had the energy to plough on with small talk.
After everyone had filled their bellies with many kinds of food, a little meeting was held and from the discussion it seems that the Phnonh here are in pretty deep shit, the rice crops are pretty mucha complete failure this year and in 2 months or so the situation could be very serious. We arranged a meeting for next thursday and all the NGOs are goingto bring to the table the best idea they have and some sort of way to implementthem will be agreed on. hopefully.