Thanksgiving 2004

Today I hosted the expat luncheon. It was wonderful as always. People who are new here come because they want to meet people and socialize. Others come because they are loyal to these meetings and come no matter what and there are a few who never come for whatever reason, they are not interested and that's ok. No one is forced to join are group or feel obligated in any way to come so out of 14 possible, I had 8 who came and that is pretty good.


I told the women to share a story, poem or best memory of a thanksgiving and we had some fun stories that were shared and some even super funny, like making everyone sick and stuff. I had to share my most memorable thanksgiving. It was at a very difficult time in my personal life but somehow I managed to get busy and not  think too much about my situation. With the help of my girls we collected over 7,000 pairs of shoes and brought thanksgiving dinner to a poor community. The papers published it and thanks to google, this is what I says.

For Salvadorans living at dump, a helping of love

 

 

 

 

By Diego Mendez, Associated Press  November 26, 2004

SAN SALVADOR -- It wasn't exactly traditional, but it got to the heart of the holiday.

A group of 16 Americans and Salvadorans living in the United States flew to El Salvador to have Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with families who live at a trash dump.

Like many others in Latin America, the scavengers survive by sorting through waste to find old tin cans, food, and other items they can sell or eat.

Instead of the traditional US Thanksgiving turkey dinner, the scavenger families asked for a Salvadoran favorite: fried chicken from Pollo Campero, one of the most popular fast-food restaurants in the country.

Veronica Van Leeuwen, a member of the US charity group that sponsored the trip, said the families usually eat the remains of Pollo Campero meals they dig out of the trash.

The journey to the unusual dinner began when scavengers caught the attention of a Mormon missionary.

He suggested to a group in Salt Lake City that they should help the 300 or so families at La Espiga dump in San Luis Talpa, on the southern outskirts of San Salvador.

The group formed Soles for Souls to provide shoes for the scavengers, many of whom are forced to go barefoot and suffer severe infections from cutting their feet on broken glass and other sharp objects in the dumps.

Soles for Souls has collected $30,000 worth of donated shoes, school supplies, clothing, and toys that will be distributed to impoverished people near the dumps.

Van Leeuwen, a Salvadoran native who has lived in the United States for 26 years and is El Salvador's honorary consul in Salt Lake City, said the group selected Thanksgiving for its pilot project.

It seemed fitting, she said, as a ''symbol of the holiday and everything we take for granted."

She said members of the group decided to share the holiday meal at the dump because they wanted to get to know the people they were helping.