The past few years on Thanksgiving Day we’ve gathered with my family or good friends in Minnesota for turkey, potatoes and all the fix-ens that go with it. We all love the meal, but the best part is always the fellowship, and since many of us like to cook, we also like the preparation. This year was different since we’re not in the United States. This year I spent the day preparing land for a community garden project with the youth and pastor of Immanuel Protestant Church. When the rain starts we will be planting corn, beans and pumpkins. Next spring, during the dry season we will grow vegetables.

Our plot before we began cultivating it.

Earlier in the week we’d begun by cutting down some trees on the land beside the church. Our ‘toos’ is about 30 meters by 20 meters. Today’s work started out by chopping up the remains of the trees with machetes and setting the branches aside, while keeping the larger ones for fencing and housing material. The ‘katana’, or machete is the most commonly used tool here for most anything having to do with agriculture or the forest. The tool is not like your typical machete. This one is shorter, heavier and has a blunt end which is used for digging up weeds and splitting bamboo.

Clearing the plot.

After we chopped up the branches we used brute force, leverage and team work to move the massive trunks out of the way. Then we commenced clearing weeds and turing the soil by hand with hoes. The hoe, or ‘enxada’ is a heavy tool with a sharp edge, it along with the ‘ai-suak’ – like a crowbar yet heavier and straight – is used for turning soil and digging things up. As a carpenter, I’m used to manual work so I know how to perform a strenuous task all day, but the past few months I’ve been teaching English so the work was hard on me; by the end of the day my hands, having gotten soft already, were sore.

Building a Fence

Midday we stopped for lunch. Our meal was standard Timorese fare: rice, cooked greens, corn with beans, and “ai-dila matak” – the papaya fruit cooked as a vegetable before it is ripe. It is therefore very bitter, which is a hallmark of East Timorese food. Aside from the unique taste, the bitter foods, especially the leaves of the papaya plant are also medicinal, used to both prevent and treat malaria. Along with that was “ai-manas” – a chili based hot sauce that accompanies almost everything. About 8 of us sat down to eat together, but before we ate we prayed together as we always do. We gave thanks for the food and asked for God’s blessing on our food and prayed for people who don’t have food. We also gave thanks for our work.

Breaking Ground and Planting Crops

Like most people, I’ve done my share of work that didn’t feel like a ‘blessing.’ Fresh in my memory are days driving to work in the dark to build a house in the snow and near zero temperatures of Duluth, Minnesota! Yet, meaningful work is something God intends for us (Gen. 2:15, Eccl. 3:13, etc.) because there is dignity in work, and dignity is God’s desire for all humanity. Work and education give tremendous hope and purpose especially in a place with such a traumatic recent history of violence and poverty.

Ironically, despite the fact that I’m on the opposite side of the globe from my home in Minnesota and working with people who don’t know what the Thanksgiving Holiday is, it felt like one of the more authentic Thanksgiving Days I’ve had in a while. After lunch those of us working in the field went back for a few more hours despite the fact that it was “loro manas” – the hot time of day. We swung our hoes until late afternoon, chatting occasionally about the project while listening to the kids playing and singing nearby and went home hot and tired but full of life – and gratitude!