Giving Thanks

"Living in America must be so wonderful".

It's a simple sentence, but it always rubs me the wrong way. I don't like it when people assume that life in America is like living in some fantasy land. Life in America is not all sunshine and princesses and mansions and dreams come true.

Being a foreigner who desperately just wants to fit in, I usually try to find the similarities, not point out the differences. And so when people here make comments like that to me, I usually respond with something like, "Well, every country has its goods and its bads, just like Indonesia". Polite, but reminding them that America probably isn't the paradise that they think it is.

I was getting ready to deliver my response, but I paused. I looked at the 7th grade girl across the table from me and I could tell she was already 15,000 miles away, trying to imagine America, that magical place she only knows from the movies.

And instead, I bit my tongue.

I was supposed to be helping her with her English homework. This girl. This 13 year old girl. Whose face was smudged with dirt. Who lives in a house with dirt floors. Who goes to one of the worst middle schools in town. Who doesn't know her own father. Whose mother is a prostitute.

I decided to do Thanksgiving a little bit differently this year. I didn't have a turkey dinner. I didn't spend time with other Americans. There was no stuffing or green bean casserole or pumpkin anything. Nobody asked me what I'm thankful for.

Instead, I went to the red light district of town and taught English.

And in a ramshackle little building with holes in the roof, surrounded by 15 rambunctious, runny nosed children, I was reminded of exactly how much I have to be thankful for.

I am thankful that in every situation, I have Hope to hold onto.

I am thankful for two loving parents in my life who I know would sacrifice anything for me.

I am thankful for the friends I have in my life from all over the world who love me and pray for me and encourage me and support me.

I am thankful for the education I received that led to me being a teacher in Indonesia.

I am thankful that I have enough.

And I am thankful that I am American. Even though it might not be a Disney princess paradise world.

I watched her for a minute from across the table. She eventually looked back at me with a shy smile. I didn't know what to say to her, so I smiled back and we continued working on her homework.

Devi. Her name is Devi.