Last year at this time, I was visiting with my sisters in Ireland. The one who lives in Dublin decided to host an American Thanksgiving dinner for her Irish friends. It turned out to be no easy task!

Kristen & Maureen Gill, hostesses extraordinaires!

For one, my sister had to special-order a turkey from the butcher, since they are not commonly eaten in Ireland until around Christmastime. My other sister from Chicago brought over 2 cans of pumpkin, which were badly damaged in transit. Next up, we could not find any round pie tins! Turns out we had to make 2 square pumpkin pies instead of one round one. To make our mother’s/grandmother’s homemade stuffing, we went late-night grocery shopping and cleared the shelves of white loaves of bread. I think they thought we were crazy buying 8 loaves of bread, and nothing else!

Check out these decorations that my mom sent over. I think she must have had these left over from the 70s! Gotta love the accordion turkey and pilgrim (with evil shadow on wall). Ha!

The evening turned out to be great! There was no great dining table upon which to eat, but everyone got a full plate of American-sized portions, and washed it all down with some good Irish whiskey. It was a great “first” Thanksgiving for a lot of people…and I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to share in this experience.

May all of you have wonderful thanksgivings, wherever in the world you are celebrating. And, if I learned anything from my Irish experience, it’s that a post-dinner whiskey with friends is sometimes all you really need.

Adventure on,

Kristen

Kristen has moved!

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Thank you

Kristen

The General Assembly designates 19th August as World Humanitarian Day,  to honor and celebrate the work of humanitarian workers.

This year’s focus is on the actual work and achievements of humanitarian workers in the field. This year’s theme is “We are humanitarian workers”. It also serves as an occasion to remember and honor those who have lost their lives while helping others. A total of 102 humanitarian workers died while doing their jobs in 2009.

Humanitarian workers are forgotten heroes, without whom there wouldn’t be any humanitarian assistance. Not only do they work in the worst places of the world, in extreme temperatures (high frost, extremely hot countries), threatened by diseases but in dangerous places as well where they risk their lives to help the destitute, the victims of wars or natural catastrophes, whatever their race, nationality, religious or political beliefs – with total neutrality.

Humanitarian Principles represent the foundation of humanitarian action. Key humanitarian principles include:

Humanity: Human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found. The purpose of humanitarian action is to protect life and health and ensure respect for human beings.

Neutrality: Humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.

Impartiality: Humanitarian action must be carried out on the basis of need alone, giving priority to the most urgent cases of distress and making no distinctions on the basis of nationality, race, gender, religious belief, class or political opinion.

Operational Independence: Humanitarian action must be autonomous from the political, economic, military or other objectives that any actor may hold with regard to areas where humanitarian action is being implemented”.

Click here to view an incredible video of the project:

World Humanitarian Day Project

Thank you to all who help others in this world,

Kristen