While many Americans spent Black Friday tripping over each other at Wal-Mart for an opportunity to save an extra buck, avoiding pepper-spraying whackos, or simply crashing out on the couch to watch football, we spent much of ours in a cold room at Akhaltsikhe’s School #1. A group of around 45 kids gathered to learn about the history and traditions of American Thanksgiving from our small and mighty group of volunteers.

Sharing what they're thankful for on the "Thankful Tree"

Learning about the history of Thanksgiving

Georgian kids gave presentations about food traditions...

sports...

and even the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Learning about the first Thanksgiving by watching "This is America, Charlie Brown" -- the lesser-known companion piece to "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving"

Teaching the guys how to play flag football

After the successful Thanksgiving event, our Georgian friends/counterparts treated us to a supra at a local restaurant, where a truly unbelievable amount of khinkali just kept coming and coming and coming out to the table. After that, we Americans (along with our Polish friend, our host sister and our tutor) headed over to McKinze’s office to watch the Hawkeyes projected on the big screen:

McKinze and our host sister holding up a sign that our host sister made especially for this occasion!

Ready for kickoff...

The snack table

Making popcorn

Kicking back, watching the game

As you no doubt know, this Black Friday was truly a dark day, as the Hawkeyes just couldn’t overcome the stifling defense of the Cornsuckshuskers. Nonetheless, it was fun to gather in a group and watch the last regular season game of the year.

The Thanksgiving event was the first of three “big events” that McKinze and I (and the other volunteers in town) are putting on before we head back to the States in just two weeks. Next up is World AIDS Day, followed by International Volunteerism Day. Sprinkle in teaching English, staff trainings, grant writing and packing, and we’re looking at a very busy couple of weeks. By the time the plane lands in America, we’ll be ready for a nice break.