Dawit Mulugeta, a student at NOVA and a Nursing Assistant, will celebrate Thanksgiving with traditional Ethiopian foods … and turkey. Photo by Eden Brown/The Connection
Kadijatu “Katie” Sesay has been in the U.S. for 12 years. She is a nursing student at Chamberlain College of Nursing in Arlington and lives in Alexandria. She came from Sierra Leone as a young woman, leaving her son behind. Now her son is here with her, with her 4-year-old daughter. There is much for which she is thankful. So this year, she will celebrate with a full Thanksgiving dinner, as she did once before in 2012.
Other years, she has been invited to the homes of Sierre Leonians in the area. Her friends and family love this holiday, because they feel kinship to the pilgrims who came to the U.S., endured hardship, and prevailed. They always serve turkey, but the rest of the meal is usually African food: cassava leaf, plantain, couscous, and “Jollof Rice,” a West African staple of spicy rice and chicken.
Kadijatu works part-time as a caregiver to support herself and her family. Her sister, Isata, makes it possible for her to work and study by helping out with the children. So among all the blessings she will count on Thanksgiving, her sister Isata is one of the most important.
Dawit Mulugeta is a 23-year-old Ethiopian refugee living with his parents, brother, and sister in Alexandria. He came to the U.S. almost two years ago. Mulugeta works seven days a week to support his family and goes to college at NOVA in the evenings and early mornings. Ethiopians love to celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey, spicy chicken sauce on injera, and shiro, which is a spicy pea stew. But Ethiopian Christians rarely celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of the month because they have already begun their month-long fast prior to Christmas, and they cannot eat meat and often don’t eat until late in the day.
This year, he will celebrate with his employer in Arlington: the table will be full of Thai, American, Ethiopian, and Bangladeshi guests, and each will bring dishes from the East. Even the turkey will have a spice rub.
Nasima Khanam, originally from Dhaka, Bangladesh, has been in the U.S. for 13 years, and is a resident of Alexandria. Recently both she and her husband were unemployed, and she is struggling to take care of her family working as a part-time cashier. She wasn’t going to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, because she cannot afford to buy a turkey. Luckily, she went to the Alexandria Health Fair on Saturday, and after completing her physical, received a coupon for a free turkey courtesy of the Alfred Street Baptist Church. Khanam said in her religion, Islam, one gives thanks every day to God, so she will be doing that, too.