A few days ago, Matt, Eli and I were making dinner in the lodge for our latest guests (Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, his wonderful wife, Judy, their super duper and sweet assistant Clay and his lovely girlfriend Vanessa. Also, a group of three guys from Matador Travel doing a documentary). Kris Thompkins, the boss lady, wandered in to say hello to us while we were cooking dinner. She's got a wonderful way of interacting with people which really makes you feel like she's taking a deep interest in whatever it is you are doing, however unimportant. Anyway, probably due to her openness with us, we got up the nerve to ask about Thanksgiving plans... we were hoping to be able to invite all of the other interns (we are 10 currently) into the lodge to have Thanksgiving dinner with all of our guests that were staying at the lodge. She immediately got a twinkle in her eye and happily announced that we could definitely do that. I couldn't have been happier about it. We woke up the next morning and per usual Thanksgiving tradition, ran quickly to town to buy last minute supplies and came back and started cooking. Justin and Ryan helped me, Matt, and Eli and we cooked up a storm all day. It felt like having a family for sure and was so nice to be in the kitchen cracking up about burnt stuffing and not having room in the oven for everything and wondering if we were going to be able to feed all 35 people with the food we had prepared and then remembering that it was Thanksgiving, so it didn't really matter anyway. That evening was one of the most special evenings I have had in a long time. We lit candles in our big living room, everyone looking out on the Patagonia mountains of Valle Chacabuco. Watching all of our lodge guests, Kris and Doug, and the other interns I have come to care about so much getting food and all sitting down together was such a special moment. To top it all off, one of my closest friends, Laura Piraino and her boyfriend Michael Laut had been visiting me for the last week and they came back from a hike in time to participate in the festivities. (by the way, I had a FANTASTIC time exploring with them. we did a whole bunch of random stuff, went horseback riding and hiking in Cerro Castillo, hung out by the shores of Lago General Carrera and then picked up Justin and hauled down to the coast to a cool little town called Tortel. All in all they were amazing guests and the time with them was fabulous).
Anyway... after dinner, with our wine glasses in hand, we listened to several of the people read poems, give thanks, share from past speeches, and generally reflect on the holiday. Amory Lovins told a great story about "applied hope" and how we should all continue down the path that we have chosen with all the greatest hope. Then his wife sang Amazing Grace. This happened to come just before Kris asked me to speak in front of the group and I was so choked up that my entire speech was a mess of shaky voice. I did, however, get a couple of votes later in the evening for favorite speech, which made me feel a bit better about being so weepy. Dang.
Now I'm sitting in the lodge waiting for our next guests to arrive... we have them for a couple of days and they are just a couple of people so it should be easy. No big adventure planned for the moment, but every day here in a new and wonderful adventure. I can't believe it's almost been 3 months!
<3 <3 <3
Kate
No comments:
Post a Comment