Good-Bye Tuscarora

Nu:Yah arrived and so did a bunch of people for their Oo-wedah - special sweets for children which traditionally were ginger bread men - it is derived from the Tuscarora word for doll. There's a lot more that can be said but for the sake of brevity I will leave it at that. We awoke to Joe's aunt doing her usual sweet making thing. This time she made Italian cookies and with every knock on the door people got to pick a cookie and move to the next house. Not too many people came partly due to the rain, so we were able to make some waffles for ourselves and have a fairly quiet breakfast before going to the Feast.

We went early to get the first seating with Grams and got to catch up and say Good-bye to some friends and family. There were 10 seats per table with about 10 tables. Each table had a bowl of venison, mashed squash, and baked beans, butter, salt, pepper, and grape drink. When everyone entered the dining area most people picked up their pie. There was apple, lemon meringue, and pumpkin to pick from. Since we had to wait to get served and many of us were very hungry some of us began eating our pie first. Luckily it didn't ruin our appetites.

After a few minutes of waiting the servers - who were all volunteers from the community and those who had won scholarships through the nation - came around with the plates of food. There were three compartments on each plate filled with mashed potatoes, string beans, and a slab of ham. Because neither Joe nor I eat pork we just had potatoes and then filled our plates with the food from the bowls. A little while later the servers came around offering a bit of rabbit pie. It was my first time tasting it and my first reaction was "Hey this tastes like turkey!" Apparently there was not enough rabbit to feed everyone so the cooks mixed meat. In any case it was all tasty and by the time we left we were stuffed.

A few days later we headed south to catch our flight even further south for the next leg of our trip. We already miss everyone and even the snow. I guess we'll just have to enjoy it next year!