During the weeks approaching Thanksgiving, ETA Riley Heist began gathering ideas on how to celebrate with the teachers. Riley wanted to be sure to give her friends at her site an accurate understanding behind the history of Thanksgiving, as she often finds that the holiday is muddled with falsehoods, and she also wanted to show that in present day, the holiday tends to focus on family, being together, and good food.

With the help of her counterpart, Rais, Riley wrote an information guide to Thanksgiving, translating key words into Indonesian, and asking teachers to bring their favorite dish of food to school on Friday. Riley prepared mashed potatoes, apple crisp, and stuffing for the event.

The night before the celebration, Riley was in her room cooking. She received a message from some students asking what she was doing. She sent them a picture of her baking and they asked if they could help. Soon after, four of her students were in her room eating apple crisp and ice cream and creating their own “thankful hand turkeys”. They then helped her create an oversized turkey so that teachers could write down what they were thankful for the next day. In addition, Riley created a vocabulary guide, using both Indonesian words and English words to assist teachers when creating their thankful statements.

Overall, Riley’s Thanksgiving was filled with friends, food, and laughter. Despite the distance from her own family, she found a lot of similarities between her day in Indonesia and her typical Thanksgiving Day back home.

Riley Heist is currently teaching at SMAN 10 Samarinda, East Kalimantan