Thankful For A New Experience, 10 Different Ways

The first weekend in August finds over 60,000 Vietnamese Catholics descending upon the little town (pop. 15,000) of Carthage, Missouri, about fifteen miles east of where I live. They come for a festival and pilgrimage called Marian Days, held on the grounds of the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix, its U.S. Headquarters, which also includes a monastery. Attendees come from every state in United States, plus Canada, and set up tents on the grounds of the CMC, in campgrounds, and even in yards of area homes. Concession stands serving traditional Vietnamese food are set up, and anyone is welcome to attend.

Ordinarily, the temperatures are in the upper 90s for us this time of year, but some weird weather system has been sending us rain, rain and more rain, along with slightly cooler temperatures (although yesterday, with the temperature 75 degrees and the humidity 91%, it was hard to feel a whole heckuvalot more comfortable). Because it's always so stinkin' hot, and I'm not much one for crowds in perfect weather conditions, AND because we didn't know that much about Marian Days, we have never ventured over to visit the festival.  But this year, the 35th anniversary of Marian Days, my husband and I decided to go check it out and give the food a try.

This is really stepping outside of my picky eater box.

AND IT WAS FUN! So, for this week's 10 Things of Thankful, I present why I'm thankful I finally attended my first Marian Days festival:

1. I'm thankful my husband took a few days off work this week, which gave us the perfect excuse to go during the day and look around.

2. I'm thankful there are people who are okay with camping, but that I'm not one of them.

3. I'm thankful for English translations.

This doesn't look too bad. I might have
eaten it, if I didn't know it was goat.

4. I'm thankful to get to see such joy on the faces of the sisters working in the souvenir booths.

5. I'm thankful that pork balls, contrary to what they may sound like, were tasty, although they could have used a little more seasoning.

Skewered Pork Balls or Nem Nuong

6. I'm thankful the Knights of Columbus had a food stand with fried crap for the white folks who visit the festival and aren't brave enough to try something new and different, UNLIKE ME.

7. I'm thankful I didn't eat any of this, which look way too much like a jar of eyeballs immersed in tomato sauce.

8. I'm thankful for sensible rules.

9. I'm thankful for nuns who play with boxing nun puppets.

10. I'm thankful for pho, which is yummydelicious as long as you don't over-analyze it.

Keeping an eye out for beaks and claws
in my bowl of pho ga.

(Our local paper interviewed a man whose wife had eaten a bowl of soup at last year's festival that had an entire pig's ear in it. According to this guy, it would have been nice if they had shaved it first....)

And now a few more pictures from our visit (which I have been forced asked nicely to add included a second day visit with our daughter along).

Marketplace offerings.

More marketplace offerings.

Jackfruit, which is the size of a smallish watermelon,
and, if you can get past the pungent odor, is
quite delicious.

Native fruits for sale.