At our Thanksgiving dinner last night there were 19 adults and 16 children. The adults went around the table and said what they were thankful for.

The first thing I was thankful for was that we were saying what we were thankful for, because my dad makes us do that every year. There is usually a little anxiety around the table, as people feel pressured to quickly think of something meaningul and eloquent, but last night it got a little weepy. At my end of the table, anyway.

I had been talking to someone earlier in the evening about the first time the two of us had met. We figured out it was at a happy hour a year earlier. At that time, I had only been in Mali about eight weeks and knew almost no one. Looking around the table last night I was amazed at how far we've come in a year, the neat people we know and will call friends forever, even after we go our separate ways.

Everyone was thankful for their families. Three people at the table had adopted or were adopting children. One person said -- and I'm sure the rest of us agreed -- that she was thankful to be posted in Mali, and not in Iraq or Afghanistan or Sudan or even neighboring Cote d'Ivoire. 364 days out of the year, we might complain about dirty old boring Bamako, but as someone said, there is a real commitment to getting along peacefully, and that's something to be thankful for.