在他的家人第一次体验传统的感恩节大餐时，瓦希杜拉·阿斯加里不得不向他的孩子们解释火鸡是什么：“我说，‘火鸡就像一只大鸡。'”
Asghary 曾是驻阿富汗美军的翻译，于 2020 年 9 月持特殊移民签证来到美国。时间。五个月后，他的妻子加入了他们。
星期四是他们第一次被美国家庭邀请去体验感恩节大餐。
“每个家园、每个国家、每个民族、每个人，他们都有自己的文化或传统，对吧？所以这是我们的第一次，现在我们想了解一下这是什么，真的，”Asghary 说。
他们的主人 Kiki Nagy 是 Miry's List 的志愿者，这是一个总部位于南加州的帮助难民家庭在美国定居的组织。 8 月，在美国从阿富汗撤军期间，Miry's List 招募了 20 多个难民家庭，大约是难民家庭人数的五倍。家庭与前一个月相比。明年，该组织正在努力准备帮助 300 多个家庭在南加州定居。
纳吉曾问过该组织的创始人米里·怀特希尔，她是否可以在阿富汗家庭的第一个感恩节上接待她。她与 Asgharys 有联系，直到宴会那天她才见过他们。
纳吉做了一只大火鸡、蔓越莓酱、土豆和菠菜。但她还准备了清真羊肉，以确保 Asghary 一家能吃到熟悉的东西。 Asghary 说他的女儿尤其喜欢所有的食物。
纳吉不仅渴望向他们介绍感恩节菜肴，还向他们展示感恩的传统。
“从左到右，每个人都好像，‘美国有问题——x、y、z，”纳吉说。 “在这个相互冲突的文化时刻，我们听到了很多关于分裂的叙述，美国经历的一些重要因素植根于感恩，植根于志愿服务，你离开你的国家，你离开“在这种情况下，你有时会很少 - 有时什么都没有。然后你重新开始。你为你的家人创造了这个机会。”
Asghary 说他们有很多值得感谢的地方：“我们可能拥有更多生活中的机会。当然，最重要的例子就是我们在一起。家人。”
他说他们很幸运，他的妻子能够在许多其他人试图在 8 月份美国从阿富汗撤军期间混乱退出之前加入他们。
许多家庭在 8 月试图逃离阿富汗的形象尤其引起了同一个感恩节派对上的另一位客人 Tam Van Tran 的共鸣。
Tran 是 Nagy 的朋友，1975 年是越南的难民。 Tran 告诉 CNN，他和他的兄弟姐妹在西贡沦陷前一周抵达美国。
“当我看到阿富汗人和货机的照片时，它让我非常想起——我在同一个地方，但那是一艘巨大的货船，”Tran 说。
当 Tran 来到加利福尼亚时，他的年龄与 Asghary 的大孩子差不多。他说他和他的兄弟姐妹最初在没有父母的情况下逃脱，因此他们在加利福尼亚州山景城的寄养家庭理查德和雷让舒尔特的家中受到欢迎。
他说他可以向 Asgharys 表示热烈的欢迎：“兄弟情谊和友情。从某种意义上说，你知道......我在 75 年经历了那种经历。”
就像在全国各地的许多假期聚会上一样，餐桌上的几个人曾经是这个国家的新手，不得不学习美国的传统。他们中的许多人努力抓住新祖国的机会。
Asghary 说他告诉他的孩子们，“我们为你们而存在，美国为你们而存在，你们所拥有的一切都在你们手中。你们要做的就是学习。仅此而已。”
纳吉希望他们的第一个教训是从他们的第一个感恩节开始：“看到这种宽容在美国真的是可能的，嗯，我想我希望他们感到，我会很感激，美国人在心，真是一个大方的人。”
A Los Angeles woman invited an Afghan refugee family over for Thanksgiving. Here's what happened at their first Thanksgiving meal
(CNN)For his family's first experience with a traditional Thanksgiving meal, Wahidullah Asghary had to explain to his children what turkey is: "I said, 'turkey is like a big chicken.'"
Asghary, a former translator and interpreter for the US military in Afghanistan, came to the United States on a special immigrant visa in September 2020. He brought his four children, who tried to learn English while enrolled in what was then all-virtual school at the time. His wife joined them five months later.
Thursday was the first time they had been invited by an American household to experience a Thanksgiving meal.
"Every homeland, every nation, every people, every person, they have got a culture or tradition, right? So it is our first time, and now we want to learn a little bit about what this is, really," Asghary said.
Their host, Kiki Nagy, volunteers for Miry's List, a Southern California-based group that helps refugee families settle in the U.S. In August, during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Miry's List enrolled more than 20 refugee families, about five times the number of families compared to the month before. Next year, the organization is working to prepare to help more than 300 families settle in Southern California.
Nagy had asked the organization's founder, Miry Whitehill, if she could host an Afghan family for their first Thanksgiving. She was connected with the Asgharys, whom she had never met until the day of the feast.
Nagy made a big turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes and spinach. But she also prepared a halal lamb to make sure the Asghary family could have something familiar to eat. Asghary said his daughter, especially, liked all the food.
Nagy was eager to not only introduce them to Thanksgiving dishes, but to also show them the tradition of giving thanks.
"From the right and the left, everyone is kind of like, 'America has got problems -- x, y, z," Nagy said. "In the midst of this conflicting cultural moment, this narrative of division that we hear so much about, that there is something essential to the American experience that is rooted in gratitude, that is rooted in the volunteerism that you leave your country, you leave a situation and you come here with sometimes very little -- sometimes with nothing. And you start over. And you create this opportunity for your family."
Asghary said they have much to be thankful for: "We may have more opportunities in our life in our hands. So of course the foremost example is this, that we are together. Family."
He said they're lucky his wife was able to join them before so many others tried to make a chaotic exit in August during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The image of the many families trying to escape Afghanistan in August especially resonated with another guest at the same Thanksgiving party, Tam Van Tran.
Tran, a friend of Nagy's, was a refugee from Vietnam in 1975. Tran told CNN he and his siblings arrived in the U.S. one week before the fall of Saigon.
"When I saw the photo of the Afghans and the cargo plane, it reminded me very much of just -- I was in the same, but it was a gigantic cargo ship," Tran said.
When Tran came to California, he was about the same age as Asghary's oldest children. He said he and his siblings escaped initially without their parents, so they were welcomed in the home of Richard and Rejean Schulte, a foster family in Mountain View, California.
He said he could offer the Asgharys a warm welcome: "Brotherhood and camaraderie. In a sense, you know...I went through that experience in '75."
Like at many holiday gatherings across the country, several people at the table were at one point new to the country and had to learn American traditions. And many of them worked to seize the opportunity available in their new home country.
Asghary said he tells his children, "We are here for you, the United States is here for you, and everything you have got in your hand. What are you going to do is you have to study. That's it."
Nagy hopes one of their first lessons would be from their first Thanksgiving: "To see that that kind of tolerance is really possible in the United States and, um, I guess I would want them to feel, I would appreciate, that Americans are at heart, really a generous people."
