Four Basics of Good Narration

1 Thanksgiving is a time of repeating old traditions, such as gathering with family and friends and eating special foods like turkey, cranberry relish, and pumpkin pie. Every year, my family and I go to my older sister and brother-in-law’s house, and we enjoy the whole traditional experience. But it was there that I also learned how unexpected new traditions can enter the mix and make a holiday even more meaningful.

2 My sister’s son Jacob had spent a semester in Niger, a desert country in central Africa. There he made a good friend, Ibrahim, who later moved to the United States to study science and engineering. My sister and brother-in-law invited Ibrahim to Thanksgiving every year, so gradually we all came to know this warm and friendly person.

He would ask questions about Thanksgiving traditions, which were new and unfamiliar to him. We would ask questions about his country, which was unfamiliar to us. 3 In response he would often say, “Well, where I am from, whenever we gather, we drink a strong, sweet, green tea called atai.” It was as though, to him, this tea seemed strangely missing from the party.

2 One year he brought with him everything necessary to make the tea in the traditional way of his country: 3 two small metal pots with lids; tea leaves; sugar; special small glasses, like shot glasses; a tiny wire grill; and charcoal. He made the tea on my sister’s back porch, though the weather was drizzly and cold. The process was complicated, and involved boiling the tea a long time, then pouring it from high up, to cool it. Patience is a necessary ingredient.

2 When the tea was finally ready, we all hesitatingly took sips from the little glasses, expecting to try it, set it aside, and think “that will be that.” 3 But the tea was so pleasingly tasty — smoky and sweet — and so strikingly different that this custom quickly became an essential and beloved Thanksgiving tradition. 2 Now Ibrahim carefully makes this tea every year and serves it at the end of the big meal, and the holiday would not seem right otherwise.

1 I give thanks to Ibrahim for enlarging my world and proving that, when it comes to excellent customs, there is plenty of room at the table for one more.