NO PLACE LIKE HOME:

Zainora Babayee arrived with her family to the US from Kabul five years ago. It was September, just two months before Thanksgiving, a holiday she hadn't heard about until then, and one she would later add to the range of holidays she now celebrates with friends and family.

"If you ask me what comes to mind when I hear Thanksgiving, it means getting together, family gatherings, and eating meals. Thanksgiving has different meanings for different communities," Babayee, a 23 year-old University of Virginia student and oldest of seven siblings, tells The New Arab.

"For Native Americans, it's a different meaning. For diaspora communities, it's a different meaning. For us, since Thanksgiving is a national holiday, it's a chance to be with family and have fun."

Three years ago, as a new student in northern Virginia, she had the opportunity to spend the holiday with the Amish community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. There, she and other students spent three days with Amish families, seeing a rural life where people found creative ways to be self-sufficient, a way of life that few who grow up in America ever see.

"They were so warm and welcoming. They were welcoming like Afghans. I felt at home," she says. "They loved their culture. They prayed and they welcomed us, and they said it's time to give thanks to God and welcome new people."

It was quite a change in scenery from the life she had made in northern Virginia, home to one of the country's largest Afghan communities. There, she has been able to celebrate Nowruz and the two Eids with her family and friends from Afghanistan and Iran.

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