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GREENSBORO - As an Ethiopian Orthodox, Yohannes A. Kabtiyimer should have spent Thursday fasting with his family.

Instead, they celebrated their first traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce with friends from Westover Church.

After the quick midday meal in High Point, Kabtiyimer and his wife, Menbere Z. Hailu , returned to their tiny Greensboro apartment. They served their first Thanksgiving dinner for other local Ethiopians they've befriended since arriving in the United States about three months ago.

Kabtiyimer said he has hope for his new life here. He spent years in a Kenyan refugee camp before getting sponsored to move to the United States. A journalist, Kabtiyimer says he spent two years in an Ethiopian prison because the government didn't approve of his writings. He then fled with his wife and son, Raey .

Living in America, celebrating Thanksgiving, "it was a dream," Kabtiyimer said. "Because all these things, I've watched on movies."

Now they are real, he said while eating his second Thanksgiving meal of the day.

Hailu and her friend, Bayoush Gobnana , spent Wednesday night cooking the food, which took up the entire kitchen table. They prepared American food, such as mashed potatoes, chicken tenders and collard greens. And they cooked traditional Ethiopian fare, including spongy injera bread and wot , a spicy meat sauce.

"We're trying to bring these two things together," Gobnana said of the mixed meal.

She arrived in Greensboro about six weeks ago after spending more than a year at a refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya . She fled Ethiopia without her husband, who remains imprisoned because the government suspects him of being part of a liberation group, she said.

Gobnana would like to someday open an Ethiopian restaurant here. And she thinks about the day she'll see her husband again.

"I'm hopeful," she said.

For Million Mekonnen , Thanksgiving has been a tradition for several years. But he missed the first few celebrations when he arrived here six years ago from Ethiopia.

Mekonnen, 38 , of Durham , came to the United States through a visa lottery. He didn't have refugee sponsors to help him learn American customs or help him get a job. Kabtiyimer has been working in the kitchen at the American Hebrew Academy since the first week he arrived.

"When I look at these guys," Mekonnen said, "they are very lucky."

Kabtiyimer said he is thankful for all the help his family has received. And he plans to continue breaking his religious fast every Thanksgiving.

"We're starting our new life. We want to put ourself in the American system," he said. "I feel this is going to be my holy day, too."

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez @news-record.com