Suzie Kay’s birthday celebration!

Suzie Kay had such a great birthday (at least as far as I could tell). The evening before her birthday I baked many tiny little chocolate cakes in her toaster oven.  We enjoyed one little cake each, chocolate truffles sent from an Aunt of hers and some Shiraz while chit chatting like the good friends we are. She also decided to open a few gifts on her birthday’s eve.

On the morning of her birthday, she opened the rest of her gifts and we munched on breakfast sandwiches and French Roast coffee.

In the early afternoon we caught a Lanti-boat (government subsidized transport) to the village that she spent her first 8 months as a PCV.  When we arrived it was evident how much the people of the village love her.  They were so very excited to see her again, and to meet the friend that came to visit her from the US. After walking around a bit and giving Odi (daily greetings), we settled in at the house we would stay for a couple days.

Once in the house we set our stuff down in the little room we would be sleeping in and wrapped ourselves in the garments that women wear around the villages to keep the shape of their legs from being seen (called Pangi). We immediately headed out to the porch, where the family spends the majority of their time at home chatting. The two youngest of the family, Bordi and Suti, readily climbed into Suzie Kay’s lap to be hugged and cuddled while the older girls, Drewsella and Nani played with her hair and gave her large corn rows.

After spending some much needed quality time with her close friends and the kids she loves so much, we stole away to the kitchen where I got the opportunity to teach Drewsella how to bake a birthday cake! (There will be a separate blog post about Suriname cooking adventures.)

A few of Suzie Kay’s good friends disappeared for several hours, and at about 9pm we found out why.  They were planning an impromptu birthday party for her!  One friend brought in their nice stereo to play some dance music and 4 others cooked for hours to prepare enough Bami (a local delicious noodle dish that reminds me of chow mein) for all of us to eat.

Suzie Kay’s surrogate mother of Suriname, Mina, gave her a gorgeous and colorful hand painted Pangi as a birthday gift.

I had brought some colorful crape paper from the US for decorations, so we made the porch look nice and festive.  Once the decorations were up, the music started and we danced our little hearts out with the women and children.  The local dance craze is called Loketo.  The best I can describe it is like belly dancing, but with you hips as the main point of focus.

After a while of dancing, the food and soda appeared, along with the friends who had been missing from the party. We enjoyed tons of food, drink and birthday cake (both chocolate and vanilla). When we brought the birthday cake out Drew was beaming with pride, it was so cute! The candles melted down almost all the way because we sang 3 or 4 songs that are part of the Surinamese tradition.

The number of gifts that were sent to her and the party that was thrown for her in the village is a testament to how much Suzie Kay is loved and adored by those in her life.  It’s so great that she was able to celebrate!

A man and his bird

*photos to come*

 

Many of the men in Suriname have a funny little hobby. While in the rain forest they make an effort to catch little song birds. The smaller the song bird, the more machismo a man can claim.

It’s funny to see big burly men carting around a little bird with them on their bicycles, public buses and boats.  Many men take the birds around with them while they visit friends and do errands.  

There was a rasta man with  in our waggy from the city.  He had a small bird that he held on his lap for the whole of the 3.5 hour journey.  The bird even had a little bathtub in the cage, separate from the bird’s drinking water.

Two people that I've met here have seen children catch these birds in the jungle. One kid caught a bird by having one already in a cage hanging from a tree in the forest.  There was a stick covered with some sticky substance coming out from the cage.  When a song bird comes by to hit on the one in captivity they get caught and could not fly away.Another person has seen a kid hit a song bird with a slingshot, stunning the bird long enough to snatch it.

I must admit, when I first heard of this hobby I had pictured grown men in the forest trying to catch birds with their hands…I hope that happens because it would be funnier than the other ways I've heard confirmed.

Someone that I’ve met here has been to a weekly competition that is held for men to have their song birds compete.  Apparently the birds are put side by side and the number of chirps they make in an allotted amount of time are counted. The man with the bird who chirps the most number of times wins the competition.

The man across from Suzie Kay's apartment has 5 bird cages with little friends singing his manliness.  He stands in front of them with a proud look on his face, his shirt pulled up to expose his middle age belly.  His shirt is tucked up and over to make a cute little statement, much like I did when I was in second grade on the playground.

Arrival in Suriname

I stepped off of the plane in Suriname and instantaneously felt like I was slapped in the face with a wet blanket.  The average temperature in the country throughout the year (including in the black of night) is 86 degrees Fahrenheit with an average humidity of 86%. Whew!  What a difference from the temperate (aka COLD) spring of Seattle. 

Once I found the sign of the shuttle company with my ‘name’ – Liane Fernihon (they were pretty close, I have to give them that!) I was escorted to the bus to wait for the other arrivals.  The shuttle worker told me that it would be ‘just a few minutes’. 45 minutes and 2 miscommunications later I was on the road to the hotel where I would meet my dear friend Suzie Kay!

Upon arrival to the hotel at 1:30am I was happy to see the smile of my great college friend. The cute little establishment that the Peace Corps volunteers stay at in the city is a quasi-hostel. There are individual rooms with individually controlled air conditioning, a welcome surprise! The refrigerator and bathrooms are shared, with unheated showers. 

The Sunday after my arrival we stayed in the city (which was completely deserted…imagine, people actually take a day of rest here, weird!) and went to the Peace Corps office for Suzie Kay to complete some work.  The common room for the volunteers has comfortable couches, and it was fun to meet Suzie’s new Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) family. 

After getting quite a bit done at the office, we were picked up by a waggy. Waggy is the word for vehicle in the local language. You can call a waggy driver who you know or just catch a on a passing waggy. Many people have this as their main income, transporting people and goods from city to town to village.

The waggy driver who took us to the town that Suzie Kay is currently living in is a driver that she uses quite frequently. He is trusted by the PCVs and takes his time getting places, not risking accident or injury. The drive to Suzie Kay’s current site is 2.5 or 3 hours depending on the day and how many stops are made during the trip.  It’s very common for the drivers to stop multiple times during the short trip for random errands of the passengers, 6 or 7 stops would not be out of the ordinary. The road between the city and the town is also under construction, so the ride feels a lot like the ‘Indiana Jones’ ride at Disneyland. During our little journey-ett we stopped 4 times and got 2 flat tires and so were slightly delayed.