Jari (Yari) 2011

"Jari! Jari! Jari!"--Surinamese New Year's greeting

After the Gunzi Brokoday, I went into the city for a quick 2 day trip. The two day trip consisted of a meeting with an organization whom I had to write a report on a latrine project in Gengeston, another village on the river, and, of all things, to attend a wedding with a friend from the new Peace Corps Suriname group, Matt Day, also a Californian. On the day of the wedding, Matt and I got picked up and car-pooled out to a district in the west called Commewijne. Our link was to the groom whom Matt first met in his village which is on the eastern border of the country. I had met the groom twice, once in the city and then again in my village. The groom's family is Javanese which has some similarities to the Philipino culture I grew up around in the bay area. The people are very friendly and generous; they want to fill up your belly with delicious foods. And that they did. Matt and I were given Javanese soups with some kind of concoction with hot peppers, a local fried noodle dish called bami, chicken and even tasty family desserts like coconut candies and cake. The wedding was held at a mosque. This was the first time I ever attended a ceremony at a mosque, I have previously been in a synagogue and a Hindu temple while in Suriname. It was a very simple ceremony, the man and woman dressed in Islamic robes, the groom kind of looked like a sultan from a movie and the bride wore a red veil over her hair. The old men sat around the table in their big, tall black hats and conducted the ceremony. Upon its completion banana leaves were placed infront of every attendant at the mosque and rice, fish, vegetables and cookies were placed on top of the leaves. Given no utensils, we had to eat the meal with our hands. For reasons unknown, I had trouble doing this despite usually having indifferent table manners which include regularly eating with my hands.

After the wedding I went back out to Gunzi for a few days. I had decided to spend Christmas with Josh aka Tutubala in Tutu and attend church for the first time since home based training in May 2009. On a funny side note, this was my first appearance in the village Tutu since Camp GLOW and my post-camp radio interviews. Walking by one of the houses in the village I was mobbed by a group of four screaming girls who hugged me and wouldn't let go of me. I felt like a Beatle and slightly embarassed but definitely appreciated. Anyways, Christmas Eve was spent making five pizzas and drinking a little scotch before attending the evening mass which was quite an enjoyable festivity. The mass ended with each member of the congregation given a lit candle to carry home. Of course, the local kids used these lit candles to light their fireworks after mass which they threw in every which what direction. So the walk home was a frantic. On Christmas morning, I woke up and ate the leftover pizza. Not cold pizza because we didn't have a fridge, so leftover pizza. It was still delicious. Josh and I attended the 9 am mass and then I walked back to Gunzi where I called two local friends to wish them Merry Christmas--my home stay family and one of the guest speakers from Camp GLOW.

After just five nights in the interior, I went back to the city for two weeks to attend the second leg of the wedding, celebrate the New Year's and travel around. In Suriname, everyone gets married twice apparently. First, in a religious ceremony and then at city hall. After the city hall wedding and the reception, I attended a pre-NYE party at a sports club where I saw Surinamese pop-star Damaru perform. December 31 is a story and a half, Matt Day, Sur-15 volunteer Dave Scott and I could only agree afterwards that it was the greatest New Year's we all had ever experienced. I'm not sure where I could even begin, the night was really random which is basically the Suriname experience in a nut shell. I'll just say that the night ended with a redonculous private mansion party, a lot of fireworks and then having to walk home four miles because we couldn't get a taxi.

After New Year's Eve, Matt Day and I hung out at PCV Ian Loveless's apartment in the city where we shared a lot of photos from home and our previous travels. After hearing his stories about Burning Man and attending music festivals, I've determined he's like the Wes Lee to my Jim Rodriguez. He's a cool guy. Then we did some travelling. We spent two days with another volunteer, Christine, in the county of Commewijne where the first wedding had been held. On the first day, we toured an abandoned local rum factory where Matt and I boarded an old model train and called for "All aboard!" Christine captured our shennanigans on film with my video camera. It'll be an America's Funniest Home Video if they ever bring that show back. I was also introduced to new things that I had not been acquainted with yet, spam and Spaceballs. Personally, thought the spam was better than Spaceballs.
Sorry Matt. The next day we attended Christine's computer class at the local middle school. Coming from the interior, it was rather foreign to see something actually organized and instruction being given in English! After school we then toured an old Dutch fort that was built on the coast where the Suriname River(which I live on) meets the Commewijne River and flows into the Ocean. It was nice way to end the trip, seeing the Ocean and feeling a good breeze again. That San Francisco breeze isn't so far away anymore these days, just 7 months to go.