Bigi Fujai: 25 years old!

"Don't worry, I went to Chico State."--Me

The last words I said to my friend as a 24 year-old before stumbling over to my bed and laying beneath the cover of my mosquito net. I think it nicely sums up the first 25 years of my life and will probably be my goto all-purpose phrase for the next 25 years. For instance, question: "Are you sure this is safe?", "Who can open this bottle?", "Is anyone here a doctor?" or "How would you feel if Peace Corps sent you to a country where it is customary to drink a lot of alcohol?"(they seriously ask you that); response: "Don't worry, I went to Chico State!" (And that was my response in the interview). Maybe I can get a place in a CBS sitcom with that line someday.

Since this was a birthday with a multiple of 5, my 25th birthday, this was a bigi fujai (big birthday) by Suriname traditions. The children of Gunzi started preparing the open-spaced community center for this party on Wednesday, 3 days before the party was to be held. They drew a really nice welcome sign on the chalk board and spent a few days making paper chain links to hang across the community center. They were really enthusiastic because last year Catherine and I celebrated my birthday by closing the door to my house, watching a movie and eating a cake she made for me. They did not get any--dee lasi. This year, I had invited the 6th grade students of Tutubuka who I worked with on the World AIDS Day skits and promised free soda and cookies. The party was scheduled to start at 4 pm to allow fellow Sur-15 Peace Corps Volunteer, Amber, and I to finish a training
in the morning with a local medical post worker. Thinking that the start time was rather late and coincidentally there was a funeral going on in the Tutu area and
with rainy weather as late as 3 pm, I didn't expect much of a turn out.

But to my surprise there was quite a large turnout. I'd say about 40-50 teenagers from Tutu walked over for the party. It felt like an awkward sweet 16 party that I never wanted but it was entertaining. So I passed out two cases of soda and an assorment of cookies to my guests from Tutu and the Gunzi children. Meanwhile, the boys played the drums and the girls pulled me onto the dance floor for two songs and showed off some pretty sweet Saramaccan dance moves. Yessssssssss. At 5:30 pm, I ended the dancing and was content on staying in Gunzi and let the kids walk back to Tutu until rumors of a potential fight started spreading. So the school boatman, Guito, and I decided we needed to walk back with the kids to make sure no trouble broke out on the path to Tutu. I did not have time to grab my umbrella from my house so I walked on the 25 minute path and arrived at Bamos' wenke, the first store at the end of the path, when the rain began to fall and where my usual boatman, Tude, was sitting and waiting for me. Tude insisted we wait out the rain before heading back to Gunzi. This presented the first opportunity for Parbo. Tude and Guito bought a few as they knew I had bought a whole crate, twelve 40 oz. Parbo beers, which was waiting for everyone in Gunzi. After putting back a few Parbos at Bamos wenke, the rain finally subsided and we went back to Gunzi.

Arriving at my house in Gunzi, the kids flocked to my house like a mob. They had been waiting over 6 weeks for me to shoot my fireworks and the hour had finally arrived. So we took the fireworks, leftover cookies, soda and the first few beers down to the community center. Yes, fireworks and beer, but don't worry, I went to Chico State. At the end of the night, all the kids still had their fingers and no power lines had been fell. Awaa.

As I was shooting off the fireworks, some of the boys began the drumming again while the men listened and enjoyed the beers and the girls danced around the community center. During all this, my counterpart's woman brought us four funfetti cakes that I bought and she baked for the party. Since nothing about the party was really organized, there was no line for the funfetti cakes, it was a free-for-fall, and the four cakes were eaten by about 10 kids, 1 Peace Corps Volunteer and 5 adults within about 5 minutes. I'm 25 but still don't consider myself an adult, thank you very much. While the kids continued to drum the adults and I drank 11 of the 12 beers before finally heading up to the Tei Wei (Gunzi's tourist camp) bar to drink the last beer that I promised my counterpart, Kwami, I'd drink with him. So everyone walked
up to Tei Wei where Kwami and his staff were hanging out and playing music for a few of the tourists visiting Gunzi. As the soda had run out, I bought a few more for the kids and the men and I finished the beer and delved into a little Johnny Red. We danced for about 2 hours at Tei Wei while listening to a Saramaccan mix CD I had made for the radio. At some point or another, all the Gunzi folks stopped the music and sang me happy birthday in Sranan Tongo and then in English--big ups to Gunzipai and Kadjoepai. And instead of turning off the power at 11 am, Kwami kept it on until around 1 am to keep the party going and then to give me enough time to stumble back to my house with lighting. Where, reassuring Amber, who was observing from her hammock, that I wouldn't hurt myself while I was trying to get under my mosquito net and into my own bed, "Don't worry, I went to Chico State!"

Cheers to another good 25 years...