Food

Food is everything.

I'm not even kidding...if you ever plan on going to Suriname, make sure you like eating:

Chicken

Rice

Fish

Bitter vegetables

Madame Jeanette peppers (HOT!)

If you don't like them, too bad. Every single meal you will eat in this country will have at least two of these in it.

Since the muslims and jews can't eat pork, and the hindoes can't eat beef, chicken is basically what you get. Since the Surinamese invite everyone over for dinner and keep track of what their guests can and can't eat, all stores sell chicken, and only chicken. (or fish)

The only ethnic group that sells pork are the chinese.

If someone invites you over for 'tea' or 'something to drink' or 'a meeting' or 'a church service' you can bet on there being food of some sort. I'll give you an example:

On the 21st of June Wilbert and I were invited to join the Bisshop in his trip to Lelydorp where he was to lead a confirmation ceremony. After the ceremony he would drop us off on the way back to the city at our (my uncles) friends from the market's (Nita) house at Pad van Wanica. After being welcomed there with food, they took us to meet Nita's parents, where, ofcourse, we were welcomed with food.

At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when one of Nita's daughters dropped us off at home, we'd had more to eat than both of us had ever eaten in one day.....

06:00 Breakfast: Sandwich peanutbutter, orange juice, water
10:30 Second Breakfast: 1 Potato ball-like thing, 1 Plate of food containing Bami, Nasi goreng, White rice, Yellow rice, chicken, coconut stuff, sambal, beansprouts, long green beans (kouseband) etc., 2 glasses of gross softdrink, 1 piece of pie, 4 tiny pieces of cake, 1 beer.
11:45 Lunch: 1 eggroll, 1 kroket, crisps, shrimp crisps, more gross fernandes softdrink, 4 glasses of coke, 3 glasses of water, 1 plate of roti (flatbread, chicken, pepers, HOT), 1 plate of pineapple (with salt, ew)
13:00 Lunch 2.0: 2 glasses of coke, 1 coconut (water/milk & flesh), 1 piece of cake, 1 plate of roti (HOT), 5 fish ball-like-things
13:30 Tea: 1 piece of chocolate cake, 1 glass of fernandes.
We were able to convince Nita that the huge portions of macaroni waiting for us were really a little bit too much. So she made us a big bowl to take home with us. And a couple of babanas, and some other fruit, and some left over roti meat. Fortunately most Surinamese food is great, sometimes it's just a little too much :)
And every time we come to a different household we get overwhelmed by the amount of food offered to us. And most of the time, you get a full meal, and when you ask the host why they are not eating anything they'll say: "I've already eaten"
Yes so have we...about 5 times already today :D

Paramaribo

Sorry guys, not much blogging these last two weeks.

I'm trying to get as much of my dissertation work done before Wilbert arrives, next Saturday (YAY!).

And actually, dissertation wise, it's going quite smoothly! I'm spending most my time meeting new people and getting more phonenumbers from them to contact even more people. All of these people that I meet give me books, articles, pamphlets and other sources of information for me to read through and understand this society a little better. I'm starting to feel like I'm already 'getting' some of the aspects of this multi-ethnic and multi-religious community and I find myself reading, talking and thinking about it all the time. Fortunately I still think it's very interesting :)

Yesterday and today were the first two days in which I actually tried to put some concrete words in my computer. Yesterday I made a draft contents page, just to try and sort my thoughts out a bit and make an outline of the eventual report. Today I'm trying to do some actual writing and put some of my findings to paper (computer). My little flowered notebook is my treasure right now, everything I think of, speak or read about goes in there. Every person I speak with has his/her own page and at least a couple of key words about that person and what he/she told me or that I still have to ask them.

The Bisshop of Paramaribo has been my greatest help until now. He's such a nice man and he really tries to help me wherever he can. Thanks to him I'll be speaking with the head Pandit of one of the two Hindu denominations here (Arya Dewaker) about his involvement in interfaith issues next week.

I've already seen and done too much here to tell you all about it now, especially since the Dutch national team is playing Iceland soon and I still have to make my way to a bar in this tropical rainstorm that's been going on for about 2 hours now...

For now I'll give you a link to my Facebook album with some of my pictures made in the last two weeks.

Enjoy :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=84367&id=565292619&l=8e80f3d561

Suriname

I'm here! We've made it! Ánd my internet is working. My uncle is only here till 4 o clock this afternoon, I have to wait here for him now, so I have very little blogging time. But I'll share with you my first impressions:

The trip was great, the crew is lovely, my uncle brought cheese and leverworst for the bustrip to Paramaribo, we stopped at the first bar to pick up some Parbo's (beer) and had a very nice first impression of the country. Also the warm tropical blanket hugging me when I stepped out of the plane made me feel at home. I love it.

Rich and poor live side by side on the road to the city. Huge drug-mansions provide shadow for little wooden huts or unfinished houses with smiling people inside.

It's very strange to travel 9 hours by plane, to a place that looks hugely different from holland, but still see billboards in your own language, you can speak dutch to everyone. Weird, but nice.

As a wonderful surprise two of my stepfathers friends welcomed us at my uncle's hotel unplanned. They live here and drove me and my stuff to my new home. And took us out for drinks and some food after meeting my landlady and her family.

Tante Joyce is the sweetest landlady I've ever met (and the biggest). Apparently her granddaughter Rani has been asking for me for over a week. I'm meeting her today. I've brought her a big stack of dutch Donald Ducks :) Many have told me she sings the Surinamese national anthem all day. I love her already.

Joyce has put me 'close to her heart' in the biggest appartment attached to her house. Right next to her own patio. Maybe I'll move to the back of the garden in two weeks, when the people who live there now move away.

Accross from the garden lives a dutch music teacher. He's here for a little while and has already invited me to come to a choir practice he's leading coming thursday. A Mozart mass apparently. I'm there, duh.

It's hot here. Think of some place hot, and multiply it by two :) I like it, but my body has to take some time to learn the right sweating times and quantities....

My appartment is BIG and empty and lit by two huge lamps on the ceiling. I share my bathroom with at least one Gekko. His name is Mr Tjitjak. (Pasar Malay for Gekko) I like Gekkos. I used to stare at them on the ceiling when we were on holiday when I was little and I couldn't sleep. I don't count sheep, I count Gekko's. Haven't seen one in my bedroom here.

I have to go! The city calls. More blogging later!

Love from the green banks of the Suriname River.