My Happy Place

Well, life is MUCH better these days to say the least. My move has been fantastic. Just look at how much happier (and yes, thinner too - isn't Suriname great?!?!) I look in my new room!!



Of course, this is just my two-week temp house. I'll actually move into yet another room when my new friend Mariel returns to Holland later this week. It's still the same address, just a different room.

So here's a little update about my life since my move.

I’ve Been Adopted
Since my move into the BIG CITY I have been adopted by a WONDERFUL Javanese family – a group of about 25 aunts, uncles & cousins who are determined to turn my bad experience in Suriname into a positive one. They are lovely and have embraced me completely. My first weekend in the city they took me to a Javanese celebration that is the equivalent of New Years in their culture. We started at 7:30 am on a Sunday morning and ate, danced and partied for 12 hours. I had a GREAT time, but was exhausted afterwards. Here are some photos.

At the boat dock waiting to catch a ride across the river to the party in the district of Commewijne (looks real sturdy doesn't it!).


A few of my new adopted family on the boat crossing the Commewijne River en route to the party.


Some of the cousins about to hit the dancefloor.


Mariel dancing up a storm with Suni....he's an absolute party animal and set on making sure we're ALWAYS having a good time.


Javanese Food SO Good
In the last week or so, Jetty and her two daughters had us (Mariel, Christa, Jenny & I) over for dinner a few times for YUMMY Soeto soup, chicken and Bami and last night we learned how to make Bakabana – another Javanese dish which is basically banana in batter eaten with a spicy peanut sauce. I personally think we should eat it with vanilla ice cream but that’s just me! Here are some photos of dinner at Jetty's.

Jetty and her daughters.


Jetty making Bakabana.


Party Party Party
This past weekend it was one of the girls’ 18th birthday. When people have birthday parties here, they do it up big time. They had a DJ so there was LOTS of dancing and of course LOTS of eating. Still, I cannot fathom the volume of food these people can consume. They are deeply concerned with how little I eat but I just CANNOT eat a full plate of noodles, rice, chicken and beans, follow it up with a HUGE bowl of soup, followed by some sweets and then a while later another HUGE bowl of soup. I mean who CAN eat that much!?!? I'm eating more now than ever before and I'm still losing weight (not complaining at all about that, pretty happy actually!) Here are a couple photos from the party.

Farisa turns 18 so we bought her a crown.


The dancefloor was full ALL night.


Javanese Bazaar
Sunday night I went to a Javenese bazaar. It was GREAT shopping. I bought a few gifts for the kiddies and something for me too – a BEAUTIFUL quilt. Everything at the bazaar was imported from Indonesia. I felt like I was back at the markets in Thailand and Malaysia. I could have shopped my face off, but ran out of money…which is probably a good thing! They also had entertainment and of course...food. I had this delicious sweet – my favourite I’ve tasted so far – it was basically this ball of dough, rolled in sesame seeds and in the centre was sweet coconut and ginger...very tasty.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but here's my new quilt. It's beautiful, trust me.


With all this quality time with the Javanese, I’m thinking by the time I get home I’m going to be part Indonesian! I’m OK with it. The food is good, the traditions are nice and the people are wonderful.