I always thought that for my golden birthday I would have a huge party…then I joined the Peace Corps. And due to a recent trip to the city for multiple meetings, my birthday was passed in my little hut in the jungle. And it was awesome. At 6:30am I awoke to women singing very close by. I pushed Ryan out of bed and went to the front door in my pjs to discover about 8 women from my village standing in the pre-dawn on my doorstep serenading me. It was such a cool experience. My friend Ria (who’s birthday is 2 days before mine) told all these women that it was birthday so they came to sing to me. About five songs later (ending with Happy Birthday in Saramaccan and English), I hugged and thanked each of them before they moved on to my other friend’s house, Aropa, to sing to her. Aropa and I discovered a few months back that we are twins- born on the same day in the same year, just on different continents. She, of course, is two kids ahead of me in the game of life but that’s only to be expected here.
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| My friend Aropa and I wearing our matching koosus. |
When I got up for the day (of course I went back to sleep at 6:30am) I walked into the front room to discover a “Happy Golden Birthday” sign with a little jewelry sized box. My adorable husband bought me a gorgeous pair of earrings in the city! I promptly put them on with my pajamas and pranced to the back of the house where he was doing dishes. After that, he made me French toast for breakfast. Best. Husband. Ever.
After my fun, American birthday morning, I changed gears and my Saramaccan birthday started. In Saramaaka, if you do anything for your birthday, you are responsible for doing all the work. So, Ryan and I started baking about 4 cakes at my friend Ria’s house, then we walked to the village next to ours in the heat of the day to buy cold liters of soda and ice. By the way, we do not have electricity right now, so we waited until right before the party in hopes that our now useless freezer would act as a cooler and the drinks would still be cold. It worked! After poor Ryan wheelbarrowed all the loot back (talk about a workout), we popped lots of popcorn and employed a couple ten-year-olds to make little goody bags of popcorn and candy for all the kids. Meanwhile Ria and I cut and bagged all the cake.
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| The many bags of cake we bagged! |
Finally, at about 6:30 (I told people to come at 4:30), about 40 kids and 10 adults are sitting in the front of my house. The adults have all the kids sing for about half an hour (church songs, of course, this is a church village). Aropa and I get many handshakes with “congratulations”. When the kids are finished singing, about 10-15 more adults show up just in time for the cake, soda, popcorn, etc. By now we are all sitting in the pitch black with only our two little oil lanterns. Most of the kids’ parents aren’t here. None of the kids have flashlights. No one is worried. Quickly after the goods are dispersed, the people disperse.
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| The party at in front of our house. |
We are exhausted!!! It was so much work to just have popcorn, cake and soda. I was hoping to have a proper Saramaccan birthday next year with dirty rice and a dish called Bami, but I don’t know if I have the energy!
All-in-all it was an awesome, cross-cultural birthday and I am so thankful for all of my blessings. Most of all, I am thankful for my amazing husband who was such a trooper all day helping with preparations (he kept saying, “I do not want to do anything for my birthday”). J
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| My friend Ria holds my hand as they sing me "Happy Birthday" in English and Saramaccan. |
P.S. - When we were in the city the week before my birthday, I had a fancy birthday dinner with a few of my girls who happened to be in town. My friend Petronela's birthday is January 27th, one day after mine, so we celebrated together. It was such a fun girls' night out!
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| Birthday girls! |
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| Me, Erica, Petronela, and Megan. |
