Ashes to ashes

Today Satish was cremated according to the Hindu traditions. Before the actual cremation a remembrance service was held at the family home where friends and family could pay their last respects and Hindu rituals were peformed to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. Like the two evenings before, many people attended. After the service we went to Weg naar Zee (Road to the Sea), the place where cremations take place that is about 30 minutes from Paramaribo. Cremations are usually held around the same time every day. When we arrived another cremation was also being prepared (up to 6 can be done simultaneously!). Everything is done in the traditional way. The coffin is put on wooden planks, piled about 1.5 metres high. On both the pile and the coffin Indian style butter (ghee) is poured and other items are also placed in the coffin as offerings. The pile is ritually lit and left to burn. The people witnessing the cremation usually stay an hour or two, but the pile generally smolders until the next morning.

Remembrance

This evening the traditional Hindu baithak (wake) was held at Satish's house. The baithak gives family and friends the opportunity to pay their last respects and remember those they have lost. During the baithak, that usually lasts an hour, the pandit (Hindu priest) recites verses from the holy books to ensure that the soul has safe passage into the afterlife and receives blessings. Tomorrow the baithak will be held again with further verses recited.

Satish Singh (1958-2007)

With great shock and disbelief we received the news this morning that our friend and partner Satish Singh died in Amsterdam today. This weekend we had already gotten the news that Satish had suffered a severe stroke. As it turned out it was a brain anurism with a clot the size of an egg. The doctors had never seen one of this size before. Apparently Satish had had it voor several years with having any problems. Despite two operations, of which the first seemed to have a positive effect, the pressure build up and blood flow in the brain was too much. Anand and I are helping family and friends as much as we can in this difficult time. The cremation will be on Sunday.

Opening Vasco Profiles

Today Vasco Profiles, the company where we are working at the moment, held its official opening of the office and production facilities. Several ministers, dignitaries, family and friends were invited to witness the occasion. Above the two main shareholders of the company, Chris van der Vossen and Vasco Tonch, during the ceremony. In true Suriname style the speeches were kept short so there would be more time to eat and drink! And, indeed, the food was delicious!!

Hindustani Wedding

Today I had a chance to witness the first part of a traditional three day Hindustani wedding. On the first day the parents of the bride go to the house of the groom's parents to request permission for the marriage. Family members join both families for the ceremonie, as well as vegetarian food and non-alcoholic drinks. Hindustani weddings in Suriname are generally 'sitting parties' whereby people basically sit around and talk to their friends and family. Although for the other two days there is often a live band (a hint of modernism at an otherwise traditional event), people don't really dance or otherwise seem to have fun. Actually, many seem to come to wedding because they feel obliged to and to been seen!

Polyglots

Most Surinamis speak at least two languages: Dutch and Sranantongo. Sranan Tongo's lexicon is thus a fusion of English, Dutch, Portuguese and Central and West African languages. It began as a pidgin spoken primarily by African slaves in Suriname who often did not have a common African language. Sranan also became the language of communication between the slaves and the slave-owners, as the slaves were prohibited to speak Dutch. As other ethnic groups were brought to Suriname as contract workers, Sranan became a lingua franca. Besides Dutch, that is the official language that is used in schools, government and media, many Surinamis speak a third language, that of their ethnic group or country of origin. On the streets of Paramaribo one can hear Sarnami Hindi, Javanese, Chinese, Portuguese and English. This is also reflected in the television stations one can receive. There are several Hindustani channels, a couple of Javanese channels and programmes from Brazil, Holland and the Caribbean. Suriname is truely a multi-lingual society!

Job interview

Dew, a friend of Satish, works for the insurance company Clico (www.clico.com). This Trinidadian company entered the Suriname market nearly ten years ago when it bought an American owned life insurance company. Although Clico is the largest insurance company in the Caribbean and is known for its quality products and service, the Suriname market has been a tough nut to crack. Several Trini managers have tried to boost the performance in Paramaribo, but to no avail. The Suriname operations are now run from Guyana, with the manager coming to Suriname twice a month. For a couple of years now Clico Suriname is looking for a general manger for their General Insurance department. Satish applied for the position last year, but was told in the interview that he was too highly qualified, despite not knowing much about insurance! Dew was highly surprised and decided to speak with the Chairman of Clico, Lawrence Dupry, about taking over management of Clico Suriname. Duprey asked for a business plan and reasons why he should hand over management. Dew felt that the current Guyanese manager doesn't want to have a new GM as it would undermine her position and possibly lead to a pay cut as she is paid for both Suriname and Guyana (US$10,000 per month!). When the last job vacancy was placed in the newspaper two weeks ago, Anand and I decided to apply for the job to aid Dew in his plan. If one of us doesn't get the job Dew has additional arguments to present to Duprey. So we each slightly adjusted our CV and applied for the position. To our great surprised we were both invited to. It turned out we had been the only people that had applied!! We decided that we would both take a different approach. I would be the consensus builder that would welcome continued involvement from Guyana and who would have a reasonable salary indication (€3000), whereas anand would be the experienced manager who would turn the organisation inside out. Both interviews went well but lasted less than 20 minutes. Now we have to wait and see....

Relaxing Suri-style

This weekend marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Although the three major muslim organisations couldn't agree on the start of Id al-Fitr (two decided on Saturday, the other on Friday), the government proclaimed Saturday a national holiday. Muslims and non-Muslims alike took the opportunity to come together and relax in Suri-style: lots of food and plenty of booze (or 'sopie' as it is known in sranantongo). We headed for Republiek again with Satish and his family to celebrate another daughter's birthday to which friends of the family were invited as well. as the day passed and more alcohol was consumed, te discussions became more political and more heated, particularly with regard to possible presidential candidates for the coming election.

Suriname during WWII

Suriname played an important, if unknown, part in World War II. The bauxite that was mined in Suriname ended up in the fighter jets and bombers of the US Airforce. One might say that with Suriname the war might have lasted much longer! The war also come to Suriname, albeit on a very small scale...the result of which can still be seen in the Suriname River. During WWII, the 6,000 tonne North German Lloyd cargo ship Goslar was scuttled in the Suriname in order to prevent it from falling into Allied hands. The wreck has never been removed and remains visible in the middle of the river.

Running in the family

Travelling runs in our family. Give us an excuus to go and our bags are packed. My uncle Marius, who was in Suriname this last week sent me a photograph of his father, my grandfather Rolf Bremmer, in 1951. It looks like he is just about to board the plane from Amsterdam to Paramaribo (via Portugal, West Africa and Brazil). On the back of the photo, however, it states that it was taken during a tour of Schiphol Airport!

Javanese market

Suriname is a truely multicultural society. The population comprises of people of among others African, Amerindian, Indian, Javanese, Lebanese, Brazilian, Chinese and European descent. Many groups have their own organisations, schools and shops. Every Sunday the Javanese have their market in Paramaribo North where they sell vegetables and clothes. The Javanese are very musical people with a preference for sweet love songs. no such songs at the market though...The King ruled supreme! you have to love those Elvis ballads...

Suralco

This morning we to Suralco, the Suriname arm of Alcoa. Suralco has mined for bauxite for more than 60 years and is in many ways the mainstay of the Suriname economy. We were there to look at a site for three steel houses that Suralco is considering for their staff. If Vasco Profiles passes all the checks and if the price is right, there could be more houses to be built in the future.

New abode

After a month in a small and not so cosy place we have shifted to Share Apartments, a small apartment complex in Paramaribo North just a stones throw from the Ma Retraite Mall. We now have seperate bedrooms (yeah!), a large kitchen/living room and bathroom. The bedrooms have air-conditioners, which makes the Surinami nghts easy to deal with. Next door is a Chinese supermarket (most supers here are operated by recently immigrated Chinese) that is open until at least 10 pm...very handy! I think this is where we will stay to live for our time here.

Family reunion Part 2

My youngest uncle, Marius, organises internships for students of the Hanzehogeschool in Groningen. Many of them go to the Caribbean and Suriname. He visits them twice a year and he happened to be in Paramaribo this week. We met at the Krasnapolsky hotel in the centre of town, had a drink and then went to the Waterkant, the river bank where one can have delicious food and enjoy the scenery. The Javanese bami was great!

Paramaribo by night

On our way back home from the InCar office we decided to take a little detour through the city. Many parts of the city are quiet at night. The colonial part of town has mainly offices and little in the way of nightlife. Shining beacon in the otherwise slightly dark city is the Presidential Palace above. Formerly the residence of the Dutch colonial gouvernor it is now the office of President Ronald Venetiaan. It is situated on Independence Square, formerly known as Orange Square (Oranjeplein).

Suriname Dutch

Although Surinamis have spoken Dutch for a couple of hundred years, it was only in the last year that Dutch became the official state language and Suriname joined the Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie). The Dutch people speak here is beautiful. In many ways it is slightly old-fashioned for us European Dutch speakers, as Flemish tends to sound to us. Nevertheless, Dutch is a living language here that constantly develops new words and expressions. Today I heard a new verb on the radio news. The item was about the first day of school and how young children deal with school. It concerned toddlers ('peuters' in Dutch). In Surinami Dutch when toddlers go to school they toddle ('peuteren' in Dutch). Whereas we tend to say: "toddlers go to school", the Surinamis say "the kids toddle".