Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I missed my family more than usual yesterday since it was Thanksgiving. Luckily the US Ambassador invited all of Peace Corps Suriname to dinner at his house. It was wonderful! There was stuffing, peas, sweet potato casserole and TURKEY! Turkey is not something the people down here eat so apparently it was difficult to find enough turkey for everyone. We watched a little football before dinner, YAY PACKERS!!!, then stuffed ourselves with the delicious food. You have to be careful about inviting 30 peace corps volunteers over for dinner because they will eat ALL your food. After dinner I got to talk with the family back in Tallahassee. Karis informed me that she was writing a new song with Pop Pop. I can't wait to hear it!!

Life in the village is still going good. I recently had my first community meeting about the project I will begin to write. The meeting was supposed to start at 9am and by 9:30 no one was there. My counterpart was irritated and decided to ring a bell to make everyone come to the center of the village. At around 10am we finally had a full meeting. It went great! My counterpart did all the talking, which is ideal because i'm supposed to co-facilitate while a community leader actually facilitates the meeting. During the meeting the community decided on what project I would write, how they would contribute and agreed on doing all the labor required. Now i'm in the city and writing up a rain catchment system project. I will begin looking for funding to purchase 60 Durotanks (rain catchment system) and supplies needed to install them. Currently the villagers catch their drinking and cooking water from the creek or rusty barrels that catch rain water. I'm really excited about this project!

I finally went to a Brokodei, a huge village party they throw when a community member passes away. They celebrate the persons life by throwing a huge party. It begins around 8pm and last all night long. I went to my friend Evan's village, about 10 minutes from mine, to go to the party. Before leaving one of my friends in my village decked me out in a new koosu and angisa, she said I needed to dress extra pretty for the party. While waiting to go to the party some women from Evan's village came to house to bring us a traditional soup they eat before the party. It was a meat soup, big chunks of meat in a broth. We ate it with cassava bread. It was really yummy. However, I was looking in the bowl trying to figure out what kind of meat it was and I saw a little hand... Turns out it was Pork and MONKEY soup!!! Yep! There was a little monkey hand in my bowl. After that we decided to go dancing. We danced with the little kids for a little while then called it a night. I didn't have enough stamina to stay up all night!

The next morning we went to a ceremony they call Puu adjo. I don't know what that means but there was a lot of traditional dancing by women and men. The men of the village were sitting together playing traditional drums. It was really incredible to watch. The women danced in a circle to the beat of the drums. It's hard to put into words but it was one of those moments that I think "wow, i'm really in a whole nother world!". Half way through the dance several men came running out dressed in masks. They are called Maasgadu. They chased the kids around and danced with the women. It was so fun to watch. We sat on the side with the older women. People passed out lots of food including cakes and cassava bread. We also washed our hands with Palm Rum as the other women were doing.

I had a blast at the party but I was exhausted by the end and ready to see my little village again. I head back to site in a few days and then i'll be back for Christmas. I'll put up some pictures soon!

Happy Thanksgiving and if I don't update before Christmas, Merry Christmas too!!!!