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Since our blog readers are learning so much about the Saramaccans, it is only fair that they learn some of the language too. …Hence the title, which means “Saramaccan Language 101.” There are plenty of interesting words; many have multiple, and very different meanings. One of these fun words is kisi.

If I had to literally translate kisi, I would say that it means catch. You can kisi fish. If someone throws something, you can kisi said item. If someone wants to ask if it is 6:00 yet, they can even ask if 6:00 has kisi yet. Where the term gets interesting is who catches what. Some of you may remember that when Wendy got pregnant, they would say that Wendy caught a baby. …Like it was some sort of disease or something. I wanted to tell them that it was a good thing – not a sickness.

However, that is not the case, because when you get a cold or some sickness, you would say a cold caught me. A headache can catch you. A Saramaccan learning English would be perplexed at a person catching a cold. …Why would they? You would have to be insane to try and catch a cold! …So, actually, catching a baby is not like a disease at all. There may, however, be a time in each parent’s life when they refer to their child catching them…

The blog is back. After hiatus due to injured computers, the blog is reemerging. Our apologies to those who enjoyed our blog in the past, and we hope you are patient enough to check back and find the new blogs. For those who did not enjoy the blogs in the past, they don’t get any better.

In every culture, there are proverbs to help us understand or explain situations. In the same cultures, there are proverbs that make absolutely no sense. That, however, does not keep us from using them. The Saramaccans have an oral culture where they have historically passed down important information in stories or proverbs. I thought we would have some fun with this. I have a book of proverbs that was compiled by the Wycliffe Bible translators along with some sage Saramaccans. I am going to post some of them now and then for your perusing and pondering pleasure. …Hence the title, which means “Saramaccan proverb.”

Feel free to offer explanations or comments for the proverbs. I cannot explain all of them, so your guess may be as good as mine.

1. Chameleon says: “hurry-hurry is good, but slow-slow is good too.”

2. Cockroach does not have rights at the doorway of the chicken house.

3. Turtle says he wants to dance, but if he dances, the ground will rip open (make a hole in the ground).

Enjoy.

Suriname, much like America, is a mix of many cultures. Where Suriname differs is the mix of languages. Dutch is the national language, but it is common to hear Sranan Töngö, the national colloquial language. It is also not surprising to hear each culture’s languages downtown in their daily life: Chinese, Javanese, Hindi, and English. I have even heard a little Spanish from some ladies who learned it in school. Due to their presence and travel to the city, the languages of the interior also make their way into conversation – especially in certain districts of the city. In fact, if you speak Saramaccaan or Ndjuka, you can get better service in some stores.

Of all the languages we expected, there is one that no one told us about: honking. While Suriname traffic has its own flavor, it also has its own language with a little riskier learning curve.

There is the short, staccato honk by a stopped car that says, “Let me into traffic.” This may be spoken silently by a flash of headlights or the wave of an arm. It also may be accompanied by pulling into a lane of traffic while awaiting the other lane to stop.

Then there is the short, higher pitched beep in the context of moving traffic. It is the caution of a mo-ped approaching one side of your vehicle saying, “I’m small and quick, and I don’t want to be run over by you.” Here, they are allowed to pass you on either side on any street, so when they get close, they honk quickly to let you know that they are there, and maybe to let you know to give them a little more room to pass.

When backing out into a lane from your parking spot, you may hear a series of excited short and long honks. These are from cars travelling in the lane you backing into. This is to say, “I can see you but you can’t see me, and I’m not stopping to let you in, so you had better stop.” This is not a rude honk but a friendly warning appreciated by the backer-upper.

If people are walking or standing street-side, which is, of course, very often, a short burst of short honks will sound – usually a different sounding horn than a car horn. This is a bus passing and declaring, “If you want a ride, you had better signal. Otherwise, I’m not wasting my time stopping.” I have even seen a bus boarded by merely slowing down. Time is money.

Finally, the long blare… This one depends on context. If you hear it at a stop light, especially by busses, it means, “The light turned green milliseconds ago. GO ALREADY!” Some would interpret this, not as unfriendly, but as a service to let you know that the light has changed. …Mainly the bus drivers. If the long blare is heard in conjunction with waving arms, it means, “You got in my way (legally or illegally) and you are an idiot!” …Well, that’s the nice translation.

…So if you are coming to Suriname for a short trip, you will not need to learn this language, but at least now, you will know what is being said. In general, horn honking is not as offensive as it is in the States. This concludes your lesson on the language of the streets.

For those of you who can no longer tolerate the low class shower caps… Now you don’t have to be ashamed to wear your shower cap to those fine, formal dinner parties, elegant weddings, or public pools.

I took this picture in a local grocery store. I need not note that it is one of the nicer grocery stores in town.

This is a tour of our house in Dang where we are learning language – another in the Jungle Life series.

Jungle Life – Our House – Low Resolution Tour

Jungle Life – Our House – High Resolution Tour

A peep into our daily life in the jungle - hence the name, “Jungle Life.” Hopefully the beginning of a series of videos.

 Jungle Life – Mowing the Yard – Low Resolution

Jungle Life – Mowing the Yard – High Resolution

When God’s people obey his commands and make a commitment to follow Him, they can always count on an equal but opposite spiritual attack. We are really tested at these times. We see how deep our commitment is, and how much we are willing to give up for the greater cause. We get to know our true self – what is really inside. It can be an ugly mirror to see.

 Yesterday, one of our good friends here in the village asked for some of my nachos. Now, you have to understand that regular corn tortilla chips are very difficult to find here. When we can find them at one of the grocery stores that carries more American products, we buy around seven bags or so because they seldom have them in stock. …And we pay a premium. You must also understand that Wendy and I love our nachos. In the states, we would eat nachos quite a bit as well as eat salsa with these chips. We were prepared to come to the jungle and living without electricity and running water, but living without tortilla chips has been tough.

 As I was saying… Yesterday, Wendy made some black bean nachos that we were eating for lunch. In this culture, you don’t bring out food in front of people unless you are willing to share. Well, we had company most of the day. Especially, with Wendy’s pregnancy, I did not want to wait too long to eat. Our neighbor was here, and we know her well; we are very close. We have shared food with her before, but only when we offered her some. She has been here while we ate before and did not ask for anything, so we thought we were safe.

 We brought the pan of fresh baked, black bean nachos from the kitchen to the table. We pulled our chairs up to sit down… And the lady pulled her chair up to the table. We both held our breath thinking positive things like, “Maybe she wants to keep talking while we eat… Right?” As we sat down, she dropped the bomb:  “Can I try some?” …Did I mention that she was also sick at the time? There’s no way she would enjoy them as much as we would. Jesus told the apostles, “…The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” …I’m not even sure that my spirit was willing. The Psalms talk about delighting in the Lord’s commands, but sometimes you have just got to grit your teeth and obey. We both knew the right thing to do, so of course we gave her some in an attempt to be a cheerful giver. She got her own plate and we fixed her something to drink too. …So we overcame, more or less, victorious.

 Let this be a lesson to all of you who commit to do God’s work:  count the cost in the beginning; pray for God’s help each day; and eat your nachos in the dark.

In Saramaccan culture this is the compliment of compliments to give to a woman. You might say it to someone if you haven’t seen her in a while. It’s kind of like the American phrase “You haven’t changed a bit!” or better yet “Have you lost weight?” It’s a polite thing to say whether you mean it or not.

Even without extensive language training you may be able to decipher this one. These words are some of the ones taken from English in their language. Go ahead….give it a guess….think about it. That’s right! It means “You’ve gotten fatter!” I have received this compliment from time to time, and have tried to be a good cross cultural citizen and accept the statement for what it was meant to be—a compliment. I always manage to graciously (or at least awkwardly) smile, but I can’t quite bring myself to say thank you, not yet anyway.

Now, if you have lost weight, people may refrain from giving you “the compliment.” That might be pushing it a little too far, but they would also never mention that you look thinner either. This would be rude, terribly rude, unforgivably rude, but they may pull your husband aside and tell him that his woman is getting skinny, and he better do something about it.

As I’ve gotten a little more baby roundness in the tummy, I have gotten this compliment again, but now when I offer a smile I can say, “Mi tan a wosu,” which literally translated means “I stay in the house,” but it conveys, “I’m pregnant.” Then they say, “Ahh, you caught a baby!” And I reply, “Yes, I caught a baby!” Then everyone smiles and laughs and squeals. Catching a baby is a great thing in this culture. I don’t know if there is any better news to the women here.

We read stories from a little book to practice language. When we have problems with words or phrases, we ask one of the school teachers for help. We read a story about some hunters who killed a tapir. They said something about the tapir, but we couldn’t quite get the gist of the phrase. The teacher told us it means that there is nothing fatter. She then proceeded to cheerfully tell me that that’s people would say about me soon. Oh, for joy.

I’ve been told that the excitement over pregnancy is similar all over Suriname. I’ve heard that once a woman is obviously pregnant, people are especially nice and friendly to her. I’ve heard tales of people offering to carry stuff, giving up their seats and even letting pregnant women cut in line. We are like the sacred cows of India—okay, maybe not, but I’m starting to feel some similarities.

submitted by Wendy

A lot of people have asked exactly what we do. This is a pretty valid question that can be kind of hard to answer. Right now our focus is on language learning, but I think what people really want is a glimpse of an average day. I’ve written this as kind of a log of a particular day. It was different than yesterday and is sure to be different than tomorrow.

 6:15     Get up. I’ve been awake for a little while, but it’s just now getting light enough to see. You still need a flashlight or candle inside. I get dressed, but there are no flat irons, rollers or makeup involved, so the lack of light really doesn’t matter much.

 I go rake the front yard area.  I should do this a few days a week if not everyday, but I don’t.  Saramaccan women rake their yards to remove leaves and small pieces of trash, but mostly I think it’s so your neighbors will see the rake lines in the dust.

 6:40     Jared gets up, and we walk to the wenke (pronounced wank-ay, what they call a small store) to buy bread. We were there yesterday and asked if he would have bread this morning. He told us to come at seven. In the past, they seem to sell out before seven, so we don’t want to wait too late, and if you time it right, you can get it just as he’s pulling it out of the oven. We get there at 6:52, but the place is shut up. We walk back home, and I make myself some oatmeal. Jared is holding out for fresh bread.

 The village is just starting to show signs of life at this time. We see kids walking down to the river to wash before school and women beginning their daily activities. We say “I weki no,” (ee wake-ee no, it’s drawn out, almost sung and goes up in pitch) their equivalent to good morning. Greeting one another is very important in this culture. 

7:30     Success at last, well kind of. We walk back, and the store is still closed, but the other store is open this time and has two pieces of bread left. We had planned on buying more, so Jared settles for stale cereal and powdered milk for breakfast. It’s quite a disappointment. Did I mention the milk is room temperature and the cereal is stale?

9:00     I’ve rested a little. I didn’t sleep well last night. Lobinio (Low-bean-ee-o), our neighbor’s three-year-old grandson and I walked down to the river to look at a boat that is dredging sand from the river bed.  I also check how high the water is.  We’ve had a lot of rain, and when the water is up, the rocks that I normally wash at are submerged, as they are today. This means that I’ll do my washing at the house with rain water.

 We meet a Dutch couple on the way back home. They are staying at a tourist camp on a nearby island and are touring our village this morning.

 Woti (whoa-tee), our neighbor comes by.

 I sweep. The floors get pretty dirty pretty quickly from sand being tracked in on our feet. Having well swept floors is very important in this culture, even if you have dirt floors.

 I take some time to do my personal Bible reading. I’m currently doing one of those through the year chronological plans. Today I will read from Matthew 24 and Exodus 7, 8 and 9.

 10:15   Laundry. As I mentioned I will be washing at the house today. First I sort the clothes, not according to color or fabric type, but level of dirtiness. I use three buckets and a dishpan. The first bucket has detergent. I hand wash in this one. The next is plain water for rinsing. The last is a second rinse with just a bit of fabric softener. It’s amazing how much tumble drying softens your clothes. I let the clothes soak then hand agitate in each bucket, with a wringing between each. Then they go into the dishpan and on to the clothes line. Jared helps me when I wash at the house. He doesn’t like for me to lift the buckets of water. Isn’t that nice? He also helps with the rising and wringing, which is nice because it’s very tiresome to the hands. I’ll probably be able to crack nutshells with my bare hands by the time we leave.

 10:45   Woti comes by. She is going to cut some leaves to rethatch a roof from near our house. Jared goes to help her. He helps cut at first, but then is instructed to wait. Woti doesn’t want him walking through the peanut patch. An unlearned city boy like him is bound to destroy it like Hannibal’s elephants marching through the fields. So she brings the cut leaves to him and he carries them to her house. Woti was so pleased that Jared was helping her that she sent us two coconuts. I’m not really sure what I’ll do with them yet.

11:15   I finish up the laundry, and decide to walk back to the store just incase he is waiting there with the bread. He isn’t. I talk to a few women on my way home. 

11:40   Lunch time. I make macaroni and cheese, something I would have NEVER considered serving as a meal before we moved to the jungle. I check the news and Facebook on the BlackBerry while I wait. I’m very thankful for the jungle data plan!

1:00     Some peanut butter cookies with M&M’s sound good. A week or so ago I made a batch of cookie dough and rolled them all up into balls, but only baked a few and stuck the rest in the freezer. It was one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. Now we can have a fresh baked cookie in about ten minutes. These little things become more important out here.

 Incidentally, while waiting on the cookies to bake, I did a few exercises. They were actually to help prevent pregnancy related back pain, but I still think the concept is a little funny.

1:15     School is out, so for the rest of the afternoon our neighbor’s six-year-old granddaughter Nawenda will be in and out—mostly in.  For some reason our house is a far superior place to play.

 Jared starts the generator. They ran the village generator last night, but the freezer can still use a little midday boost.

 Jared cleans the water filters—provided by the Women’s Missionary Union—Thankyou! We could have been drinking that stuff.

2:00     We read and translate from Ned and the First Grade Reader. That’s what we call these story books that we borrowed. They were written by Wycliffe Bible translators to help people learn to read Saramaccaan. Instead of Dick, Jane, and Spot, it has Simu and Anasi chasing a monkey up a tree. They are compiled of little short stories that progressively introduce new words. I know, it looks elementary and we should be able to fly right through it, but we actually have to spend a lot of time to get through just a few pages.

 3:30     A group of kids come to entertain us–two drummers playing empty jugs with sticks and three dancers. This marks the end of our reading time. Jared joins right in drumming; he even broke out the guitar.

4:00     Normally I would like to wait a little later to take a bath, but we’re going to go visit a school teacher, and after all the walking to the store today, I need one now. With the water up, you have to wade through mud to get in the river, so today I will have a bucket bath at the house. Sometimes I warm a little water to mix with the rain water to knock the chill off, but I’m hot today, so cold water it is. And it is cold.

 5:00     We go to a teacher’s house to practice language. We get to practice with our neighbor and anybody else we see, but this teacher has offered to sit with us and have a more formal type lesson. She also speaks some English, so we can ask her questions. We go through the stories we read from our first grade readers and ask questions about phrases we don’t understand.

6:30     I wash a few dishes before supper. I should probably wash them all, but decide to just do what I need. I start making supper. I also make a small pitcher of tea. I make one most evenings and leave it in the freezer over night to get cool. I just started doing this on this trip out, and boy have I enjoyed it. Like I said, the little things make a difference.

 I hear the deep rumble of the village generator starting followed by the lights coming on. This is great. We can’t run the light off of our generator, so we only have lights when the village generator is running, and I like having lights. Candle light dinners are way overrated if you ask me.

 Jared comes home from our neighbor’s house bearing a gift—a watermelon!

8:00     Things are winding down for the day. We read a chapter of the Bible together. Jared plays around on the guitar a little.

 Woti and Nawenda are here. Woti comes most nights to pray and visit with us before bed.

 9:30     We get ready for bed and watch a little TV from a DVD on our laptop. I fall asleep while it’s still playing.

As I read through this, I feel like I didn’t accomplish much in the day, but I seemed fairly busy too. I think life just moves at a slower pace here. Regular living takes longer. Things like greeting the people you meet are more valued here, so a trip to the store can take a lot longer than expected depending on how many people you meet. To the people here stopping and talking to the person is more important than the task to be accomplished.

submitted by Wendy

• Of course my family would be first and foremost on this list, but to keep this from being a mushy, gushy, feely type of post, I will not expound further.
• Chips and salsa. See the previous post “Chips Should Come Out of a Bag” for more details on this one.
• Running water. Of all the modern amenities, I miss this one most. Trudging up the hill from the river with buckets of water every time you need to use the restroom has lost its quaint charm. In case you were wondering, it lost it about fifteen steps into the first trip, and that is still down hill with empty buckets.
• Brushing my teeth indoors. This is directly related to the previous point, but I thought it deserved its own recognition.
• Clean feet. Also related to the water issue, I feel like my feet are never really clean. If we bathe in the river, by the time we walk back to the house my feet are filthy. When we take bucket baths at the house you can get them cleaner, but they still don’t seem to stay that way long.
• Fall. I love the first crisp day, the changing leaves and pretty much everything else about the season.
• Doorknobs. Of all the things I tried to prepare myself for doing without, doorknobs never crossed my mind. Most of the doors in our home do not have any kind of knob or handle, which makes opening and closing them pretty difficult. We keep meaning to attach some kind of strap, but we just haven’t done it yet. I guess this one goes to show that I am guilty of not appreciating what I’ve got until it’s gone. To whoever is reading this, be thankful for your doorknobs.
• Light switches. This one has actually been remedied thanks to my husband’s bountiful electrical knowledge and ability to make something out of scraps. Can you imagine having no control over whether your lights are on or off? To have glaring fluorescent light shining in you face as you try to sleep? Occasionally, they run the generator all night long, but we never know when those nights are going to be. At what point do you give up on the light going out, get out of the hammock, get a chair to stand in and unscrew the hot bulb with a shirt over your hand? The switch is in a different room, but at least we have one. Thank you honey! Actually Jared is probably a lot more grateful for the switch because he’s the one climbing in a chair at one thirty in the morning. Let’s face it, even when I stand in a chair, I’m still pretty short.
• Lots of American food. Chips and salsa aren’t the only things I crave. Sometimes when I can’t sleep at night I lie there and think about restaurants that we will go to and what I’ll order there. Or I’ll think about people who might invite us over for dinner and what they might serve. Just a side note—if you plan on having us over and are stumped at what to serve, just ask. There’s a good chance I already have a menu worked out.

submitted by Wendy