It’s party time! (Part 2)

Hi everyone!

How have you guys been doing? I’ve been doing well. Beautiful weather out here today, he hot weather finally seems to have taken a vacation.;)

I bought an Alcatel OT-303 past Friday with the money I had received for hiding shoes of the groom and letting the groom inside the house. Dad also had given me money to do shopping for the wedding, but I didn’t need to buy anything, so I also added some of that money for my Alcatel. I have two mobile no.’s and I don’t use one of them that often, so one of my mobiles mostly stays at home. My cousin calls me on that no. to chat at night. I wasn’t able to talk with my 10 year old mobile if the charger wasn’t connected, so I really needed a new one. But because I’m mostly using it for talking with my cousin, I was searching for the cheapest mobile I could find. One of the mobile companies has lowered their prices for Mother’s day till end of the month, so I bought the 2nd cheapest mobile at the mobile store.

My old Nokia mobile.  

My new Alcatel OT-303. One of Kido’s kittens is on the wallpaper. The picture quality isn’t that good, cause it has a VGA camera and there isn’t much memory on this slow mobile. But an okay mobile for talking and texting and u can also listen to the radio.;) Kido’s kittens have become very naughty and are climbing all over the place, but I enjoy watching them.

The previous week, I had to do the cooking early in the morning, cause my brother takes his dinner along from home to his work. My mom actually had been operated on one of her eyes and she’s not allowed to bend. On Saturday, I completely forgot that it was Saturday and woke up a little bit late in the morning, and I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I’m not getting done with preparing dinner before 7 o’clock, I’ll ask bro to buy his meal outside today.’ I had already packed his bread and I still didn’t see my bro cause he was sleeping, that is when I realized that it was Saturday…haha. I actually was done with preparing the daal at 9.15; it took 3 hours before it was done, so I didn’t mind having started early with preparing dinner.

Anyways, I was about to tell you further about my cousin’s wedding.

This is the wedding card of my cousin’s wedding.

The next morning when I got at my cousin’s house, the guys from the decoration were busy working on some other decorations. Married women of the family were just about to apply haldi (curcuma longa) on the bride’s skin. Cloths get stained by the haldi, so new cloths aren’t suitable for this occasion. After the bride had been applied with haldi on her hands, arms, feet, legs and face, the bride made hand-prints with the remaining haldi mixture on a wall.

This is what the decoration guys were working on: the maroh where the traditional wedding ceremony around a fire takes place.

Then the hawankund for the fire with decorations around it was placed in the middle of the maroh.

And finally the blankets were placed, where the men (groom’s relatives) and pandit (priest) would sit. My nephew had placed the blankets this way, but it was later on changed and placed differently.

The red bench is the seat where the bride and groom sat during the traditional wedding ceremonies. It was placed in the maroh by the bride’s brother-in-law. The bench had been given a special welcome by married women before it was placed in the maroh.

The guys from the decoration worked further on the decorations for the special seat where the bride and groom would sit after the wedding ceremonies.

This is where the wedding cake would come.

The bride’s sisters also placed the gifts for the guests on a special table: scented candles.

Then it was time to help with the cooking, and we also got to taste all the yummy pastries before it would be served at night. There was ghugri, samosa, kroket and bara.

Bara being baked.

My younger sister saw my 80-year old aunt sleeping on the chair with her mouth wide open and pinched me to take a picture. I climbed on the chair next to her and took a picture. When I was off the chair, she woke up and I acted as if I was just about to take a group picture of my other aunts sitting next to her…haha. When I showed it to the others, they were all laughing. I don’t think I should be placing that naughty picture out here.:) I then enjoyed playing with one of my baby nieces, she’s cute and adorable. Then helped mom with making balls out of a meal and water paste for the welcome of the groom. Married women throw the balls in different directions when the groom arrives at the bride’s home. When my other cousin (the bride’s brother) was married, there was a white man who didn’t know about Indian marriages, and one of the balls got in his lap. He started eating it, and when I said that it isn’t for eating, he said that he wasn’t eating it…we laughed a lot about this incident afterwards.

When we reached home, my parents immediately took a shower and got ready for the wedding party. I did the dishes and after that, my elder sister asked me to take some pictures of her; she was looking pretty in her black saree. I was feeling tired and lied on my bed for 5 minutes before taking a shower and getting ready. I was wearing a salwaar which my sister had gifted me. For the bhatwaan I also was wearing a salwaar which one of my uncle’s had gifted me; so I didn’t need to buy any cloths for this occasion.

I’ll tell you about the final part of the wedding story next time.

Hugs and kisses,

Sharda

It’s party time! (Part 1)

Hope you guys had enjoyed your weekend. It was my cousin’s wedding on the 14^th of May, so I had lots of fun in the weekend. We were all very excited, cause there would be one big day in the family again. There was a lot to do before the big day. The others had done some extra shopping for the wedding. I only bought a sirbandi (head jewelry) on the Tuesday before the wedding, and then picked up two Pizza’s at Pizza Boys with the coupons that the others at home had received after shopping at a store which had an Easter shop and eat deal. We suddenly received guests at home from Holland (the bride’s sister and brother-in-law) along with the bride’s dad that day, so the pizza was a double advantage; we didn’t have to bake anything. The medium Veggie Pizza was yummier then the mini Plain Cheese Pizza.

On Wednesday mom had to make 350 Gulab Jamuns for the wedding. I had baked about 400 Gulab Jamuns. We had made a few extras for at home, but gave away more then 350 for the wedding. It was very exhausting work; my back was hurting from standing very long in front of the gas, cause you have to bake with a very low fire. They were very yum.

On Thursday there was the Mehendi night at the bride’s home. I didn’t want Henna applied on my hands, so I just stayed home and polished my nails. Someone once told me that if you apply Henna on both hands, it means that you are getting married, and I wasn’t the one getting married.:)

This is how the bride’s Henna decorated hands and feet looked   like.

I also had photographed the hands of one of my nieces.

Mom came late at night from the Mehendi night and at about 12 o’clock in the morning she started making a bouquet. It was 1 o’clock when she was done with this bouquet.

On Friday, mom woke up very early in the morning to make sew and khaja (sweets) to gift it to the bride’s mom along with some gifts and the bouquet.

Then she hurried to get ready and left with dad and my younger sister to help with the preparations for the Bhatwaan (celebration before the wedding day). I left a little bit later at 11 o’clock with my brothers to help along at the bride’s home. There was a lot to do; I had helped with decorating the tent with balloons and with preparing roti’s. The men also had helped in cutting vegetables and preparing the food.

Looking at these pumpkin pieces, I’m in a mood to make a pumpkin cake. I last had found a recipe for pumpkin cake; maybe I’ll try it out one of these days. And oh ya, wishing everyone a belated Halloween!

It’s always a good idea to have a flycatcher in your home in Suriname; the flies actually also came to party.:)

This sweet guy from the decoration also wanted to be on the picture.

This is how the light trees finally looked like.

 At the Bhatwaan party at night there was Lawa bhujayi (grain and popcorn baking), dancing and yummy food.

The band ‘Mousi and Friends’ (Aunt and Friends).

                                    

The only bad thing was that my uncle had discovered in the morning that the radio, headlights and battery of his car had been stolen. The next morning when we were leaving from the wedding party, my brother also discovered that one of the headlights from his care had been stolen. The thieves had also tried removing another headlight; it was a little bit loose when my brother checked it. The criminality in Suriname is continually increasing. Thieves don’t even spare children’s homes; I heard yesterday on the news that thieves had robbed a children’s home. Some people don’t stay late at parties nowadays, cause they’re afraid that something in/of their car might be robbed or some or afraid of leaving their home for just a few hours.

I’ll tell you about the wedding day next time. Till then, wishing you a wonderful time!

Kido is a mommy!

On the 14^th April our Kido had given birth to two adorable kittens. I was very excited when our Kido was expecting her 1^st kittens, but also a little bit afraid that something would go wrong. A month before her delivery she was feeling quite uncomfortable and meowing; once she also fell off the chair on which she was sleeping. Kido’s mom had eaten her kittens twice; my cousin calls her a cannibal. I didn’t hope that something like that would happen with Kido’s kittens, because she would act wildly with her mom and sister sometimes. My cousin told me that cat’s eat their kittens if the kittens are unhealthy.  As Kido’s pregnancy drew nearer she seemed like having turned in a soft and caring cat and liked being licked by her mom. When the kittens arrived, she got so attached to her kittens that she didn’t come out of her box for three days, not even to have her meal. She only ate a piece of bread that my younger sister had given to her. She seemed to be a very caring and proud mom. I think it’s the same with human beings; a child turns a woman into a softer and more caring person. I know someone who would seem angry, would scold out and kind off would shut herself out of others, but when the baby arrived and I met her, she had turned into a pleasantly talking and caring person who liked interacting with others; I was completely surprised. Now Kido had turned very weak and I was afraid something would happen to her; her kittens needed her. But gradually she started eating, and now she’s eating more than ever before. Cats mostly don’t like human beings touching their kittens in the beginning; otherwise they hide their kittens somewhere else. We hadn’t touched her kittens, but we did look at them. I think she wasn’t comfortable with that and hid them in another box that she had discovered between some old things. About a week ago, I had touched the kittens for the 1^st time and also took these pictures. One was actually trying to get out of the box. The kittens are now out of the box and exploring the place.

My baby is almost 1 year!

A hurray 4 my blog! On the 9^th May, it will be a year ago that I had posted my first pictures on this blog. You guys get the pleasure to watch the cake, I’ve eaten it…lolz…this is a wedding cake picture of my cousins wedding.:)

Hope you guys had enjoyed your Easter.
At night on Easter Sunday everyone at home, except for dad (who’s throat was hurting), went to ‘White Beach’. We met up with my aunt, uncle, cousins and their friends out there and had a lot of fun, especially with my two cousins who were wearing sunglasses at night as headbands and went swimming along with their sunglasses. When one of my cousins put on her very glittering sunglasses we all bursted out in a laugh. The riverwater was superb and the cold breeze gave us a warm welcome. It was crowded by lots of people and now and then enjoyed watching boats passing by. The food was also very yum; my younger sister had made filled bara’s and aunt had brought fried rice, teloh and also bara (but not filled) from home. I think I needed this outing; I had been feeling very tired for quite some time without having done anything tiresome. These are some smiling faces I had captured in dad’s camera.
 

It was almost 4.30 in the morning when we reached home. My elder sister also came home from Saint Lucia in the morning, but she was in a deep sleep when we reached home. When I woke up in the morning I got this cute pencil from her.;)

Wishing all moms a happy mother’s day in advance; because of you, this world is special!;)

A beautiful gift 4 a beautiful mom!