Kinderdag

December 5th is Kinderdag here in Suriname so we decided to get out and celebrate since we missed all the fun last year (we were vacationing in Orlando). Plus Uncle Seth is here visiting so we wanted to show him a good Surinamese holiday.

Charlie was going to act in his very first play at school. Since it was a Kinderdag play we were excited to get into the holiday spirit. Charlie was a bit shy but he still did a great job and we had fun watching him perform

Later that day Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet we supposed to be making an appearance at the mall so off we went. Unfortunately things were just not meant to go smoothly. First, we couldn't find Sinterklaas. We did find this nice statue, however, and decided to take a picture.

Then we found this statue but still no live Sinterklaas.

Then we found an employee who told us Sinterklaas was at a smaller mall a block or so up the road. We walked there but still found no Sinterklaas. On our way back to the big mall Millie very nearly got hit by a car and nearly gave me a heart attack as a result. Back at the mall we found another employee who told us that Sinterklaas was at a complex down the road in the opposite direction. Since it was too far to walk we loaded everyone back in the car and began to make our way through the throngs of traffic. We finally arrived and were able to snap this quick picture.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet, it's a bit disconcerting for most Americans. The gist is that Zwarte Piet is Sinterklaas' slave and is always portrayed by a white person with black face paint (ahem, racist). I guess the Zwarte Piet we saw decided to play it safe by using blue face paint rather than the traditional black. One can only hope this signifies a change in thinking. At any rate we enjoyed experiencing a bit of the Surinamese tradition.


This picture shows the traditional Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet in the background.

Since it was late and we hadn't eaten we decided to go to the McDonald's drive-thru. Huge mistake. Apparently that's also what everyone else in Suriname does on Kinderdag. We didn't figure this out until we'd driven past both of the McDonald's that Suriname has to offer at which point we gave up and came home to eat leftovers. Bummer.

That night the kids put out there shoes for Sinterklaas to leave them a gift.

We were also able to participate in a Sub-for-Santa, er -Sinterklaas, and give some small gifts of clothing and toys to a five-year-old boy living in an orphanage.

All in all, I'd say we had a nice day.