Beni's Christmas Palace In Suriname

Just like in the photo above this text, I am okay but I am not completely okay. I feel awful on the inside and for a long time it was difficult to find the motivation to return to blogging.  Tomorrow's Christmas, so I mustered all of my strength to at least finish another episode. I've been gone for a while because as usual, life got hectic. But this time in a bad way! As you guys know a while ago I started a company in Suriname. Most of my days were spent creating Story Time episodes, working, doing social work or going along to get a taste of the field.  When we go to clients, sometimes I get to see awesome places. Or in between on our journeys we tend to make pitstops. This Story Time episode is supposed to be about my visit to Beni's Christmas palace. But let me tell you about what happened after that first. Just so you can understand how my Christmas spirit, transformed in the energy of mourning. People see the good, but I'll also share the bad. Because no-one is perfect and we all have to go through our own challenges and experiences in life. On the 29th of November, snik snik I had so many Black Friday shopping plans. This year I was preparing for Black Friday well in advance. We were done working at a client. I remember it was the last video I posted before losing my Ultra S23.  Just writing down the experience makes me feel stressed out. I guess this writing session is turning into therapy! We were supposed to receive money for a freezer we had fixed at Bombay's kitchen. A good friend of mine had hooked me up with the client and surprised me! Special shout out to you, you know who you are. This friend of mine is so awesome, that he constantly keeps surprising me with new clients. Showing gratitude for the opportunity! I was so happy with the way my network in Suriname helped me acquire new clients. All was well and I decided to film our experience and repair service at Bombay kitchen for my blog. Usually whenever a client hires us, I like to make an episode. One of our clients even has adsense ads on my blog, and without knowing it they ended up hiring my company. But we'll talk about that in the next episodes. Sometimes it's just because I enjoy sharing these moments of my life with my audience. They are among the few normal moments in my life, that I have to share. 😂 After we completed the job we had to go receive money at their headquarters. I don't know why I didn't listen to my instincts! Oh, I know why...

We waited inside of their office and the guy who was supposed to pay us had not arrived. I had this uneasy feeling sitting in their chair. I felt like I had no patience and I wanted to go visit my friend in the hospital. We left and the lady working there told us we could come back before 5 PM. We got home and had not touched the motorcycle for months. My inner-spoiled princess said let's go with the car. But my bussiness partner wanted to save money on gass and said that something was wrong with the car. It was black friday and at the start of the last weekend of the month, there is always so much traffic on the roads in Suriname. I agreed to go with the motorcycle to avoid traffic, but the lights weren't working. Maybe that was another sign the universe was sending our way.  I stared at the trees across us that were being buldozered away. It used to be home to the monkeys, and I had an uneasy feeling I couldn't place.  My bussiness partner is so awesome at fixing things, that it took him less than 5 minutes to fix the motorcycle. 😅 That didn't work out in our favor in this case. Before we left I remember saying, maybe we should go pick up the money on Monday instead because it's almost 5pm. Stew got upset at me saying I brought him all the way from their office to here just to not go. He wanted to make a deposit and needed to receive the cash. We went back to the office and he went inside to receive the money. There was a bakkery next to the office. I went there and brought some yummy sweet buns and cinnamon rolls. Out of all the times I'm not cheap, I was feeling cheap that day and didn't buy much.👀😭😭Even my bussines partner was suprised that I didn't buy drinks or any thing like I usually do when we've been working all day.  We left the bakkery and went for a short hospital visit. After the hospital visit we headed back to our place. On the way we stopped at a store to buy a drink and I had this fear that I'd somehow make my phone fall. Because I wasn't used to the motorcycle anymore. I handed my Ultra S23 to my partner and asked him to keep it in his bag. At that moment a little voice inside of me said no take it back! But I'd knew he'd nag, so now I regret not listening to that voice. He placed his bag somewhere on the scooter. We went straight for our headquarters and as we were on the magenta road there were some potholes. We went across a few and a black aerox motorcycle stopped behind us to pick up something. But at that time we hadn't figured out what was happening. When we arrived at our destination I opened the gate and my bussiness partner said he lost the bag. I panicked and immideatelly called my phone. Someone had already turned it off. In my heart I already knew what happened. I used his phone to check my device's last offline location. It was only a few minutes from where we were. The spot where there were potholes and the other motorcycle that had stopped. We returned to the place but couldn't find anything. I already knew I wouldn't find anything since my phone was switched off and I had plenty of battery. Even in battery protection mode my Ultra S23 battery lasts long. I didn't care about the money,Surinamese Dollars and USS dollars in the bag, or the keys, or the cards. My biggest concern was my phone! All my banking information was linked to it and the stupid 2 factor authentication turned out to be my biggest enemy and reason for stress after the device was stolen. We returned to our place and waited for a friend to pick us up. The motorcycle didn't have gass left and all our money was in the bag. Mind you at this point I was so angry at my partner, and still am, that keeping my cool is a difficult task. They say that women are patient, but rarely do people speak about the strength that patience requires. We went to the police station and police officer Bahadur said he'd file a report. We went back home and I tried tracking my device. I posted on Facebook that my device was stolen so all my friends tried to call on it. When it was turned on again, someone let me know. I tracked it and it brought us to a jungle in New Charlesburg at a spot where they dump dirt. We went to the police station Santodorp again and I told the officers and showed them the location. They told me to go to the police from Munder because the area the location pointed at was outside of their jurisdiction. I went to the police station in Munder, and they told me that the other cops from Santodorp should have contacted them or come along and they'd guide them. By then I knew that the police was a waste of time! That's something most Surinamese people know and that's why most wouldn't even bother going to the police in the first place.  My friends and I went to the location and it was a dirt dumping place. I've never been there before. We tried to go to the pin, but many dogs were there. So we called it a night at 2 am and returned home. The cops had said they'd call us every 20 minutes but we weren't called once. 

We went to the location the next morning and tried to find the phone. Ironically the pin brought us to a jungle behind the house of a police officer and an intelligence officer. We asked them permission and they allowed us to explore the terrain. Many dump trucks were driving by us. Devlin came with boots and something to cut the bushes. It was a good thing he did because the boys encountered a big green snake in the jungle. I wasn't allowed to help them look in the bushes because of the snake. So Stew and Devlin combed out the jungle. They had difficulties reaching the exact pin location. We wondered how the thief got there? Finally, Stew arrived at the spot but my phone wasn't there. What we did find was a pile of bags that looked new. Unfortunately our bag with all the keys in it was not among the pile of bags. I don't know why Stew put all my shopping cards in his bag? Goodbye to my Dio points, or my Choi's shopping card etcetera. At that point, I didn't even figure out that my banking card was also lost. Because I had no idea that he slipped it in his bag. 😱😱 It's the second card of mine he lost in a year. So he knew he'd be in trouble since he wasn't allowed to hold my things anymore. We went back home and gave up the search for now. Devlin gained a new life story and possibly a snake trauma. I did make videos of my explorations but I'll post those in the future. Because we lost the keys to our unit we couldn't access our tools. The owner wouldn't give us permission to change the locks until we had a police report. For 2 weeks we went to beg the cops every day for a police report. One of the officers told us that we wouldn't get one and that we just had to pay to make a new ID and driver's license. So for two weeks, my company couldn't operate. We even had appliances from clients and tools locked in the units. I went to O.P.Z., a unit of the police that helps you out in cases where officers are corrupt or don't do a proper job. The police officers there were different and friendly. At Santodorp some of the officers spoke to us as if we were criminals, just because we wanted the police report. Many people told us to give up. One of my friends even said he had been waiting for a police report for 8 years and never got it. But I am glad I went to O.P.Z.. The man behind the desk helped us and immediately called the police bureau. He told them that he'd send us with a letter and that they should give us a report so we could arrange our business. We went back the next morning with the report and met the chief of the bureau. The guy insisted that we should not have gone to O.P.Z., because the report was finished a long time ago. We knew that was nonsense because we went to the police station each day and one of his officers told us we wouldn't get it. Of course, we had to wait as they were "looking" for the police report. When they finally found it, it had mistakes in it. The name was misspelled, you can tell it was just written and printed. I work with computers a lot and in my dad's company, I worked a lot with printers and office equipment. There you learn to recognize what fresh printed paper looks and smells like.  Sometimes I just get the impression that people look at me and think I am a fool.  The police said they'd put in an effort to track my phone. But they didn't even bother to note down the IMEI number of my device. Telesur said that the cops could have traced my SIM card. They have a Digital Information department that has that ability. I was asked by the guy behind the Telesur desk if the police had sent me to that department. But unfortunately, they mentioned nothing about that. There is also a camera on the spot where it happened. The police said they'd ask for the film material to identify the culprit. But till this day we haven't heard a word. In the meantime, clients were chatting with us each day and we couldn't start because of this piece of paper and a lack of understanding from the owner of the building we rent. That was reason enough for me to leave. Because if something happens in the future, instead of you supporting me and allowing me to go and earn money again, you're going to boycott my business.  We canceled the contract and now have our eyes set on a new goal and a location for our company. They say that even out of something bad, something good can come. I'll let you know if that's the case in the future. As for my phone, I miss all the content I lost. I didn't have a backup because my drive was full. I tried to purchase more space on Google One, but I got the notification that the feature was not available for my country. I think what hurts the most, losing access to my accounts and the things I worked hard on. I used my phone a lot to create videos for the company. Even those client experiences are forever lost. A few days later I noticed someone logged into my Samsung account with a Galaxy A31. On the screen, my Samsung account asked me to send a 2-factor to that phone instead before I could access my account. I don't own a Galaxy A31, so I knew it belonged to the thief. Later they remove my device from my account. I have contacted Samsung regarding the matter, but since they don't have an office in Suriname, it might be a long out-of-reach process. The worst thing is my battle against the 2-factor authenticator since most customer service representatives claim that for safety reasons they cannot remove it. That's probably also how the thief used my sim card to log me out of my account. That's why I don't understand how something for my safety can be used against me and keep me out of my accounts! Since the incident I've been so busy arranging all the things because of everything we lost that my entire Christmas spirit went down the drain. Stew apologized a million times and promised me a new phone. But it's not about the phone, it's about the content on it and being able to access my accounts. It does hurt to lose a $1000,- phone in such a stupid way. But it happened, and I can't do anything to change it. I wake up cursing the thief everyday. But that won't give me peace. Although I do hope it robs his peace. 😂😂 Through the good and bad in life we must move on and not give up. Just like the girl in the picture above all this text. Something doesn't seem right, but that doesn't stop her from creating. We just gotta push through! I am grateful to all our friends who jumped in and helped us out. If it weren't for the help of my friends, we wouldn't have made it this far. That's at least something I am grateful for this Christmas. I hope you at least enjoy my video of Beni's Christmas Palace. I know I posted it late after everything that happened. But maybe this Story Time episode can aid you in some last-minute Christmas shopping.  They have a large collection of Christmas lights, stockings, and even Christmas trees available. Are you traveling for the Holidays? Let Expedia help make your booking process easier. Find the right accommodation for your destination! From your flights to your hotel stay, you can find it all in one place.As an affiliate partner, I earn a commission when you book through the link. I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and hope you get to spend time with the people who add meaning to your life

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