Beni's Christmas Palace In Suriname

Just as in the photo above, I'm okay, but I'm not entirely OK. I feel awful on the inside, and for a long time, it was challenging 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! I started a company in Suriname a while ago. Most of my days were spent creating Story Time episodes, working, doing social work, or gaining experience in the field. When we visit clients, I sometimes get to see some incredible places. Or, in between our journeys, we tend to make pit stops. 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. So that you can understand how my Christmas spirit was transformed into a spirit of mourning. People see the good, but I'll also share the bad. Because no one is perfect, and we all face our own challenges and experiences in life. On the 29th of November, I had 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 fixing a freezer in Bombay's kitchen. A good friend of mine had hooked me up with the client, surprising me! Special shout out to you, you know who you are. This friend of mine is so awesome that he constantly surprises 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. Everything was going well, and I decided to film our experience and the 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 published on my blog, and without knowing it, they ended up hiring my company. However, we'll discuss that in the next episode. Sometimes it's just because I enjoy sharing these moments of my life with my audience. They are among the few everyday moments in my life that I truly cherish and want to share. 😂 After we completed the job, we had to go to their headquarters to receive payment. I don't know why I didn't listen to my instincts! Oh, I know why...

We waited inside 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 business partner wanted to save money on gas 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 was always a lot of 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 bulldozed away. It used to be home to the monkeys, and I had an uneasy feeling I couldn't place. My business partner is so skilled at fixing things that it took him less than five minutes to repair 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 5 pm.' Stew got upset with me, saying I brought him all the way from their office 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 bakery 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 frugal that day and didn't buy much.👀😭😭 Even my business partner was surprised that I didn't buy drinks or anything like I usually do when we've been working all day. We left the bakery 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 knew he'd nag, so now I regret not listening to that voice. He placed his bag somewhere on the scooter. We went straight to our headquarters, and as we were on the Magenta Road, there were some potholes. 

We passed a few, and a black Aerox motorcycle stopped behind us to pick something up. But at that time, we hadn't figured out what was happening. When we arrived at our destination, I opened the gate, and my business partner said he had lost the bag. I panicked and immediately called my phone. Someone had already turned it off. In my heart, I already knew what happened. I used his phone to check the last offline location of my device. 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 a long time. I didn't care about the money,  Surinamese Dollars and US 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 two-factor authentication turned out to be my biggest enemy and a source of 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 gas 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 had been stolen, so all my friends wanted to call me on it.

When it was turned on again, someone let me know. I tracked it, and it led us to a jungle in New Charlesburg, at a spot where they dump dirt. We revisited the police station in Santodorp, and I informed the officers and showed them the location. They told me to go to the police in 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 were a waste of time! That's something most Surinamese people are aware of, and that's why many wouldn't even bother going to the police in the first place. My friends and I went to the location, and it was a garbage dumping place. I've never been there before. We tried to go to the area marked, but there were already many dogs 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 visited the location the next morning and attempted to locate the phone. Ironically the pin brought us to a jungle behind the house of a police officer and an intelligence officer. We asked for their permission, and they allowed us to explore the terrain. Many dump trucks were driving by us. Devlin came with boots and a pair of shears 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 appeared to be new. Unfortunately, our bag, which contained all the keys, 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, and so on. At that point, I hadn't even realized that my bank card was also lost. I had no idea that he had slipped it into 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 put the search on hold 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 on file. For 2 weeks, we went to beg the cops every day for a police report. One of the officers informed us that we wouldn't receive one and that we would have to pay to obtain a new ID and driver's license. For two weeks, my company was unable to 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 assists in cases where officers are corrupt or fail to perform their duties properly. 

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 a letter and that they should give us a report so we could arrange our business. We returned the next morning with the report and met with the chief of the bureau. The guy insisted that we shouldn't have gone to O.P.Z., because the report had been finished a long time ago. We knew that was nonsense because we visited the police station every day, and one of the officers told us we wouldn't receive it. 

Of course, we had to wait as they were "looking" for the police report. When they finally found it, they discovered it contained mistakes. The name was misspelled; it's clear that it was simply written and printed. I work with computers frequently, and in my dad's company, I was heavily involved with printers and office equipment. There you learn to recognize what fresh printed paper looks and smells like. Sometimes I get the impression that people look at me and think I'm a fool. The police said they'd put my phone under surveillance. 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 to this day, we haven't heard a word. In the meantime, clients were contacting us daily, and we couldn't start because of this piece of paper and a lack of understanding from the building owner. That was reason enough for me to leave. Because if something happens in the future, instead of supporting me and allowing me to earn money again, you'll 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 Google Drive was full. I tried to purchase more space on Google One, but I received a notification stating that the feature was not available in my country. What hurts the most is losing access to my accounts and the things I worked hard on. I frequently used my phone 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 before I could access my account. I don't own a Galaxy A31, so I knew it had to belong to the thief. Later, they removed my device from my account. I have contacted Samsung regarding the matter, but since they don't have an office in Suriname, it may be a lengthy and challenging process. The worst part is my battle with the 2-factor authenticator, as most customer service representatives claim that, for safety reasons, they cannot remove it. That's 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 everything due to all the things we lost that my entire Christmas spirit has gone 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's frustrating to lose a $ 1,000 phone in such a careless way. But it happened, and I can't do anything to change it. I wake up, cursing the thief every day. But that won't give me peace. Although I do hope it robs him of his peace. 😂😂 Through the good and evil in life, we must move on and not give up. Just like the girl in the picture above, we all have 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 an extensive collection of Christmas lights, stockings, and even Christmas trees available for sale. 

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

.