 Good morning from Suriname, a country in South America and I've been here for the past three days and the love has been amazing, I mean super amazing. I never knew I got so much love in here. I've been thinking of extending my days based on the emails that I've been receiving, based on the kind of messages that I've been receiving, like I had no idea the diaspora watched me like that, like I have no single idea. And we got an invitation to meet the vice president of the country who is also an African descendant and I'm like who am I to say no to the vice president. So we're actually on our way to go meet the vice president right now. A big shout out to Shadda. She has been amazing. Oh my goodness. Why is it opening? A big shout out to Shadda. She has been amazing making sure that, oh! A driver for today is a woman. My goodness. Hi. Hola. Hola. Como está? Oh, Tutubang. Will you speak Portuguese rather? Okay. Alright. So just come along with us. We're going to update you as time goes on. So stick and stay and enjoy the vlog. But don't forget to like this video now. Thank you. Good. Nice to see you in person. Thank you. Shadda, you have a seat here and then I'm going to sit. Thank you. In my office. Thank you. And you stay here, remember? Yeah. I've been here for the past three days and I'm enjoying it. Okay. Yeah. Oh, you talk with Mr. Dundas? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. He told me about you. Yeah. Okay. What can I do for you? Excellent. I'm here because I want to bridge the gap between Africans and Africans living in the diaspora. I'm just a young man who woke up one day and decided to connect the dots because I felt like we living in Africa don't know the Africans living on the other side. So I decided to go on this journey, get to learn about the people, get to see them, get to speak to them and also get to know a bit about the history of how it all started and how it all happened. So that's brought me to Suriname. And when I was doing research, I found that the vice president of the country, you know, is an African too, like me. I was so proud. I felt so proud. So I requested, is it possible to meet him, shake his hands and get to tell Africans that the vice president of Suriname is so South African? Yeah. Yes, you're very welcome. I have the same idea you have. From my youth, yes. I think about Africa because of my mother told me the story of my people coming here in Suriname. They come from Africa and they don't come like this. They bring them here, making slaves. And my grandfather, this generation, they don't want to be slaves. Exactly. And so they fled to the mosh, the interior, far in the jungle. And so they built the life there, so they have a community there. And so they fight against the Boner Sator. And so they fight, they fight one day, three. And so we are from the Maroon, they call us Maroon. But we know the roots is Africa. Exactly. And I think we are now three years, two hundred and sixty-four years ago. And nobody, the Africans fled to the jungle, never know that they will come and take place in the government. And so this has happened now, after two hundred and something years. Can I ask, does it mean that you're the first African to hold this position in the country? Listen, all the time, and this is the first time the Maroon have this position. It's the first time. So how does that make you feel? It feels great, because we never think that we will come on this level. Nobody dreams about this, and one day it will happen. And also, you have the government itself, you have the parliament. And the parliament is also the same time. We have Maroon is chairman of the parliament and I am the vice president, because we have two powerful positions in the country now. And we have also several ministers. That's amazing. With the idea you come to look on the DS4 brothers and sisters, it's the same idea I have. And you know, I'm not ready to open a line directly to Ghana and Nigeria. It's a decision process, and we will start in January if a jeep is on place. I think I'll be happy to be on board. And the first flight? No, I'll be so happy to be on that first flight because I spoke to this beautiful lady sitting right next to me. When I came here, I realized that when I speak to people, they have so much love for Africa, but they've never been. So I decided to sponsor myself. I decided to sponsor a couple of Maroon people just to give them first experience of being in Ghana. So if there's going to be a first flight to Africa, Ghana for the first time, I would love to put the sponsor to people from here to be on that flight to be in Africa for the first time. So I think this is happening because I posted a few videos online and Africans can't believe it. This is the first time I've even seen that there's a country called Suriname and there are Africans living in there because I was in the interior yesterday. Yesterday? Yes, I got it from yesterday. Oh really? And everything there looks like home. Can we just pound some for food here? Yes, it's possible. And this is where you cook. Cook it with firewood. With firewood. Yeah? And up there you can put your wild meat. Exactly. Yes. To get the smoke so that it can stay longer. Yes, for the use. But before those things with the iron, we used to make it out of clay. Yes. We call it Makuku. So in Ghana, we still use the clay. Okay. So we use the clay. So like let's say we go like this. The clay. One here. One here. Three. Three. And then you put your food on like this. The same. The same we use it for. Yes. It's like everything we do in Africa is exactly the same thing they do in there. Yeah. So I think it's a beautiful thing that is happening at the moment. And we just... It's all over the world. Yeah. Yeah. It's happening. It's a revolution. But have you been to Africa? No, never. So I guess you should be the first one that I took to Africa then? Yes. For that I tried to open a line so that we would not have to go to Hualari and to go directly from there. So personally I want to thank you because I mean coming to a new country and getting the opportunity to speak to the vice president. I don't think I'm going to take it for granted. No, I'm very happy to meet you. It is an honor to meet you. Wow. I want to know about the diaspora family we have here. It's a great opportunity to do that. And I'm visiting your interior tomorrow? No. Tomorrow if you want, where it was, the chief of the village is died. So we have a lot of people there. No, I think... Tomorrow if you want to go home you can fix the helicopter for you. But it was only three percent, not normal. No worries. You can come. And then you can stay 20 minutes talk with the chief of the village, talk with the people and then you go back. That's it. I think I really want to do that. Tomorrow when I go on the pilot, maybe I don't know what time. Yo, I just met the vice president in Trasko man. He's the coolest vice president I've ever met. I felt like I was talking to my fellow blogger man. He's like, he's so cool man. Like initially I was a bit nervous, but I kind of vibe that he gave me. I was like, wow. And I'm a special student now. I'm going to call the vice president. And I'm going to be at one African roots. Yeah, I'm going to travel around. And stay here. Take my picture. Okay. Say that because I got my second. Thank you. Okay. He also booked us an helicopter ride to see another Maroon village. We'll be heading there tomorrow. We are not giving up on this job anytime soon man. There are people who understand it and we are here for it. Traveling from one country to another is my hobby. But flying can be extremely expensive sometimes. And that is why I appreciate my audience so much for supporting my travels through Afreex. I've not received money from you because you know nothing about Afreex. So I'm here to educate you so that you send that money to me or your loved ones living back in Africa. What is Afreex? Afreex is a mobile money transfer app that allows users to send and receive money to and from Africa. It's currently available in Etopia, Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Cameroon, Haiti, UK, Canada and the USA. It's fast, reliable and no charges. Download Afreex today. The link is in the description to send money to your loved ones. If I am one of them, please, I'll be waiting for that. My tour to Africa someday. Today is another day, another beautiful day that the Lord has made. And yeah, we're still in Suriname. I met the VP yesterday and he asked me if I would gladly come with him to a funeral. And as a guy from Ghana, whenever we're going for funerals, we just have to put on black. So men in black and we're ready for the funeral. But hey, we're using a helicopter for the funeral, man. Like how? This is going to be my first time being on a helicopter just for going for a funeral. I mean, I use helicopters but not going for funerals. So I'm breaking another virginity today. I think I'm definitely going to have a great time in Suriname, man. You all are wondering where is the vice president. The vice president went ahead of us. So we are on our way to go meet the vice president. We pick him up and we go for the funeral. They say Suriname is the most forested country in the whole world. If you are driving within the country, you might not appreciate it until you ride on top of the country. But always make sure you do it in the plane or helicopter because you would definitely appreciate the beauty of Suriname from above. You know, when certain things like this happen, I feel like I've made it in life for a whole vice president of the country waiting patiently for Maya to arrive. Man, that means a lot to me, man. Come on, you know, you've got to like this video for us to appreciate the vice president of Suriname for showing me this massive lot. I'm at the camera man. How are you? Welcome to Bravo Camp. This is Bravo Camp. This is the camp of Mr. Bruce Ray. And I was happy to see my own sister from the Maroon Village as a member of parliament of Suriname. I know that you can only go there by plane or by boat because it's so far away from the city. And since we didn't want to waste so much time, we had to go with the helicopter. We finally arrived in the village where the funeral would be taking place and it was really exciting and heartwarming to see the men and the women of the village coming to receive us. When I arrived in this village, the surrounding, the people, the way of life is exactly the same as that we do in my country. Yes, I'm going to eat dinner with my sister. I'm going to see Maya. Yes, you're going to see her. Yes. I'm going to eat dinner with my sister. I'm going to the car. I'm going to eat lunch and stay with my sister. We're going to have lunch. I'm going to eat lunch. I'm going to eat lunch. I think this is the village he is from and he brought us to his village. So yeah we are here to see what's going to happen. I still don't know what's happening but let's see how it goes. He knows me because he said village boy and I'm like how? Let me say hello. You know me? Yeah, actually he's Joe. Wow. He made an interview with me about two months ago. Two months ago? Yeah. With who? Alone. You know? How was Ghana? You know Ghana is nice. It's always nice but my father is from Pumbaa. Oh. Yeah. How are you? I'm fine. How are you? I'm fine. What am I? Yeah. What am I? I'm a popular man from Africa. It was a great honor to be in the presence of all these elders in this village. And the vice president introduced me and I had to give my one and only speech to the elders all the way from the motherland. It's really amazing to see my fellow brothers and sisters from Suriname. I know this is not the right time because we are all mourning but I just want you all to know that everyone from Ghana and Africa in general are mourning with you all. We are one people. If we go to Ghana right now unless you speak before somebody will notice that you are not from Ghana. And it's really amazing to see you all once again. And it's a pleasure meeting you all. The only reason why I'm here is because my people from Africa told me that they have brothers and sisters living here but they have no idea about it. So I'm here to introduce you all to my fellow brothers and sisters in Africa. And next time you see me you will never see me alone but you see me with a lot of people from Ghana coming to celebrate with you all. I want to say thank you and thanks for welcoming me. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, man. They were actually to stand up and a lady will be hanging with a nice woman. Thank you. Yeah, that's it. What do I do? Put your hand. Put your hand. Yes. Okay. Like that. Thank you. Yes, man. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, well, you are plus now. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And you see the speakers behind me in Ghana, when somebody dies in Ghana, it's the same thing. Yeah? We have the same speakers who play for three days before we bury the person. Yeah. Here, how many days will it take? For normal people, it will take three days. Three days. Sometimes five days. Okay. But this head captain, I take already one month and one month and seven days. It's going to be in the coffin? Yeah. It's going to be in there for that long? Yeah, yeah. They put special comfort. They stay like that. So this Saturday, that's when they're going to bury? Yeah, Saturdays, we go to bring them. That's one month and seven days. It's exactly the same way in Ghana. You see how the women are always sitting under a tent to cook. It's nice. Oh. It's taking oil from the granates. That's the same thing. Wow. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Oh. They cook the same thing, like we also cook for funerals. Say, like you can never take an African out of Africa just like that. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. You know what I'm talking about? Thank you. You know how to say it. You know how to say it? Yeah. Maba, maba. Okay. I don't know what to say. I don't know. Enjoy. Oh my goodness. Oh. You know, so like the language she's speaking is different from the Sarmaka language, but this one too, they made their own language, you know. Isn't it? It's... Oh. Oh Christ. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like that. It shows that you are visitor. And when you go tograss... Yeah, this one. What, like- Yeah. Ha, just echo Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. That's okay. I have to eat something here Rice Oh rice? Okay Do you eat with your hands? Hands, right? Water Then we eat with our hands This one The same thing You eat with your hands? Alright Wow It tastes so good It feels so much at home You eat with your hands? You eat with your hands? You eat with your hands? I am just wondering How did I do it? You eat with your hands? Yes Very good You eat with your hands? Yes You eat with your hands? You use coconut oil to cook the rice? Yes So you can taste the coconut oil? Yes And it tastes so good You know, funeral rice is actually the best rice you'll ever get So it's the same thing here You don't come out to eat with your hands? No, I don't come out to eat I don't come out to eat with my hands I wonder how did I do it This one It's finished It's finished, you know You eat with your hands? Yes You eat with your hands? Yes You eat with your hands? Yes You eat with your hands? Yes How to say thank you? Grand Tani Grand Tani? See, who's making? You eat with your hands? Yes We make it the same way Yes Yes Thank you And you know, when you finish cooking and then we finish eating you just put it in the oven Both of you Both of you Yes I wish I had more time here because I feel like they're so cool and you know how your mom always want to make sure you're okay that's how I feel in here because they're making sure you have the food to eat and you feel good but unfortunately we just came to say hello and greet the family before Saturday which the main funeral will be happening So our helicopter ride is still here waiting for us Yes Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you We go From the side I hope you all enjoyed this amazing episode and there's more videos coming all the way from Surinama So please, like this video and subscribe to be part of 1.5 million people Have you subscribed yet? Please do, do support us Thank you