Work Work Work

Hello all,
Here I am again. It doesn't feel like it's been all that long since I've last written. After all, I was in the city this time last month. It definitely does not feel like Christmas here. Instead of the smells of cookies and pine trees, you get a lot of the smell of fireworks. Every store here is selling giant quantities of fireworks. The president of Suriname mandated that one must not shoot them before the 27th of December so as to minimize injuries, but starting about a week ago, I have been hearing the occasional crack of an explosive going off. The sound has been getting more and more frequent, and I am assuming it's all building up to New Years Eve. I'm told there are so many fireworks going off at midnight that you can't hear anything. I, myself, have purchased the occasional firework to contribute to the madness. Just to feel like I was part of things.

Moving on, I'd like to spend some time on the project work that has been going on since I've been getting a lot of questions about that lately. But first, I'd like to provide my readers with a frame of mind with which they might understand what we're up against here in Suriname. I came across this website while I was doing some research, and what I found shocked me. Although I shouldn't have been all that surprised. Anyways, here's the site:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/suriname/#starting-a-business

The site ranks countries by their ease of starting a business. Suriname's process takes an average of 680 days. It costs a huge amount of money. Suriname is ranked one of the least new-business-friendly countries in the world. 158 out of 183, to be exact. The whole website has some very cool information. I recommend checking it out if you've got some time on your hands (and I take it you do since you're reading my blog).

So there you have it. Suriname is a hostile environment if you are trying to get anything done. We Peace Corps Volunteers are all fighting this issue as we try to push our projects to completion. With that in mind, here's an update on the notorious Toilet Project:

My village has all of the materials necessary to build these little structures. There are some questions as to how much cement we need and whether we should buy the flush part of the toilet (as opposed to just the bowl, which is common in these parts) in case there will be a functioning water system to get hooked up to, but all in all, those little details can be worked out when we get to that stage. Right now, the village must get it's butt in gear, and provide the manual labor that it has promised to contribute to the project. We have spent many a day manually shoveling sand from the middle of the river into a boat and then onto the dock, and then to it's final location. If you have any idea how much sand you need to make thousands of cement blocks, and you compare that to the average amount of sand one person can carry on their head, you will realize that this is a big project. And we completed that. We even made the cement blocks already. Again, hours of manual labor are required to mix the cement, pour it into a mold, stamp the cement into the mold with a mallet-like piece of wood, set the new stone out to dry in the sun, and use the same mold to make another stone. You can make about a hundred stones in a day's worth of work. We made thousands all together. And we have dug seven gigantic holes, which in itself has been a big step only because choosing a location for a toilet is a very political process. You'll never get 100% buy-in. To this day I have a guy complaining that there is a toilet-hole in front of his house that he is planning on filling back in. My major road-block is the attitude that you can just take the initiative to ruin a project, but it is not common after that to find an alternative route to completion. People will put their own desires first, and the conflict which then ensues with the goals of the project forces the project into stagnation.

So, here we are, in the middle of this project, and we have come to a stand-still. It's nobody's priority to do work for no pay, and since people are busy with "making money to prepare for the holidays," as I was told, if anyone is available to do work, they will refuse to work because some neighbor of theirs is not doing any work. Many conversations with villagers have provoked my anger on this matter. The unfortunate reality is that nobody is invested in this project enough to step up and do work on their own accord. And although I would love to be that person, I actually don't know how to place the stone blocks for the toilets, and am thus physically incapable of stepping up to do any work. So I rely on my counterpart. And, well, he's not exactly on good terms with this project now that people have accused him of only working on it when there was money to be made. Which is kind of true. So, politics have put a temporary stop to my work. But I have faith that progress will be made yet. I will not give up!

And now for another note: The Blue Ball Project has started! In a previous blog, I mentioned that some of my coworkers were working on a project to get the indestructible balls into the country. Well, they came through! My village is hoping to receive 20 of these soccer balls. We are planning to get a person who knows soccer to teach some life skills while holding soccer camps. Any donations to this effect are very much appreciated. I can honestly say that the biggest help I, as a PCV, can do in my village, is to educate. Aid is a very controversial thing out here, since most of the aid that has been done in my village previously, is now broken, or locked up in some storage space, or has been stolen. Large and complicated electronics (like computers) are bound to live a short and unproductive life when donated. Also, that kind of aid perpetuates a mentality of waiting to do anything on your own because you might just be getting it for free eventually. This mindset is already popular and is hard to eradicate in my village as it is. What works, though, is the education. Because it has long-term effects on the people involved. Which is why I like the idea of being a Volunteer. I am the only aid worker here that has the time to share perspectives and explain motives. So, my point is, this is a project that I can really get behind. If you feel the same way about it, please check out this link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=568-133

Ok everyone, this blog has gotten very long. I will stop overwhelming you all with information now.

Peace Out!

The Adventures Continue

Hello everyone! I've come back to the city for Thanksgiving. Coincidentally, November 25th is Surinamese Independence day, so I'll be experiencing that one in the city too. The ambassador is hosting a thanksgiving party that we have been invited to as well. It will be a fun week.

Back at site, I have been having a good time. As it turns out, I am pretty good at speaking the language already. I found this out on my adventure with Baa Belly. Baa Belly is my neighbor. He is something like 90 years old and he takes care of me with bush medicine when I'm feeling sick. (Side note: The other day I had a pretty bad cold and Baa Belly came over with an orange and spent a long time explaining exactly how to squeeze the juice out of it and then how to strain the seeds out of the juice and then to put sugar into it and then how to drink it. All for a glass of orange juice. Some things are just universal I guess. When you're sick, you drink orange juice.) Anyways, Baa Belly has family in another village on the river, one where there is a Peace Corps Volunteer as well. He probably has family in almost every village because I am not kidding you when I say he must have like a hundred children by many different women.

So Baa Belly was going to travel to this village for a ceremony called Limba Uwii (Clean the Leaves). It's one of the many things that are done after someone dies. After much conversation, people convinced me that I should go too, since I had never seen one before. However, they made a big deal about me not leaving Baa Belly's side. And how when someone brings you to a place, he is responsible for you and you must not go off on your own. One guy came over to my house just to tell me that I shouldn't travel because you never know when a crazy guy will come and stab you. I just sort of ignored his advice... But all this hype about sticking with Baa Belly turned out to be completely false. As soon as we got out of the boat, I told Baa Belly that I had a Peace Corps friend in the village, and that was about the last time I saw Baa Belly. He went off and did his thing and I went off and did mine. After the second day, when we were supposed to go home together, Baa Belly went as far as to tell me to look for my own boat home because he was going to stay a few more days. I was very surprised. Why did everyone make such a big deal out of sticking together?? I may never know.
Before getting there, I had convinced two other PCV's to come to the ceremony with me, and two others were within walking distance of the village, so we all got together and it was a party. You can imagine the already tiny house filled with hammocks. A Limba Uwii ceremony starts early in the morning. Everyone in the village gets together and literally cleans the paths that lead to the river. They do yardwork. But it's cooler because you do it with machetes. When they collectively decide that they are done weeding, there is a communal river bath. A few things go on throughout the day after that. Someone has killed jungle meat and this is made into a soup that is distributed with cassava bread throughout the village in the evening. They also make a beverage out of boiled sugar cane. This will be consumed the next day. In the evening, there is music playing in the common area. As in, people are drumming and singing. Everyone is all dressed up and the young men are drinking beer at the Wankies. No one really dances except for the kids. Later they begin playing Saramaccan music through speakers and around 12 to 1 am, you see a few adults starting to dance. There will be electricity and music until the sun comes up around 6:30AM. Being one of the few females in Saramacca that drinks, (drinking is associated with promiscuity), I get a lot of free beer at events like this. I was quite drunk by the end of the night and stayed up till 3 am. The next morning, we got all dressed up again and around 9 AM, the real ceremony starts. They call it the Puu Ajoe. An Ajoe is something like a spirit that lingers around, and the ceremony is done to release the spirit so it can go away. There is a group of old men drumming and a group of women with their heads covered in a white koosu, dancing around a circle, or just dancing, and often just standing. All kinds of strange things happen to you when you sit among the crowd at this ceremony. The coolest thing was that they came around and tied a random koosu on everyone's head. Once you have your head tied, you are allowed to get up and dance if you want. You can also keep the koosu. They pass out all kinds of goodies. Various cakes, cassava bread with sugar on it, soda, beer and Palm Rum. You can drink the beverages, or get creatve with them. A lot of the rum gets poured into hands and then rubbed on heads or legs. People pour soda on heads, alcohol too. Some people spray the beverage of choice onto other people. At some point boys came around with what is called Peppe Wata (pepper water) and used leaves to flick it on people's heads. It doesn't burn unless it gets into your eye. One lady kept forcing people to take giant gulps of Palm. People get very drunk after enough time. Eventually, the young men appear, dressed in masks and covered from head to toe so you cannot recognize them. They mostly run around and scare the kids, but also dance with people and do inappropriate things on the dance floor. It's a crazy day. And good times are had by all.

Outside of the Limba Uwii, we had a good time in the village. It's really big so I felt like I could get lost at any time. We went to the museum, saw the biggest wankie on the river, hung out with the wood carver guys, and had an all around good time.

This blog is more work-related

Hello again, everyone!

I'll expand a bit more on my work here as a Peace Corps volunteer, since I have gotten some questions about that from the few of you that I can keep in contact with.

Peace Corps has mandated that we not begin any work in the first three months of our service. I have been faithful to that, except to continue the work on the toilet project that my predecessor passed on to me. Which is progressing nicely. My counterpart will be coming in to the city to receive a check with the donated money soon. Together, we will begin purchasing raw materials. I had some trouble motivating the village to pull sand out of the river, since that was a part of what the community had promised to contribute to the project. I tried to make the community meet several times until I gave my counterpart the job of getting people together to do the work. He finally got them to pull the sand. (Lesson learned: PCV's should be behind the scenes. Pick a local, trusted leader to get people on board with the project.)

Since I've come to the city, the focus has changed. All of a sudden, talk revolves around our future projects. We've been shown how to write proposals for grants, how to assess the community we live in for potential projects, and how to use the resources and databases that are available to us. We also spent time learning about Edutainment from a group of Jamaican entertainers, as well as learning about education through sports from an organization called A Ganar. In fact, we were playing with the most ingenious thing in that session. A soccer ball that never goes flat! I thought is was fascinating, so I found it on the web so you guys could enjoy this:

http://oneworldfutbol.com/the-simple-power-of-a-durable-ball/

This ball was invented in Oakland, CA (yay NorCal!) and is made out of the same material they make crocs from. You can puncture it and it will retain its shape. The site I linked to has some cool media on the animals that have chewed but not destroyed this ball. Also, I played with it, and it was AWESOME! I can't wait 'till someone from Peace Corps starts a project in which people can buy these soccer balls to send to our villages. As of now, we'd have to buy one and send it to my address, and then a second one would be donated to an organization of your choice. But not Peace Corps. Poop. I'll let you know if that changes.

Anyways, I think indestructible soccer balls would be an incredible gift to villages in Suriname, since they are always destroying their balls and having to buy more. Usually, the kids play with whatever they can find, which often means a citrus fruit of some kind. I would love to find a way to bring these soccer balls into the village. (Hmmm... Project idea?)

Time to get back to work! Until next time.

Adjusting to Noon-time Naps

Hello again. I'm back in the city for what they call early service training! I'll be in the city for two weeks, which is quite a lot but I'll be taking classes most of the time. Don't worry, though, I found time to blog!


Life has been both incredibly slow and moving way too fast. I usually get up around 7 AM, which is late, according to Saramaccan standards. I once got reprimanded by my neighbor for waking up at 8 AM because, according to her, I would miss all the news about the day if I got up that late. They like to get up at the break of dawn, get the fire started, cook a giant pot of rice and some veggies before it gets hot. They will eat out of that pot for the rest of the day, or else they'll make a little more in the evening.

So once I'm up, I'll take a bucket bath, rub mosquito lotion all over my legs, and get dressed. I'll sit down for a breakfast of oatmeal and tea (with milk and sugar. Horrible habit, I know). By the time I'm ready to move around, it's probably around nine AM. I usually try to find a reason to walk across the village at this point, as it is customary to ask everyone how they woke. Most days I walk to the river to do my dishes from the day before. If I have nothing to do after that, I walk back to my house. I often do come across someone who is doing something I can join. I have some neighbors that are often sitting and sewing together. I'll sit with them and listen to the gossip (which I can't really follow) and just take in the voices. Other times someone will be making cassava bread or pounding rice and it will become the focal point of the neighborhood and a good excuse to hang out. Some time around noon I get hungry and cook something for myself. Half of the time I cook a lot so that my neighboring Peace Corps Volunteer can come over and have dinner with me later. The other half of the time I go to his house for dinner. But there is a period from 12 to 4 when the sun is so incredibly hot that I cannot get myself to walk around. If I am not already doing something, I'm usually home and in my hammock on my porch until the sun is bearable or the kids have annoyed me enough to get me out of the hammock. Evening time is another chance to walk around the town, and I often find a reason to get out of the house for it. Then I have dinner and wait for someone to come get me to go do something fun at night. People like to come over and ask me for a taste of what I cooked (that's a Saramaccan thing. I could try to mooch off of my neighbors too, but I haven't gotten used to that idea yet.) Else I just sit in my house and read or close my front door and chill by myself for a bit. As relaxing as my day sounds, I occasionally have days when I just need to chill out and destress. Trying to talk in a foreign language and having to please all these people can get to you.

Of course, there are lots of other aspects of my life, like my cat, who likes to wake me up in the morning by rubbing his scent glands on my nose and purring into my ear. Or like the 13 year old girl who likes to come over and sit at my house and make me read the AIDS awareness poster to her in english. Or the countless young men that find excuses to come over to my house and ask me for my hand in marriage even though they have one or more wives already.

But all in all, life is an outdoors activity and work is to socialize and integrate into the community. I try to walk around as much as I can stand, as I have barely started to get to know people, and they can all tell who I am from a mile away. I find that getting close to people is closely related to how much time you spend with them, so I make efforts to get lots of exposure. And that's my job right now!

I would like to write a little something about my good friend in the village, Sikowtu, which translates to"police" in english. Sikowtu was one of the first kids to come over to my house in the evening and make me feel like I was a part of things. He and the other teenagers would sit on my porch and talk about relationship stuff, as teenagers do. And I would try to follow the conversation and feel so very pleased that they had chosen my house to hang out since I didn't know anyone at that point. Then I started lending my ipod to Sikowtu. He would come over in the mornings and I would know to have it ready for him, and if there was something going on that would be of interest to me, Sikowtu would tell me about it. He led me around the village when I was still getting lost there. He charged my phone when there was no electricity for a few days. When school got out, he took me to the ceremony the kids held. Usually, things here happen on a last minute basis, and if you miss the memo, you can easily just not hear about a current event. Sikowtu acted as my messenger. And in the evenings, he would bring back my ipod. Also, when I asked some locals about fixing my roof, and they were about to charge me an arm and a leg, he just butted in and offered to take me to the jungle to teach me about how to cut leaves for the roof myself. So we hiked into the jungle, chopped trees down with machetes and carried giant piles of leaves on our heads to get them back to the village. It was awesome. And I would never have gotten to do it if not for Sikowtu. He has even taken me to go play soccer with the boys. Sadly, he has since gone to the gold mines in search of riches. He has said that he will come back to the village in December, but I have a feeling a young man will get caught up in whatever opportunity comes his way, so he might be gone for a long time. When he left, people kept asking me if I would miss him, and every time, I said: YES. So this is my little ode to a dude that made my life as an outsider just a little bit sweeter. Cheers to you, Sikowtu.

Wow. Back in the city.

To everyone who is reading this blog and who took my project and my request for money seriously, THANK YOU! The money was just rolling in. We have already met the required amount, and will now be able to start construction on the toilets! Updates on that to follow.

And now for a little update:

For the last 5 weeks I have made my new home in my little house in the jungle, among the most heartwarmingly friendly people I have ever known. When I wake up in the morning, it is often to someone yelling my name through the walls of my house to see if I'm up. I don't respond, for the sake of creating SOME semblance of boundaries, but I secretly love it. Children here are always testing my boundaries, often poking me or touching me and then looking guilty to see if I'll do anything about it. Mostly, they just have nothing to do, and need some structure. Which is why I have taken to giving them little chores to do if they come to my house. It keeps them out of trouble. Kids can be sent to do your dishes at the river (but bewarned, the little ones aren't very thorough), to throw things onto the trash pile in the "jungle" behind the house, to sweep the porch, and other things. They are very eager to do chores here. It's one of the few things a kid here can do to get some positive reinforcement. Mostly they get yelled at, which is understandable, as there are far too many kids and far too few adults hanging around this village. (Work opportunities often exist mainly in the city, or require you to move around.) And, well, people here have lots of kids.

Since I've been in my village, I have experienced so many things that I would have loved to have shared with people back home. I've gone to "Baka Seei" (grounds, for subsistence farming) with three separate families. Around here, the female head of every household is in charge of her own "kondre" (country). If you follow a path into the jungle, the kondre's are scattered on little hidden paths off of the big path. Your kondre is a little home away from home. You might walk about 2-3 hours to get to your kondre. Barefoot, carrying everything you'll need on your head, wading through creeks, and balancing on logs, or pushing a wheelbarrow on a log over a river. Four-year-old's have been outperforming me in this department. Once there, you will find two or three little structures. One for sleeping, one for cooking, and sometimes one that is a little raised off the ground for food storage. You'll also build a little shade-structure in the middle of your fields for mid-day cooking and shade. You probably have a hammock and some dishes and food waiting for you there too. When you go to your grounds, you might go for a couple of hours, or you might stay there overnight a few nights. I have done both, every time an adventure. Right now is the season for harvesting rice, so I learned how to do that, and how to find potatoes in the ground, and which okra to pick and which to leave. Needless to say, I am learning a lot.

I have also been fighting the good fight against the evil mice. Even when mice can't find anything edible in my house, they will find something plastic to destroy. The things that I have had to part with due to mouse-destruction include: my wallet, gardening gloves, a mirror (really?), several articles of clothing, a dishrag, the lids off of several plastic containers, and they even chewed the buckets that I keep my food in (which they're not supposed to be able to get into). I have decided to get a cat to join forces with my side. Wish me luck.

And so, everyone, it is time for me to part with you for now.

Talk to you soon!

Today's the Day!

By the way, I uploaded a very few pictures onto my picasa site. Enjoy.

ALSO, check out the episode of Bizarre Foods, Suriname. For all intents and purposes, the village you see in the show could be my own. The girl who is translating in the show is actually Amber, a volunteer that has just completed her two years as a PCV, and she speaks the language that I will be attempting to master too. Watch it!!! You will get a very good idea of what my home on the Upper Suriname River is like.

Today I officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer. I take the oath that every government worker takes (from what I hear.) I am sitting in the Peace Corps office, which is the only reason I have access to a computer at all. As you know, I managed to break mine, and now I have only 2 days to try to remedy the situation. Maybe I can get a keyboard that is USB connected. If I cannot buy this here, I will give a shout out to my friends in the US with all the connections. Keep your ears peeled.

I also have an announcement to make. The volunteer that was previously in my site has left one of her projects unfinished. She is trying to get my village some pour-flush toilets. My village is on a river, and is surrounded on all sides by another, larger village. As of now, the villagers have no real waste disposal system. People either find a spot in the jungle to poop in, or use the river. This is not a feasible method of waste disposal since the river is also the main source of drinking water and is used for cleaning dishes and clothes too. Pour-flush toilets are a more sanitary solution. Effectively, we are hoping to promote a change in behavior with the addition of the toilets.
My predecessor has worked hard to realize the whole thing. She has been seeking funding for months now with no luck from any of the organizations that would be able to fund the whole thing. So now she has taken the matter into her own hands and asked friends and family at home for some help. As my predecessor is now officially passing her village on to me, I have agreed to take on her project as well. I will seek the funding and hopefully witness the creation and use of the pour flush-toilets.
As an official volunteer now, I am making a first request for donations from you, my family and friends. Your money will be directly applied to the cost of wood, nails, cement, and the like. The blood, sweat and tears will be provided for free by the people in the village. They have agreed to contribute not only by pulling sand from the river bottom for cement, but also by building the toilets themselves. Everything else we have to buy.

If you would like to help me out with my first project, I would be incredibly grateful. Here's how to do it:
- Go to www.peacecorps.gov
-Click on Donate to Volunteer Projects
-Search for project number: 568-123 (The project will still appear under the last name of the previous volunteer, Cook.)
-Enter how much you are interested in donating!

I would love to see my village enjoy the benefits of this project. I hope you feel the same!

Whew

Hello everyone. A lot has happened since I last updated this blog! I am now in my last week in the city before I get sent out to my new site! It sounds like I will have to stay at site for 3 solid months, since that is Peace Corps policy. Since I have last updated this blog:
1. My computer broke. I have hope that it's just a loose wire and that my fellow Sur 17 friend can do some surgery to fix it.
2. I have decided to get a cat when I go to my site.
3. I was on stage at the US Ambassador's house with Suriname's President Bouterse, and subsequently saw myself on tv the next day. (They were celebrating the PC's 50th anniversary.)
4. I got to celebrate Keti Koti (Emancipation of the Slaves) on July 1st with my host family. They got all dressed up to go to church, and would have done some extensive partying if it had not been for their mourning. Hairdo's become a focal point of a woman's outfit on these occasions, and I wish I had taken some pictures of the elaborate hairdo's I saw on that day.
5. I took my language proficiency test and have officially passed. I am all set to get sworn in on July 13th! I have to buy everything I will need in the next three months between then and when I leave for my new site on the 16th.

I hope all is well on the home front.
Peace Out! Hope to see you all again in 3 months!

Yay Travelling!

So I have 15 minutes for this blog. I will be quick.

Last week I spent a week staying in Hermansdorp with my host mother, Elsje. She has a daughter who lives in Paramaribo to go to school. (If you want any education in Suriname, you have to move to the city. It's a big problem for people living in the interior.) Elsje has no husband but was acting as mother to Ifna, a 13 year old who was somehow related to Elje, but relations are so confusing in this culture, I'll never figure out how.
Hermansdorp is a religious town, which is rather developed, for what I was expecting. I had a bed, a flush toilet, indoor plumbing and electricity. People here often have unlimited access to groundwater, so they just waste water like there is no such thing as drought in California. If you walk down the only road for like 40 minutes, you hit a place that is completely opposite to hermansdorp. The houses are scattered around with no roads, everyone has the same front yard, the houses are only for sleeping and there are outhouses and you wash at the river or in a wash house.
My mother was not very religious (though the rest of the town goes to church 2-3 times a week)and she had had so many previous volunteers that she knew exactly what to expect to have to teach me. I learned that real saramaccan women do not squat when doing yardwork, they bend at the hips. I cleaned her yard for about 3 hours like that. She worked at the B.O. which is the government office, and was thus busy until 3 pm daily. I did, however, get her delicious cooking when she came home at noon to cook for me. Saramaccan cooking utilizes 2-3 cubes of maggi, MSG in powder form, AND salt. We almost died. And this all despite our doctor warning these women that PC volunteers can't eat too much salt and MSG.
I had my rough moments this week. I was pretty overwhelmed with my 3 weeks of language experience and living at someone else's house. But, I survived, and I feel much more prepared now that I've been through it.

This next week I will be visiting a current volunteer at their site, and then my OWN future site!!!! I am very excited to get a chance to see where I will be living for the next two years. After that, I'll be back at the training facility for 2 weeks. I'l lbe able to give a more detailed update then.

that's it for now!

This was bound to happen

So, I have had my first encounter with the Peace Corps Suriname doctor, Doctor Legiman. We call him doc. He is a little asian-american man who has a hilarious personality. Don't get me wrong, we have seen him around the training facility quite a number of times now. He gives lectures on STD's and Creepies and Crawlies. We now have a running joke about the SIKA fly that lays eggs under your skin and you have to wait a week before you can pop the wound and pull out the baby growing inside you. (This, as it turns out, is one of the least worrisome bugs, as it has a limited effect on you. I won't get into the more gruesome ones.)

I have also already had to endure 3 shots! And I was lucky because I apparently am up to date on my Hepatitis A and B shots. There is at least one more shot (the last in the 3-series of rabies shots) but more likely is that there will be up to 5 more for me.

But this time, I had to call Doc to come see me. Yesterday, I thought that it would be a good idea to do sprints running backwards. Of course, I promptly tripped myself, went flying and landed on my elbow. It is now very bruised and painful to twist in one direction. So I called Doc to come see me and tell me that I didn't have a fracture. He said it looks like its all soft tissue damage, so that is good. Tomorrow, I call him for an update, and in the mean time, I got a strong anti inflammatory. Being injured is no fun. Try putting your hair into a pony tail with one arm!

Tomorrow, I have to present a 45 minute presentation on Nutrition. My partner and I have to do a lot of work on that tonight, so I will be busy with that today too. We are some of the last people to go, having seen everyone else's presentations last week and this week, so we have a lot of pressure to use lessons we've learned from others in our own presentations.

On sunday, we depart to our host families for the week, and we might not have internet. Shortly after that, we go visit our future site for a week. All in all, I might not update this blog for a while.

Think of me, as I take my malaria pills and have vivid dreams because of it, and as I have awkward moments with host families and such.

Gotta go!

Camp Suriname

Staying in Lelydorp is starting to feel a bit like camp. We spend all day in our various language classes, and all evening learning about Suriname. We all go to the kitchen to eat breakfast in the morning, and we get a 2 hour break to go to the nearby restaurants for lunch. Then we try to do things together, often using the last bit of sunlight to play a game of soccer or kickball. I am quite skilled at soccer compared to these kids, which I was surprised about, but is a nice ego boost. And I am learning a lot of baseball strategy by playing kickball.
Although we are adults, we got in trouble by the country director this weekend because someone brought an outsider to the training facility late at night. I am definitely in agreement that whoever it was was not thinking straight, but I can't say that it didn't make me feel like I was five when we all got a good talking to.
Camp Suriname is pretty nice and all, but I am starting to feel like I am in a bubble, protected from the real world that lurks in the distance. We are always listening to people tell us about what we will encounter and what will be expected of us, but there is not an inkling of any of that yet. That being said, we are scheduled to make our first one-week homestay trip next week. We are all very excited to finally get to be in the mix of things. A lot of the girls will be expected to wear Pangi's (the skirts we bought last weekend) for the first time ever, so that will be an experience. Then there are the awkward things, like that fact that Saramaccan's don't really have mealtimes and don't often eat together, and DEFINITELY don't talk while eating. I'll report back on that one. There's also the fact that my host mother is supposed to teach me to wash my clothes by the river and wash myself as well. They are big on hygiene, especially in the private area, and I am told that many of last years volunteers got a one on one lesson from their host moms on proper downstairs washing techniques. That should be awkward. Even more so because it will involve a lot of hand gestures and failed attempts at communication.

Oh, by the way, the address I was given was incorrect. I am told that the mail has been delivered, even with the incorrect address, but just in case, here is the real one:

Peace Corps Suriname
Attn: Alissa Kispersky
P.O.B. 9500
Franchepanestraat 12-16
Paramaribo, Suriname
South America

It is time for me to go now! I am loving the comments you guys are leaving so keep it up! Also feel free to ask me about any certain aspects of my life here that you want to know about.

See you next time!

First Trip to the City

Paramaribo: THE city in Suriname. This weekend was Sur-17's (the 17th group of volunteers in Suriname) first chaperoned outing to the big city! Although I usually hate being coddled and treated like a child, I was grateful to have our Language teachers with us as we explored. Our teachers had the whole thing planned, from the bus fare, to which shops we would enter. It costs 1.65 SRD (suriname dollars) to take the bus from Lelydorp to Paramaribo. The current exchange rate is something like 3.3 SRD to one USD.

We were taken into a shop at which we could buy cloth for Pangi. (This is especially for the girls, since we will be wearing them pretty much all the time once we get to the interior. The guys just wear shorts and T-shirts.) Women standing behind the counter let you choose one of a million cloth patterns, then they judge your waist size by staring at it, and cut off the appropriate amount of material. My Pangi size was judged to be the "usual" 1.35 meters. If I was an industrious woman, I could now buy other materials and sew them onto my Pangi in patterns. Or at least sew a border into it. I think I will wait for someone to teach me how to do that before I attempt it.

We also walked through a giant market. People were selling all kinds of fruit and vegetables, and I was a bit overwhelmed. It is mango season, and I have yet to buy one to try it, because I am too scared to delve into the market-depths. Our teachers took us to a stand where we bought ginger beer. It was incredibly spicy. But also very refreshing. We also got some local cake from another stand. Next time I will try to buy something I have not yet tried here.

The next shop was a department store, which was surprisingly all-encompassing. The stores in Lelydorp have been pretty limited and seem to have only the cheap "made-in-china" type products. Here, though, I could have bought a pair of men's tighty whiteys with african print on them, and a border that said "clench." Jon, you are lucky I wasn't in a spending mood.

Also on our route was a bookstore. It was nicer than any of the other stores I have seen in Suriname so far. It reminded me of the Bookstore in Germany that I used to love as a kid. But in Suriname, you have to put any item you want to buy into a basket as you walk around the store. Otherwise they yell at you. The bookstore had an interesting mix of categories, separating the sections of books into languages (yes there was an english section). Unfortunately, there were no books in Saramaccan. It's not really a written language anyways. Our teacher does spell words for us to write down, but she is constantly spelling the words differently, often causing much confusion. I did buy some envelopes and a pen, though, since I managed to forget to bring more than 2 pens with me to Suriname. I don't know what I was thinking.

By the end of the day, we were thoroughly exhausted. I can hardly sit straight after all that walking and learning. (By the way, the men here like to call out to women on the street, mostly doing kissing noises and beckoning for you to join them. We are told not to respond because we might encourage them to do it more. I think it's funny when I'm with a group of people, but I could imagine it would feel a bit more threatening if I was walking alone. ) I can't wait till the day when I can call this place home, and not be scared to walk the streets by myself.

If you've gotten this far, you might be interested in the fact that I have a Picasa album to which I am attempting to add my photos as much as possible. Jon has been nice enough to set it up so that there is a link to the album at the bottom of this blog page. So far, I have been able to upload about 4 pictures in an hour of internet use. So don't get too excited. But it's a start!

First week of Language Courses!

Time flies when you spend most of your day in language class! 5 days a week, we go into our smal groups for language instruction. My group consists of 5 people. 4 girls and one guy. Our instructor is awesome. We are learning a lot from her. She speaks Saramaccan, Aucan, Sranan Tongo, English and Dutch. At least. We learn a lot of dutch words in addition to the Saramaccan ones since Dutch influence is huge around here. When we go to the shops to buy things, we are constantly struggling to communicate with the locals. This is especially hard since they may speak dutch or sranan or english, and figuring out which language you are trying to understand is harder than trying to speak it. Twice a week we also have "culture" class, which involves us asking our language teacher obnoxious questions about their cultures. It sounds like women are in a serious pickle out in the jungle. Women are expected to be virgins before marriage, purity, the whole nine yards. Then, when they get married (at around 14) their man might have a few other wives. They are expected to have as many children as possible, and also do all the work in the fields and in the house. And the laundry and the food. You heard me. The men don't have to do anything. They go around maybe hunting sometimes. and disciplining their children of course. The nice ones help their wives on occasion. The bad ones don't. End of story.

I am trying to understand the cultural differences.

I am super exited for the potential growth that this new language will enable me to experience!!!!

Later!

Alissa

Sweeti Sranan (beloved Suriname)

Hello All!

It's been a week now since I arrived in Suriname. Plans have changed just a little bit. I was originally told that most of my training would be spent living in a host family. Instead of that, now they have decided to have us stay mostly at the training center. We are in a little town called Lelydorp, south of Paramaribo, but not far away. There is only really one street that all the shops are on. We walk from the training center to the shops in about 10 minutes. After 4 weeks of language training (my language will be Saramaccan), we will spend a week in a host family, then return to the training center. After one more week of language, we all get to spend a week in the actual jungle, half with a current volunteer to learn the ways, and half in our future site to introduce ourselves. Then back to the training center, one more week of host family stay, and then we get sworn in. It's all very complicated.

As it turns out, the internet situation is also a bit complicated. The Peace Corps has set up 3 laptops for us to use, but the internet is so slow, I have so far been unsuccessful at loading any of my 70 pictures to my blog. You guys will have to do without them until I can figure out what to do about that. I do, however, have a cell phone! Calls are very expensive to and from the US, but I can at least keep in touch on occasion. Email me for the number.

My mailing address is:
my name here
c/o U.S. Peace Corps
P.O.B. 9500
Paramaribo-Zuid
Suriname
South America

Feel free to mail me pacakages of love. It turns out it would be awesome to have a little flash drive, so that's the first thing on my wish list.

Training so far has been what I've expected. Lots of information sessions. We were introduced to the rules of peace corps, how to stay healthy in country, how to use phones, where to go for food, how to prepare mentally for the challenge of cultural adaptation, even how to wash our laundry. We are definitely being prepared as well as possible for our big adventure. Monday we start language courses, and that will take most of our day. There are 5 groups of language classes (ca. 5 people each), learning either Aucan, Sranan Tongo, or Saramaccan. Three of the groups are learning Saramaccan, and since most villages that speak Saramaccan live along the Suriname River, I assume most of us will be placed into villages along there.

The weather here is pretty crazy. We have just started the "long rainy season" so every day I've been in country, I have experienced at least one heavy downpour in the afternoon. I have started showering at least twice a day, as you can't help but be sweaty throughout most of the day. At the training center I do have a bed and a shower. It sounds like most volunteers also buy themselves beds for their villages instead of hammocks. I am disappointed to hear that, as I thought hammocks were a part of the experience. I think I'll buy one to take naps in anyways. Speaking of buying things, we have already gone out to purchase laundry necessities. Yes, I am doing my own laundry by hand now. I own a bucket, a brush, and a bar of soap, with which I am attempting to cleanse the sweat out of my clothes. So far I've done it once and the clothes are still drying. I'll report back on my effectiveness. I will probably start doing my laundry three times a week, since doing a week's worth of laundry is an absurd amount of work.

We spent some time earlier this week getting to know the earlier generations of volunteers. That was one of the most fulfilling experiences, as they were able to give us perspectives on things like getting heckled by the males when walking in the city, and learning to accept that Surinamese people will constantly tell us we are washing our clothes incorrectly. I have also learned that there are a lot of dogs here. They are mostly strays and stare lovingly at you from a distance but are unwilling to get very close, since they are used to having things thrown at them. My plan is to woo one of them and make it my pet. I hear that the people of Suriname will think that I'm crazy. But there are a few volunteers that have had pets (not actually sanctioned by the PC). They have had dogs, cats, birds and even monkeys! The latter sounds lame, since you usually have to tie them up and put them in diapers. A dog sounds more fun.

I will write more later, as time permits.

Alissa

Still in Miami

I have to say, it really is nice having gotten to Miami a day before most of the other Peace Corps Volunteers. Most of them got into the hotel about the same time we were supposed to report for the Staging event in the conference room. None of the latecomers really got to meet anyone before having to sit in meetings.

We did some ice breakers, learned about some of the Peace Corps' rules and spent some time conversing about our concerns and our aspirations for service. It is very strange to know these people so little yet feel so connected to them as a result of the unknown that still looms ahead. We are a pretty diverse group in terms of home towns. Pretty much no one is from the same state. Although there are at least 5 of us from California. WOOT!

Here are some pics from lunch before the Staging. At this point I had no idea who anyone was.

Left to Right:

Me
Lindsay ( I met her last night)
Jamie
Evan








Left to Right:

Dale
Tim
Cameron, from LA
My roommate, Michelle, also from LA







Please excuse these pictures. They are the only ones I took today and I had to make the blog a little more exciting.

Tomorrow we check out of our hotel at 6AM, only to sit at the airport for 4 hours. Then we travel to Curacao, with another 5 hour layover, and a direct flight to Suriname, finally arriving in-country at midnight. It's gonna be a long day.

I should be in bed right now, so it's time to say goodnight!

Alissa

First Night In Miami

So, here I am!
I have said my final goodbyes to everyone and have flown alone all the way to Miami, but the reality of my future has yet to set in.

My first flight to Texas went without a hitch. I pulled out my kindle, feeling very elitist with my new gadget. Of course, soon after that, I was put in my place by a woman reading a book on her iPad. On the second flight, I had the good fortune to sit INBETWEEN a mother and father of 3 boys between 2 and 8. They also had an iPad, and were watching Toy Story 3 on it. Kids are very quiet while watching movies, which is nice! Don't let anyone tell you that kids these days are glued to screens because they are born that way. Their parent are using screens as an excuse to get some rest!

I had a minor panic attack about the short layover time (1 hour) and not being able to get the shuttle to my hotel to stop for me, but all in all, the journey was painless. Also, I have already met 3 other volunteers. We sought out a place to have dinner in the neighborhood and were able to test our Spanish skills in a Cuban mom and pop place. Not nearly as good as Los Cubanos, but who am I to judge. We have had a lot to talk about, mostly questions about what might be waiting for us when we actually get to Suriname. Conversations about 'toilet conditions' and 'wearing the native clothes' and 'how many bugs there will be' are going to haunt my dreams tonight.

I hope you all weren't too worried. I have already received the obligatory 'I'm worried' email from mom, but the worst is yet to come, so be strong!

More updates to come!

Alissa

My Date of Depature Nears!

I am starting to get really busy with pre-departure activities. I have been buying last-minute things to pack, (try finding a summer dress that goes past the knees...), mom just came home with quick-dry towels and a waterproof bag, and most importantly, I had to learn to cook!

My friend offered me a lesson on simple cooking, which I am very grateful for. I made up a list of vegetables which I hope will be somewhat common in Suriname. In the end, we chose three vegetables: Really long skinny beans, okra, and green lentils.

The beans and okra I should be able to get fresh or grow myself. The green lentils will be used as a source of protein. I am told that I should expect to eat vegetarian (mostly starch) with the occasional bush meat. That's meat from animals hunted in the jungle. So, lentils will be bought in large quantities from the city, and transported to the jungle. Anyways, here's what we cooked:

Beans
We couldn't get the type of beans that I would encounter in Suriname, so we just got the normal ones.

Ingredients:
Onions
Garlic
Crushed tomatoes
Salt
Beans
Potato (optional)

I am told that onions are crucial but crushed tomatoes can be forfeited if I don't have them.

Okra
Okra was also not available at safeway. Luckily, my friend had some in a jar. We used those, so I hope that fresh ones will be the same.

Ingredients:
Onions
Crushed tomatoes
Salt
Lemon Juice (literally hand-squeezed)
Okra

Lemon Juice is crucial in this one, and don't stir too much or the okra breaks and makes everything gooey.

Lentils
We DID find lentils at the store! Lucky us!

Ingredients:
Onions
Carrots
Salt
Crushed tomatoes
Lentils

Lentils need lots of water. Just add water as it cooks to make sure it doesn't burn the bottom of the pan.


Bonus dish: Bread!!!
This one is SO easy! I can't believe people don't do this more often. Also, it's delicious.

Ingredients:
Some flour
A teaspoon of salt
A teaspoon of baking soda
Some water (half as much as the flour)

Mix the dough and add flour or water until the dough does not stick to your hands anymore. Flatten the dough and then drop it in a hot pan. Flip often. DONE!

Seriously, cooking was simple! I also learned how to cut an onion, how much oil to put into a pan, and other useful cooking tips.

My test will be on Wednesday, when I have to cook something for my friend without his help. He will come over to taste it. Hopefully all goes well!

Hello All!

Hello All!

Welcome to my blog. Over the course of the 2 years that I will be in Suriname, I hope to fill the folks at home in on some of the aspects of life down there.

Specifically, I have promised to document the strange types of food that I will consume, in addition to keeping records of the creatures that I encounter, edible or otherwise.

Don't expect too much, I am not known for my consistency. I have a camera, but somehow it never accompanies me for important events. And then there's the lack of internet...

So, I recommend receiving emails of my blogs, since you never know when I might write again.

I hope you enjoy living vicariously through me!