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