My mother just left.
Its a sad thing to realize that the visit from your mother that you have been anticipating for a whole year, is now a thing of the past. What will I have to look forward to now?
But we had a great two weeks. Mom's plane landed in Suriname at night. That next morning, we got up bright and early to get on our bus and then our boat to the interior. Mom got a pretty sweet deal, and by that I mean that she didn't have to pay for her ride out, because I had chartered the car and the boat in order to bring three sets of solar panels back out into my village. (And, it made me feel good, because my mom got the impression that I was working very hard. Double win!)
Once in my village, we were confronted with a plethora of ceremonial stuff revolving around the recent death. I had known the guy that died. He died while I was in the city during the lessons we were getting on how to set up solar panel systems. So every night that my mother was there, my villagers were "breaking the day," which is to say that they played loud music all night and at least a handful of people were guarding the body throughout the night. Someone has to guard the body, or else Jaguars will steal it, as I was told. Seriously.
Still, mom got a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness ceremonies that few people get to see, so she was incredibly lucky! We never did stay up long enough to witness the young hoodlums and their dirty dancing, which was something mom was always curious about, but really, we all know what that looks like, and it's not pretty. On the other hand, I was being told that my lack of attendance at the ceremonies was being monitored and that I might be asked to pay a fine of soft drinks or rum if I didn't show up at some point. I got out of that this time around, but I think I'll have to start going if there are any more deaths.
On day one I took mom around all of Tutu and showed her the highlights. The school, the soccer field, the landing strip. We had to stop every ten seconds for me to introduce her to people and to have a quick chat about her marital status. We were tired by the end of that day. I also took mom to Gunzi and we met the captain there. We checked out the tourist camp and chatted with some people. Mom saw her first Koni-koni, which is a rodent with legs like a rabbit. Another day, a lady from my village took my mother and me with her to grounds. We helped her cut a little patch of rice. Then we carried things on our heads on the way home. A highlight. I'm sad we never took a picture of mom with the piece of wood on her head. Mom witnessed the processing of rice from start to finish, and she saw half of the process to make cassava bread. She saw people in Gunzi pounding Maipa seeds but I don't think I pointed it out to her.
Meanwhile I was working on stuff for the solar panels and going to the shop with some women that sell things to tourists, and had meetings with people who came from the city, and even got word that a project of mine was funded. A huge number of outside things were going on. Needless to say, mom got the wrong impression of how active I usually am in the village. But hey, it made me look good, so I can't complain.
All too soon, (and I was admonished for taking her away from the village before she knew everything), it was time for our trip back to the city. On the same day that we traveled, we went directly to a party at the American Ambassador's residence. My mom met the Ambassador, my PC Country director, and various staff. She also got the chance to meet some of the volunteers. The next day, we did our best to tour the city, not getting very far because of our meandering pace. She got to experience the enormous market, and the grimy Saramacca Straat, where all the people from my area hang out when they come to the city. On the next few days, we saw some of the prettier areas of town. Among them the presidential palace, the tourist area, and the palm garden. We were taking the little ferries across the river and we got very familiar with some of the bus lines during this time. I even took her to a meeting with one of the partners I work with in the city. We did a day trip to see the butterfly museum in the outskirts of town, we went hiking in a nature reserve, and we hung out with the dolphins (pink underbellies!!) that live in the river.
And now that it's all over, I can't believe that it is. It will be one whole year before I see mom again. But I'm glad we had a good time and I hope that she will remember her trip fondly. All of you people that opted out of coming to see me, I hope you see that you royally missed out.
I'm posting some more pictures as well. Ta-ta!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Yeah...
First, I believe an apology is in order. I seem to have fallen victim to the disease most blog-writers eventually succumb to. I have not written for a really long time. Forgive me. Things are interesting to talk about when you're new to them, but as you get accustomed to your surroundings, talking about them becomes boring. Telling newcomers the same stories over and over again is no longer interesting. Instead, I want to talk about my work relationships and my every day problems, much like you want to talk about yours. And I know that stuff is less than interesting. And maybe this blog is not a good outlet for me to rant about those kinds of topics.
In other news, my mother is visiting me right now! In fact, she motivated me to write this blog, so we should all thank her. In an effort to update about life here, I would like to say that my friend Milk really did die. I would like to think that I did not jinx him with my previous blog about his narrow escape from death. So no morbid jokes please. I now have another cat. Her name is Godio (boots), and she had already had two previous houses before she came to mine. Sadly she will probably stay in Suriname when I leave, so that will make a total of four homes in her life. I hope we are not damaging her mentally by shipping her around so much. As an American, I worry about these things. Saramaccans would probably not waste time on these ideas. Even if Godio was a human. They like to go with the flow. It's a good way of living. Anyways, Godio and Milk are very different and I am getting used to it. Milk was pretty reserved around people but when being petted would be very into the experience. Godio is a very friendly cat, very cuddly. She doesn't like you touching her ears, however. Or you touching her much at all, unless she is the one that approached you. She does not like to wrestle like Milk used to. (I admit, I may have caused that. I just couldn't help bugging him until he would swat at me.) Godio will just get up and go somewhere else. It is very disappointing.
Some other things that are in my life right now:
I just got three separate groups in my village solar panels
I am going to be involved in a group of trainings being offered in my village. How to fix your own sewing machine, how to recycle materials and make profit off them, simple business skills, etc, all part of one huge grant we recently got awarded.
I teach English. (ugh, I hate this one)
I teach computer skills.
I help 6 women with their store full of hand sewn goods.
And I am trying desperately to interest the women's group in my village in working with me to help them start an income generating activity. ( I think I want this more than anyone else in the village, so it probably won't happen.)
I'm also a part of an attempt to begin selling solar lanterns in the villages. They don't use batteries or gasoline, and are thus a climate-change-conscious choice.
If I can interest people, I'd also love to start some kind of waste management in the village. Still in the concept phase.
But as you can see, my life in Suriname has changed. I am no longer just observing. I have become an active member of society. It feels good to be able to say that.
Stay posted for loads of pictures.
Cheerio!
In other news, my mother is visiting me right now! In fact, she motivated me to write this blog, so we should all thank her. In an effort to update about life here, I would like to say that my friend Milk really did die. I would like to think that I did not jinx him with my previous blog about his narrow escape from death. So no morbid jokes please. I now have another cat. Her name is Godio (boots), and she had already had two previous houses before she came to mine. Sadly she will probably stay in Suriname when I leave, so that will make a total of four homes in her life. I hope we are not damaging her mentally by shipping her around so much. As an American, I worry about these things. Saramaccans would probably not waste time on these ideas. Even if Godio was a human. They like to go with the flow. It's a good way of living. Anyways, Godio and Milk are very different and I am getting used to it. Milk was pretty reserved around people but when being petted would be very into the experience. Godio is a very friendly cat, very cuddly. She doesn't like you touching her ears, however. Or you touching her much at all, unless she is the one that approached you. She does not like to wrestle like Milk used to. (I admit, I may have caused that. I just couldn't help bugging him until he would swat at me.) Godio will just get up and go somewhere else. It is very disappointing.
Some other things that are in my life right now:
I just got three separate groups in my village solar panels
I am going to be involved in a group of trainings being offered in my village. How to fix your own sewing machine, how to recycle materials and make profit off them, simple business skills, etc, all part of one huge grant we recently got awarded.
I teach English. (ugh, I hate this one)
I teach computer skills.
I help 6 women with their store full of hand sewn goods.
And I am trying desperately to interest the women's group in my village in working with me to help them start an income generating activity. ( I think I want this more than anyone else in the village, so it probably won't happen.)
I'm also a part of an attempt to begin selling solar lanterns in the villages. They don't use batteries or gasoline, and are thus a climate-change-conscious choice.
If I can interest people, I'd also love to start some kind of waste management in the village. Still in the concept phase.
But as you can see, my life in Suriname has changed. I am no longer just observing. I have become an active member of society. It feels good to be able to say that.
Stay posted for loads of pictures.
Cheerio!
Monday, April 23, 2012
English Lessons: Every Volunteer's Nightmare
We all encounter it now and again in our various sites: You are just hanging out, minding your own business, when someone you barely know will come up and say, "Hey, you're the Peace Corps person, aren't you? Why don't you teach english?"
Responses to this are numerous:
1. You don't know me, so what do you know about whether I'm giving english lessons.
2. If I'd wanted to teach english, I'd have gotten real money to do it elsewhere.
3. Even if I do offer lessons and take time out of my day to hold a lesson, I might get the occasional visitor, but I will not get anyone to come in succession every week, and therefore any progress that could be made with people would be almost nonexistent.
Despite the validity of these arguments, I have been bullied into offering lessons. I refuse to go sit somewhere at a scheduled hour, but I tell people that they can come to my house any time, and I'll offer them a lesson. Usually no one takes me up on the offer. But the other day, I had my first student. It was a humble beginning, what with both the teacher and the student being inexperienced at playing school. But I managed to make her repeat the alphabet until she could say all the letters. Then I taught her phrases like Good Morning, My Name is ____, etc. She was fighting the derisive comments of my neighbor (this is typical Elsa) and the attempts at conversations being made by this other dude (that was just rude), and then we paused the lesson for a good while to argue with the guy about some event that happened at least ten years ago. But my student bravely soldiered on through the adversities of learning english in the jungle. If she ever comes back, I'll make her go over what I taught her the first time.
I am chalking this one up as a win. It's going on my trimester report.
Responses to this are numerous:
1. You don't know me, so what do you know about whether I'm giving english lessons.
2. If I'd wanted to teach english, I'd have gotten real money to do it elsewhere.
3. Even if I do offer lessons and take time out of my day to hold a lesson, I might get the occasional visitor, but I will not get anyone to come in succession every week, and therefore any progress that could be made with people would be almost nonexistent.
Despite the validity of these arguments, I have been bullied into offering lessons. I refuse to go sit somewhere at a scheduled hour, but I tell people that they can come to my house any time, and I'll offer them a lesson. Usually no one takes me up on the offer. But the other day, I had my first student. It was a humble beginning, what with both the teacher and the student being inexperienced at playing school. But I managed to make her repeat the alphabet until she could say all the letters. Then I taught her phrases like Good Morning, My Name is ____, etc. She was fighting the derisive comments of my neighbor (this is typical Elsa) and the attempts at conversations being made by this other dude (that was just rude), and then we paused the lesson for a good while to argue with the guy about some event that happened at least ten years ago. But my student bravely soldiered on through the adversities of learning english in the jungle. If she ever comes back, I'll make her go over what I taught her the first time.
I am chalking this one up as a win. It's going on my trimester report.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
In-Service Training
Hello Everyone!
I have come to the city for In-Service Training. The SUR 16's (those who came to Suriname a year before I did) had what is called their Close of Service Training. Their departure is so close they can smell it. When the 16's leave, there will be no more replacements, so there will be only 20 peace corps volunteers in Suriname left. We 17's are not thrilled about this, but I guess it will bring us closer, so that's nice. In any case, it'll be a huge transition for me. Unlike most other volunteers in Suriname, I have what I like to call a Site-Mate. There's another volunteer living about a two minute walk away from me. We have dinner every day. In addition, there is a couple who is employed by the Peace Corps as response volunteers, whom I also see almost every day in my village. All three of those people will be leaving around June. After that, I spend my next year being the only Peace Corps Volunteer in my village. That is generally the norm, but will be a new experience for me. I think I will find myself taking more trips up and down the river to go see my coworkers in other villages.
And now for a little tribute to my cat. As some of you might know, I have a cat named Milk (aka Meiki) living with me at my house. He has been my best friend, and occasionally my only consolation when I have felt all alone in a strange place with nobody to listen to my complaints. Milk is my buddy. We spend the evenings cuddling. He likes to annoy me by jumping onto the lids of my meat buckets (buckets originally meant for exporting meat, but now used to keep rats out of my food) right as I am about to open them. He likes to sit on my lap when I'm eating breakfast and he enjoys surveying the land from the highest vantage points in my house. I didn't realize how much I like having him around until he nearly died. Recently, my cat got extremely sick. He had eaten a poisoned rat. He was fine in the morning, and all of a sudden, he began throwing up. Then he threw up only bile, and then he was retching without having anything to throw up anymore. By the end of the day he was motionless, hiding under my bed. Later that night, he stumbled pathetically outside and fell into the weeds. When I tried to force him to eat things, he whined at me and moved further away. I got the hint and left him alone. That night he didn't come back. In fact, he didn't come back the day after either. Or the day after. I was certain he had died. That's when I realized how much I love the little bugger. I was in serious distress over losing him, and (I will admit), I cried quite a bit that day. Then, at 11 PM on that second day, he stumbled in and cried at me to wake me up. He was skin and bones, and he slept on the floor, which he never does. But he proceeded to recover! I got to laugh at him during those days of recovery for being an old man and not being able to jump onto my bed anymore. But in the meantime, he's back to his old self, and all thoughts of losing him have faded into the background.
I hope everyone back home is passing the time and making the best of it! Thank you to everyone who has spent precious time and effort to send me a package. Getting a package is one of the most exciting experiences of living here.
I have come to the city for In-Service Training. The SUR 16's (those who came to Suriname a year before I did) had what is called their Close of Service Training. Their departure is so close they can smell it. When the 16's leave, there will be no more replacements, so there will be only 20 peace corps volunteers in Suriname left. We 17's are not thrilled about this, but I guess it will bring us closer, so that's nice. In any case, it'll be a huge transition for me. Unlike most other volunteers in Suriname, I have what I like to call a Site-Mate. There's another volunteer living about a two minute walk away from me. We have dinner every day. In addition, there is a couple who is employed by the Peace Corps as response volunteers, whom I also see almost every day in my village. All three of those people will be leaving around June. After that, I spend my next year being the only Peace Corps Volunteer in my village. That is generally the norm, but will be a new experience for me. I think I will find myself taking more trips up and down the river to go see my coworkers in other villages.
And now for a little tribute to my cat. As some of you might know, I have a cat named Milk (aka Meiki) living with me at my house. He has been my best friend, and occasionally my only consolation when I have felt all alone in a strange place with nobody to listen to my complaints. Milk is my buddy. We spend the evenings cuddling. He likes to annoy me by jumping onto the lids of my meat buckets (buckets originally meant for exporting meat, but now used to keep rats out of my food) right as I am about to open them. He likes to sit on my lap when I'm eating breakfast and he enjoys surveying the land from the highest vantage points in my house. I didn't realize how much I like having him around until he nearly died. Recently, my cat got extremely sick. He had eaten a poisoned rat. He was fine in the morning, and all of a sudden, he began throwing up. Then he threw up only bile, and then he was retching without having anything to throw up anymore. By the end of the day he was motionless, hiding under my bed. Later that night, he stumbled pathetically outside and fell into the weeds. When I tried to force him to eat things, he whined at me and moved further away. I got the hint and left him alone. That night he didn't come back. In fact, he didn't come back the day after either. Or the day after. I was certain he had died. That's when I realized how much I love the little bugger. I was in serious distress over losing him, and (I will admit), I cried quite a bit that day. Then, at 11 PM on that second day, he stumbled in and cried at me to wake me up. He was skin and bones, and he slept on the floor, which he never does. But he proceeded to recover! I got to laugh at him during those days of recovery for being an old man and not being able to jump onto my bed anymore. But in the meantime, he's back to his old self, and all thoughts of losing him have faded into the background.
I hope everyone back home is passing the time and making the best of it! Thank you to everyone who has spent precious time and effort to send me a package. Getting a package is one of the most exciting experiences of living here.
Friday, December 23, 2011
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/
Ok everyone, this blog has gotten very long. I will stop overwhelming you all with information now.
Peace Out!
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!
Monday, November 21, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
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.
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.
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