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.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
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!
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!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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!
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!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
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!
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!
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