Nederlandse

Hallo, hoe gaat het? Met mij gaat het goed. Ik ben in Suriname voor ongeveer 6 weken nu geweest. Iedereen is goed met mijn werk, maar mijn huis toestand is niet zo goed. Ik hoop naar nog een plaats spoedig en dan ik te bewegen denk dat het goeder zal zijn.

Ik leer Nederlandse. Ik studier Nederlandse twee keer per week – Dinsdag en Donderdag. Mijn onderwijzer is de bewerber van de krant – De Ware Tijd. Hij is ook eer presentator op de televisie. Hij is een goede leraar voor mij. Ik heb geleerheid lopen maar ik spreekt nederlandse neit so wel. Dat behoeft geen nadir betoog. Nederlands he teen moeilijk taal. Maar dan nog ik heb geneiten studieren.

Elk dag probeer ik een klein Nederlands te spreken. Door dat ik gemene dingen van ‘hoe gaat het?’ of ‘tot ziens’ of ‘doei’ of ‘dank u wel’.

Ik heb een mooie vriend hier gemaakt. Zij is een vriend naar mijn neef Anne. Haar naam is Mariel. Ik heb twee vrienden eigenlijk gemaakt. Christa is een vriend ook. Zij leeft met Mariel. Ik heb ook percelen van mooie vrienden aan mijn werkplaats gemaakt.

Dat is alle voorlopig. Ik hoop dat u mijn Nederlands kan begrijpen. Herinner u, ik nog steeds leer!

And for my english speaking peeps out there, a few more pictures from the last little while....

Some more Divali...

The boys leading the parade


This is how you feed hundreds of people...assembly line style


Here's N'SYNC Suriname putting on a show


Went to a club last Sunday to see a local band play. Remember the dancing I told you about, here's a sample....trust me, these pictures are a very tame version...



And some more....



And a little more....


Girl on girl is popular here too!!!


Until next time.

Trust…or lack thereof!

It’s interesting to live in a society where there is no trust. Because there is so much lying and manipulation here I guess it is impossible to have trust. It’s hard to know how to function in an environment like this when you come from a background of honesty and openness and trust. I thought we had lies in Canada, but I had no idea. We don’t know the meaning of lies as Canadians. Our lies are little white ones in comparison to what I’ve seen here. I continue to function in my usual manner being open and honest, but it is causing me such difficulty in this society. Unfortunately I’m finding that I have to keep secrets for my own survival here. One example and the one that causes me the most distress. I have landed in a fairly horrifying host family situation for me. Being an open and honest person I openly tell them where I’m going etc, etc. But that has only come back to haunt me. I’ve had them showing up at my meetings, etc. Or I’ll say I’m going out with the other Canadian Crossroader and they will show up at her host family home looking for me. I find it confusing and an incredible invasion of my privacy. I mean I’m 31 years old but I’m treated like a 13 year old who’s out sneaking around. So I find myself having to keep it secret where I am and only saying I’m going out – not that I can get out much. I’m in the country with no bus service after 6 pm and not at all on weekends. Which is why I recently requested to move to another place because I was feeling so isolated. So I found myself a place with a family in Paramaribo. I got the approval from the Canadian office and was told to inform the local contacts but that the Canadian office was in support of my desire to move. Out of respect for my current host family I explained the situation and told them I was telling them first before my meeting with the local organization which I told them was taking place later that day. When I arrived at my meeting later that afternoon a member of my host family was there waiting for me. Lord knows for how long, I never said when my meeting was. I can only assume that he didn’t believe that I hadn’t discussed my wishes with the local organization so went to see for himself. Of course I was being honest with him so now I had to face the local organization being taken by surprise. This place can be really maddening. When we returned home after the meeting he actually yelled at me for contacting Canada and not respecting the local Surinamese people. I explained I was following what was set out in my contract but that was irrelevant. For him the Canadian Office is irrelevant because I’m in Suriname now and must deal with Suriname. In my cultural training, they explained there would be differences in communication but it’s a whole other matter trying to talk to a brick wall whether you're in Canada or Suriname! Communication if it’s going to work has to be two-way in my book. Later this afternoon I am to meet with the Local Organizing Committee to discuss the situation. I’m trying to approach it with an open mind but I’m not sure exactly what there is to discuss in terms of my home situation. There is no question for me – there is no way I’m staying in a place where people think it is acceptable to shout at me. With the exception of my parents when I was a child or acting like one when I’m an adult, no one is allowed to shout at me. I don’t care what culture I’m in. That will NEVER change. As for the trust and manipulation, I can only hope this place doesn’t alter my ability to be an honest person too much!!

Subh Divali

I went to the Hindu celebration of Divali on Friday night with the neighbour and her son. Divali is the Festival of Light. It’s celebrated by Hindus all over the world. To celebrate, we had a parade followed by a celebration at the temple. There were cars & trucks decorated with lights and people walked, sang and danced carrying lights and torches. There was a group of little girls who were all dressed up in red who rode in the truck at the front of the parade. I think we walked about 5 km. There were about 400 of us walking. Dispersed throughout the walkers were trucks with groups of musicians on them who played music which we danced to while we walked or we shouted and clapped. Someone would shout Subh (which sounds sort of like shoop) and we would reply DIVALI. Along the way we ran into another parade (each temple has their own parade). The police were even out to direct traffic because all along the parade route cars and people were lined up to watch. It was quite a novelty for them to have me there. Everyone was thrilled to have the ‘white girl’ from the neighbourhood in the celebrations. The all told me what to sing and got me dancing. They kept coming to see if I was having fun and thanking me for coming to celebrate Divali with them. It was all very sweet. Being the only white girl in 400 people I did stick out a bit. You should have seen some of the looks of the people along the route. Either that or my dancing was funny…could go either way I guess!! The kids seemed especially fascinated with my presence. I made a little friend who walked the entire route with me glued to my side, holding my hands or nearly burning me with her torch. She was enamoured with hearing me say Divali so she shouted Subh the whole way. My throat was so sore at the end of it!!

Back at the temple after the walk there was food (of course) and entertainment including a group of young Hindustani hip-hop dancers that I like to call N’Sync Suriname. I had so much fun participating. It’s definitely something I wouldn’t get to do in Canada. Here are some pictures.

All the little girls dressed up. Aren't they beautiful.


One of the groups of musicians do a pre-parade performance


The lead truck that carried the girls


Along the parade route walking, dancing and singing with our lights


My little friend with her torch


And finally the lone/token white girl in the crowd.

So much to catch up on

So much time has passed since I've been able to post. Here's a glimpse at life in Suriname the past week or so...

An Epic Battle
I was crawling into bed the other night. Before I go to bed I do a routine check under the bed for roaches – saw my first one in the house last Sunday too by the way – when something caught the corner of my eye near the table by my bed. I thought first that it was a roach but I soon discovered it wasn’t. It was the LONG legs of a spider. Now to be clear, at home I USED to freak if I saw a spider in my room but after living in the basement and now in an old house I’ve grown quite used to them. Generally at home I just leave the spiders unless they are on the larger side. I’m learning that here in Suriname the spiders are definitely on the LARGER side. The beasts they grow here are no where new the puny things we grow back home. Though not the size of the one from the other night, this one could definitely hold its own. And so there was no questioning whether he could remain. Clearly he had to die. I looked around for a weapon but found none in my room. I would have to let him out of my sight. A quick dash to the next room to grab a broom. I slowly moved the table and made my first attempt. Holy shit this one moves fast! Of course I screamed. I also note that no one from my host family came running though not two moments earlier they opened their door when I was going to the washroom to ask if I was OK. Really, my going to the washroom is alarming but a scream is perfectly normal?!?!? No wonder I’m having cultural communication problems!! Peeing is cause for concern, screams no big deal...got it. Anyway back to my friend or rather enemy. He crept into the corner under the bed near the bedpost. I shoved the bed at him. I still saw movement. Damnit will this thing not die!!! I pulled the bed away from the wall and made another attempt with the broom got him attached to it and started slamming the broom down over and over again. One more good whack and I bent the broom handle..oops! I scooped him up and took him off to the garbage in the other room. No way that thing is staying in my room dead or alive!! So, although I had been ready for bed at the time, I was clearly wide awake after that my skin all creepy crawly.

Here he is. I really don't feel the picture does him justice, but then I did whack him up pretty good so there's not much left of him.



Water
You don’t realize how important water is and how much you use it until you don’t have it. First there was the drinking water. I tried drinking the local water, but it seemed to upset my stomach so I switched to bottled, much better, no more problems. Then there is water in general that you use for showering (3x a day remember), brushing your teeth, cooking, cleaning, washing your hands, flushing the toilet, etc. Since arriving in Suriname our house has ran out of water twice. Unlike in the city, at my place in the country we don’t have an endless supply of water. Where I live, we rely on the rain to come to fill the holding tanks or we get water brought in. Well, it’s the hot-dry season so it doesn’t rain much and even when it does rain the rain evaporates from the ground as quickly as it falls. And given the demand for water and the short work hours, it sometimes takes days for the trucks to come and bring water when you call. The first time we ran out of water, we drove the car up the road to the neighbours filling any empty container we could with water. And on a regular basis I see other neighbours going up and down the road with wheelbarrows and containers to go and get water. For sure I have to say my least favourite activity is going for water. It’s hard work, water is heavy!! When there is no water, I have to say, it sucks. To flush the toilet you have to slosh in water from a pail. Your (very necessary) daily showers are now reduced to tossing water over yourself using a small bucket. Thankfully I brought anti-bacterial wipes for my hands. Who knew I’d need those more at home than when I’m out and about! Still, you learn to get by on very little water and you learn to be very resourceful. And you learn to appreciate how nice it is just to turn on the tap and voila….water. Who knew I’d learn about water conservation here. Everyone remember when you’re brushing your teeth, turn off the tap.


Relentless
The men here are relentless. I can’t walk down a street without men making kissing or psst noises at me. At first it’s a nice boost to the ego, but after awhile you just want to turn around and scream shut up. Oh, and god forbid you should actually be nice to any of them because then they REALLY don’t leave you alone. The other day I was walking home and a few men were sitting in front of the corner store. They said hello. Trying to be nice and neighbourly I said hello back as I walked into the store to buy water. Then one followed me in and proceeded to follow and stare at me while I shopped. I don’t understand why being polite back means follow me and stare at me. Brutal. And apparently they don’t limit their forwardness to seeing you in the flesh. My phone rang the other day and there was some guy on it who had apparently had dialed the wrong number. But he liked my voice so wanted to stay on the phone and talk (yes Dave, I know I have a phone sex voice but still!!). He kept saying you have a nice voice, maybe we can meet, it’s not every day you call a number and such a nice voice answers the phone….on and on and on. I told him that I was not interested in meeting him to which he said oh you American girls, you don’t like to do things like that. I told him he just lost any chance of meeting me by calling me American and that assumptions can only get you into trouble, try I’m Canadian and I’m hanging up now. Still he says, yeah but maybe I can call you again sometime. Sure, whatever floats your boat buddy!

I'm Cooking Creole

Hi all, it's been a while since I've had a chance to post so this one will have a bit of everything all thrown into one big pot...which pretty much describes what I have experienced as Creole cooking. My family can imagine how well that's sitting with me. Everything cooked in one big pot. Besides Pot Roast and Stew, everything cooked in one pot is not my kind of meal. To say the least, I'm still not eating much!

I started work this week so things were a bit busier than usual. For the next couple months I'll be working full-time at the National AIDS Programme office. They've given me a desk and a computer and the office is air-conditioned. The National AIDS Programme is a department of the Ministry of Health. So in some odd twist I'm going to be doing work similar to what I did at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. At first that didn't sit well with me. Not because I didn't like my work at WRHA, but because I felt like been there done that. But as I get to see things a bit more I'm realizing how my work will benefit ALL of the AIDS Service Organizations here in Suriname and that does make me feel better.

I didn't end up going to French Guiana last weekend afterall so no news from that front. But I will get there.

Now for a few things about my last week or so.....

And then it went all dark
On Saturday there was a power outage. Not so strange really. I mean we have power outages at home. The difference here is that the whole country was without power. It went out around 5:30 pm and came back on around 11:00 pm. It’s odd to think of the whole country being in darkness. Henna and I were home so we sat outside at a table and played a game by candlelight. Just like Canada right! It was actually fairly comfortable temperature-wise on Saturday night, that was one blessing. Otherwise I’m sure we would have been sitting in the car with the air-con on because normally to sit in the house without a fan or something is down right unbearable. When the lights finally came back on all I heard down the hall was praise lord, thank you lord, you do love me from Henna as she was NOT enthusiastic about sleeping without the air-con in her room. As for me, I've grown quite used to the fan. And now that I have earplugs (to block out the fan that sounds like a 747 on take-off) I find I actually sleep quite well.

Spiders
There are bugs everywhere here. Beetles, moths, mosquitos and the 'c' ones that I refuse to name because so far I've only seen dead ones and DO NOT want to encounter any live ones like I did in Thailand. For the most part I’m getting used to them, but the other day I was sitting in the living room and this spider the size of my fist came sauntering in. I mean it literally just kinda strolled in, no big deal. Like most of the spiders I’m used to I expected it to move quickly, but it didn’t. But I was freaking out anyway, I mean lord it was bigger than ANY spider I’d ever seen before. So Donovan got a broom and just kind of squashed it and spider legs went everywhere. Then he just swept it out the door. Sorry I don't have a picture of it. I was too freaked out to even move and then it was dead. Next time....as I'm sad to report that I'm sure there will be a next time. Henna thought I was crazy to freak like I did so I said ‘did you not see the size of it?’ to which she answered ‘we have much bigger spiders than that here’. Please lord do not let me run into one of those, their ‘small’ spiders are more than enough for me!

Here are a few photos from the last week or so....


This is at my dutch language lessons. We take them at the instructors house. His name is Seigfried Gerling. He is an editor at the local paper The Ware Tijd. Apparently a Canadian runs the paper. Siegfried said he'd take me for a tour and introduce me.


Here is Julie and I at the lessons. We've had seven classes so far. And I'm pleased to report my dutch is coming along pretty well...but I'm nowhere near conversational yet!

Julie and I went to see a presentation given by one of the AIDS Service Organizations to a group of high school students. They covered everything from safe sex to proper nutrition when living with AIDS. The presentation was held in an open air building. Here are a few pictures...


This is Martin & Tanya from Stichting Mamio Namen Project and a youth peer volunteer who also addressed the group. Martin shared his own story about living with HIV.


Here is shot of some of the students listening to the presentation (which was given in dutch).


This one is me handing out condoms. We handed out both male and female condoms. Most kids took them, but not all did. I found the Hindustani girls in particular did not take condoms.


Here is Martin and the youth volunteer demonstrating how to put on a condom. I thought it was amusing to note that the penis and the vagina (not seen here) were caucasian. Does anyone else think that's a bit funny given the ethnic make up of this country!??!!

Everyone Loves Pictures!!

Hey all, haven't been able to post many photos lately so here's a whole bunch....

Here is one from the wedding I went to on the weekend. The man is from Belgium and the woman is from Suriname. Check out the traditional dress.



On Saturday, Henna and I went to Commewijn (the Province next to Paramaribo) to see the old plantations and Fort Niew Amsterdam.

Here is a picture of the path along the water that we walked. There are all kinds of old war canons along the path.


Here's me sitting on one.....


At the entrance to the Fort.


Here's me in front of one of what I gathered was the governor's house at the Fort.


This is one of the old abandoned sugar plantations.


Stay tuned. This weekend I think I'm going to French Guiana.

People Never Get Tired

Of talking about the heat here. It's the same way we talk about the cold in Canada. Here people talk about the heat. "God it's hot" "I'm so hot" "It's so hot today". Yeah, I know it's hot. I'm sweating my ass off (LITERALLY), I get that it's hot here.

It's funny. Some days the heat wraps around you like a warm hug. Other days it feels like your insides are cooking. Yesterday on the bus I nearly had to get off because I felt like I was in a great big boiling pot. I had visions of my insides bursting like a footlong does when you roast it on the fire. I keep hearing promises of it getting cooler here or how I'll get used to the heat. I hope that's true on both fronts. The other day at the internet cafe I must have looked quite a mess because the girl at the counter asked if I wanted a tissue and the man had such a laugh when I said "God yes, THANK YOU!". Sweat rolls down my face and into my eyes, I now have a whole new appreciation for waterproof mascara!

First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school here. My host family even had to go back to school. And everyone wears uniforms. The little kids wear green plaid shirts and jeans. The older kids wear blue shirts and jeans. Henna (my host sister) wears a yellow golf shirt and jeans. It was adorable to see all these little kids with their backpacks on and matching clothes trotting down the roads on their way to school.

On Friday, Henna and I went back to school shopping and since I have arrived I have been fascinated to note that every store (and I mean EVERY store) offers school supplies. Imagine next to a bin of underwear is a stack of notebooks and a few pencils or pens and maybe a bag or two. Strange, yet practical I suppose as you can go anywhere to get supplies and not just a store or two. I'm guessing this is only leading up to back to school, but I haven't been back to any stores since school started to verify this.

Note that I said everyone wears jeans here. I can't for the life of me figure out how they tolerate it in this heat, but yet there they all are, wearing their jeans and not seeming to even notice the heat. I hate them a little for that. I wonder if I'll get to that point. If so, a Manitoba summer will be laughable to me, now won't it!

Suriname = United Nations

Suriname is without question the most ethnically tolerant place and ethnically mixed place I have ever been. The people here come in every shape, mix and colour. Well, there aren't too many white people I guess. And those that are white most certainly are not from here.

It's really interesting to see that Maroons will marry Hindustani's and Chinese will marry Creole's and there seems to be no backlash for it at all. It seems that the populations are so mixed there is no beginning and no end to the races. Most interesting is that everyone seems to live in harmony. It's really quite something to witness.

Last night I went to a wedding party actually. I'll post a photo later to show the tradional dress. At the wedding everyone was encouraged to wear white and green. It was odd to imagine at first, but then you arrive and everyone is in the same colours, it was actually quite nice. The wedding party was at the home of the bride and groom. The bride was a 30 something black woman from Suriname. The groom was well, let's just say he was a significantly older white man from Belgium. I have some definite opinions about the union. For love or money, you decide!!

The wedding was also my first chance to see the dance-style of Suriname. Let's just call it lewd and leave it at that. It didn't bother me exactly, though I found it disturbing to see young girls (the age of my neices) thrusting their hips about in such a way. At that age, can you even understand what movements like that mean...or should you be able to understand what movements like that mean. I had this terrible thought that I fought to get out of my mind...no wonder they have a problem with HIV/AIDS here. I know, I shouldn't think that way and like I said, I have to fight with my own upbringing to not prejudice myself that way. It's just the first thing that came to my mind. I didn't say it was right, just an immediate response. It's a different culture than I'm used to and I find it shocking that such behaviour is not only accepted but encouraged in such young girls.

Check back soon. I'll post pictures from the wedding.