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!??!!