Already so much has happened since I left Canada. First let me start with Trinidad. Julie (the other Crossroader) and I spent our day at the beach and seeing Port of Spain. We hired a driver, Ricky, who took us wherever we wanted to go for the whole day and it only cost us $65 US plus whatever we wanted to give for a tip.
He drove us first to Maracas Beach. There we had a local favourite...Shark & Bake. Basically breaded shark meat on a bun. Then you dress it up with whatever you want - everything from lettuce to pineapple. And then you finish it off with sauces, mostly hot and spicy ones. It was delicious I have to say. We relaxed on the beach for a couple hours then it was off for a tour of Port of Spain. On the way we stopped at a roadside stand and tried some more local favourites. I had red pepper mangoes (delicious), pineapple in cilantro and this tasty coconut treat. I also sampled a salt prune. That was definitely NOT my favourite. I thought I liked salt, but that was beyond salty for my tastes. In Port of Spain, Ricky took us past the cricket fields (his favourite sport) and we saw the Presidential Palace as well as some of the government buildings. Mostly we sat in HEAVY pre-long weekend traffic. For sure the funniest part of the day was the people wandering in amongst the traffice selling stuff. In Winnipeg when you get stopped at a traffic light people flash their cardboard signs at you asking for money. In Port of Spain at the traffic lights they're much more industrious. They walk by trying to sell you stuff, everything from cold drinks (carted around in large water barrels on dollies), pineapples or my own personal favourite steering wheels. Seriously, imagine a guy walking by with about 15-20 steering wheels up each arm.
Ricky our driver extraordinaire!
The beach in Trinidad.
We left Trinidad at 10:30 pm, or at least that's when we were supposed to leave. We couldn't take off because a flight attendant was late for work. We waited 45 minutes for her to arrive. Sadly no one seemed surprised or bothered by this. Can you imagine. If that was Canada her ass would be fired. She sauntered in like it was no big deal. I couldn't believe she kept an entire flight staff waiting so long. I guess there is no such thing as schedules in Caribbean Airways.
In Suriname I arrived at my new home around 4 am. Donovan and Henna were very excited to see me. I didn't get to go to sleep until 6 am and was woken up at 8:30 am because the maid was there to clean. I'm not sure I'm liking this maid thing at this point!
My first weekend in Suriname was VERY busy. I won't go into much detail as it's all a bit mundane if you're not here to experience it yourself. Instead I'll describe Suriname a bit. It's HOT. So HOT you can't believe it. I thought Thailand was hot. Suriname has it beat. At least in Thailand I had beaches. Here I have cold showers...three a day. It's necessary and once you get past the initial chill it feels great. What I have seen so far, the country side is lush with tropical plants, but also filthy as people toss garbage everywhere. So sad when you consider how beautiful it could be. Most of the roads are rough. I mean they make the worst street in Winnipeg look like an interstate highway rough.
Here is the road to my house.
I live in the country side south of Paramaribo in the District of Wanica. It's about the same distance as my own home in St. Andrews to Winnipeg. But with the state of roads, takes a bit longer to get to the city. The area I live in is newly developed. The roads to my home are dirt (or rather bauxite which on the road is almost sand-like). All around the house is lush tropical bush (for lack of a better description) but in between you see piles of garbage and you often smell burning garbage in the air as piles get lit up all over the place at any given time. The home I live in is lovely. Tiled throughout and at night, I shower with little froggies all over the place (they come in through the open window). Henna doesn't like it she's embarrassed about bugs in the house, but they don't bother me. I tried to tell her that to me, frogs are better than the mice that live in my home! So far I haven't seen any cockroaches, knock on wood, thank god and all that stuff! There are ants EVERYWHERE though. In my room, in the kitchen, in the hall, in the bathroom...everywhere. You get used to them pretty quickly.
The neighbours cows wander throughout the neighbourhood munching on grass. At first I was surprised to look through the brush to see a cow staring back at me, but now I just expect to see them wherever!
This week I have orientation for my placement. Next week I'll have a whole week of intensive language lessons which will help since in my house alone I've already heard Hindi, Saran Tonga, and Dutch spoken. Mostly Henna translates for me, as best she can, but I have to say, I do feel a bit like I'm in the movie Lost in Translation.
Beyond that, I'm getting settled in a bit more now. Getting used to the Suriname way of life, as much as one can only four days in that is.
