Saturday, February 24, 2007

Swirsky Family Roadtrip Hours 2-9

So where were we…oh yeah, it all started out great. Steven picked us up in the van. We all piled in and after a stop for snacks we were on our way for what was SUPPOSED to be a 3 hour drive to Nickerie. FYI, it wasn’t a 3 hour drive to Nickerie, it was a 9 hour epic Swirsky Family Roadtrip in Suriname drive to Nickerie.



Nickerie is a town in the western part of Suriname - the last stop before getting on a boat and going to Guyana. Nickerie and the area around it is the rice growing part of Suriname. There are also a lot of cattle farms out that way. Before arriving in Nickerie we would also pass through Coronie which is a large coconut growing area in Suriname. I should have known we were doomed when it was a roadtrip that was going west. Swirsky Family Roadtrips almost always go west.



About an hour and a half into our drive Steven noticed something sounded strange in the engine so we pulled over and popped the hood. And that’s when we saw the smoke. The engine was definitely overheating….not a surprise really given how hot it was outside. But we would soon discover this was more than just a warm engine. This was A LOT worse. This was a huge crack up the side of the thingy that holds the coolant that feeds into the radiator (hard to believe I’m a mechanic’s daughter huh!!!). Steven and Berwyn started to pull things out of the engine. I stood by and offered all the roadside breakdown mechanical tips I learned over the years from my Opa and from the Swirsky Family Roadtrip. Chewing Gum, that can fix a hole…my opa always seemed to make it work….anyone got bailer twine? My Opa could fix ANYTHING with bailer twine. Too bad we don’t have any duct tape that would be great. And that’s when Berwyn said, ‘I think I’ve got duct tape’. SCORE!!




This is what I call FALSE advertising....










While the boys did repairs….



...we entertained ourselves. Did you know that while standing at certain angles the side of a van makes an excellent substitute for funhouse mirrors….you know the ones, where you look like you have short little legs and a long body or vice-versa.



















With the repairs done….








…we were back on our way…for about 15 minutes! That’s when we had to make our first stop to fill up water bottles…..




….and that pretty much continued with stops every 5 minutes or so for the next hour or two….yes, that’s right, we stopped every 5 minutes (Maria and I were timing it) to refill the water in the tank. Apparently duct tape doesn’t fix everything!!!




But we managed to find ways to entertain ourselves along the way…
Maria climbed mango trees.


And so therefore we ate mangoes.



And drank beer. Safety first...here are Maria and Berwyn enjoying a Djogo (1 litre Parbo Beer) while in transit with the van door open...apparently the D&D laws are different in Suriname!!



Finally we got in a range to call Bidjesh who had long before abandoned us. He had assumed we’d taken so long because we were stopping to take pictures. He was ALREADY in Nickerie…we were nowhere near. So he doubled back to get us, bringing with him new parts. They attempted to fix it (again!) and while the boys did repairs (or attempted to) we played in a playground.




.....but this is a Swirsky Family Roadtrip remember….the solutions are never that easy....so we finally gave up and had to tow the car.


Did I mention it was intolerably hot outside? Yeah, the only way we could stand being in the car and going at such a slow speed was to drive with the door open. And so that’s what we did.


This of course provided perfect picture-taking opportunities for Berwyn.


And although it took us some 9 hours, we ended up arriving in Nickerie just in time to see the sun setting.

Join me soon for Part 2. When we spend a lovely night and day in Nickerie and Bigi Pan. Bigi Pan by the way is a bird sanctuary, but really, it’s kind of like a great big swamp. You can only imagine the kind of fun that can happen when you take a Swirsky Family Roadtrip to a great big swamp!!!

Stay tuned….

In the meantime, enjoy these lovely shots of Coronie and the rice fields of Nickerie. The one of the sun shows the smoke from the burning fields. After the rice is harvested, they burn off the field.







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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Like Salt in the Wound

So, it wasn't enough that Van Morrison was finally coming to a place in Canada and I couldn't go because I was in Suriname, now I get an instant message from the MTS Centre and learn he's going to be in Winnipeg on March 1. He's coming to my OWN hometown. But, when will I be in Winnipeg???? Not March 1. No, I arrive in Winnipeg on March 23. Do the math people...that's 22 days too late. Damn you Van, damn you!
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

A Swirsky Family Roadtrip in Suriname

My time here in Suriname is complete. I have now experienced everything I need for Suriname to feel like home. I have just returned from a ‘Swirsky Family Roadtrip’ Suriname style.

For those of you not familiar with the Swirsky Family and their roadtrips, I will tell you this: they are famous for their roadtrips not because they take unusual ones, but because inevitably almost always something bad can happen and/or just being in a car with the entire Swirsky family for an extended period of time can be an adventure in survival in and of itself.
Let me give you an example or two. On one Swirsky family roadtrip as they headed off to the mountains for a little family ski trip, they rolled their RV. Luckily for the 9 or so people squeezed in, not one person was hurt. My last Swirsky Family Roadtrip went something like this: Everything started off great. That’s the illusion you see, they always start off great. Then we got to Saskatchewan and noticed an odd smell. We rode it off and said, ‘oh that’s just how Saskatchewan smells’. Nope, that’s not how Saskatchewan smells. As the van came to a rolling stop on the side of the abandoned road late at night, we discovered in fact the smell was battery acid….nice! No problem, we had a cell phone. But Betty forgot to buy minutes. No problem, we could still call 911. But the battery on the phone died. We did finallyFINALLY manage to get the car towed to Regina (after a LOOONG slow ride in the car with the tow-truck drivers wife and some VERY funny shots taken of Matthew sprawled across the hood of the RCMP car that finally rescued us), but the only hotel we could find was a dive. Having lost to an epic battle of rock-paper-scissors with Dawn I got stuck with the dodgy looking cot to sleep on. Thing is, when it goes wrong on a Swirsky Family roadtrip, it all goes wrong. We arrived in a town first with no decent hotel rooms to spare and in the morning discovered there was also no cars to rent that would comfortably sit a group of 6 people. But we persevered...we had a wedding to get to after all. So we settled on the biggest car we could find. It was a 6 person car, but the front seats were slightly broken so the person in the middle sat with one butt cheek slightly higher on one side. I squeezed into the back with two tall Swirsky boys and we were on our way. The wedding was great. After the epic journey to get there, a few of us decided a drive home was not looking like fun so we booked a flight and left the Swirsky men to go back to Saskatchewan, return the rental and pick up the van with it’s newly rebuilt engine. The thing about the Swirsky family roadtrip is they often cost double what you think and they often don’t end with the trip itself. For one thing there is the extra cost of car repairs, car & hotel rentals and sometimes flights home. Then there is the story of the trip that gets told for weeks and sometimes years afterwards. And if you’re like me and were brave enough to go on a Swirsky Family roadtrip when your last name isn’t Swirsky, you can sometimes come home with more than you bargained for. For me, it was a case of scabies caught from that dodgy cot in the cheap motel. That said, I can officially say, I survived a Swirsky Family Roadtrip…can you???


So, back to Suriname. I headed out this past weekend for what was supposed to be a nice overnight trip to the western part of the country to a town called Nickerie. We were going to see the town and visit a spot called Bigi Pan – which essentially is a bird sanctuary. On the way we would pass the coconut groves in Suriname and get to see the rice plantations. Sounds good right?!!?! We even had two vehicles going so there’s strength in numbers right!!??! Yeah, well, like I said, this was a Swirsky Family Roadtrip in Suriname. No matter how sweet things seem when you head out, you have no idea of the adventure that actually lies ahead. Oh, there will be laughs, there will be unexpected discoveries, there will be singing, lots of eating, there will be peeing on the side of the road, and oh yeah, good chance the actual trip will take a good 2 to 3 times longer than it would for someone who doesn’t have the last name Swirsky.


So, I invite you to stay tuned this week as I unveil the Swirsky Family Roadtrip…..Suriname Style.

You’ll meet our tour guides (Bidjesh, Bea and Steven aka my coworkers aka the proprietors of what we have dubbed BBS Tours whose new slogan is: It’s about the Journey, Not the Destination).


Steven, Bea, Bidjesh
You’ll meet my fellow inductees into the “I survived a Swirsky Family Roadtrip Club” the newly formed Suriname branch...pictured here are Bianka, Corina, Maria and Berwyn with our trusty guides Bea and Steven.



And, unlike my previous Swirsky Family Roadtrip where I bailed out early and took a plane home, I stayed to the bitter end of this one so I can tell you what it’s like to stick it out and take the ride home. Word to the wise on this one people…when it comes to a Swirsky Family Roadtrip….get out before the bitter end…I’ve learned it may cost more, but you’ll be grateful for it.

So stay tuned….here’s a picture of the turning point from just your average tour to Swirsky Family Roadtrip…

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Sunday, February 11, 2007

When Aid Goes Wrong

I’ve learned a lot about the world of international development since arriving in Suriname (and believe me, I STILL have a lot to learn). For one, I’ve learned that sometimes donor support can actually do more harm than good. Sometimes donor dollars are given with conditions and these conditions can actually cause even more problems than the ones they are supposed to be fixing. And sometimes donor dollars can go completely to waste because the donors didn’t stop to find out if that’s what the community actually needs. That’s the key – having input from those that are on the receiving end of the support. Sometimes I think donors come in thinking they know best and that may be true…if they were giving aid in their own country.

Allow me to share with you my favourite example from here in Suriname of donor support gone wrong.

On the way to the interior of Suriname you pass through a series of villages. These villages represent dozens of Maroon villages that were relocated when the first and only hydro dam in Suriname was created (by the way, the making of Suriname’s hydro dam was a MAJOR event in this country and they STILL talk about it and the impact of it like it just happened, when in fact the dam has been in operation since 1965). In amongst the rows and rows of shacks is a development of rather nice little homes. “Who lives there?” we asked. “Well, none of the villagers really want to live there so many of those homes are empty”. “But why, they’re nice homes? Why live in rusted out shacks when they can live in these beautiful modern homes?” Turns out the homes were built by the Chinese as part of an aid package for Suriname. And the problem with these nice homes: the villagers don’t like them because they are too hot to live in. They’d rather live in their style of homes because they are cooler. So, they choose their little shacks over nice manufactured homes.

It’s such a typical example of aid gone wrong. It seems such a simple thing to actually take the time to ask the local community what they need. But no, instead, donors come in believing they know what is best and provide aid accordingly.

We have all kinds of answers to fix things in developing countries. The problem is we’re not asking the right questions and sometimes, even worse, we’re not asking at all.


The homes built by the Chinese.


Vs. the homes they choose to live in.
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Monday, February 05, 2007

Camping Suriname Style

I just had one of my best weekends ever here in Suriname. I went on a camping trip…Suriname style. I LOVE camping at home so this was a real treat. The trip was organized by a group of my coworkers. There were 18 of us altogether.


We went to an area called Baboenhol. It was GORGEOUS. To get there, we drove down this narrow country trail (I can't even call it a road) where we passed beautiful green pastures with cows grazing (turns out Baboenhal is actually an area where they are doing some experimental farming techniques...and at the end of the property along the river apparently they established a camping area!).


On the bus to Baboenhol. Note the entire back seat is STACKED with stuff - most of it for cooking!! So Suriname! Oh, and everyone say hello to my new dutch friend Maria in the seat next to me...careful don't confuse her with my dutch friend Christa...she's back in Holland. But Maria is really nice too. I think you're all going to like her. She's a travel maniac, is ALWAYS reading and she loves to cook...gee, do you think we get along!?!

Pulling up to Baboenhol was heaven. I knew immediately it was going to be great. You arrive at the top of the hill overlooking the camping area.


The first thing we did, before we even unpacked was go swimming.

Oh and I discovered a good way to learn dutch is by playing scrabble...in dutch.

As usual with everything in Suriname, there was also TONS of food…really, really good food. So a lot of our weekend was spent like this...

Everyone cooked something. My contribution was dutch apple square…which unfortunately got a bit wet in the cooler, but it was no problem, we just put it on the BBQ and dried it out. It looked a little worse for wear but it still tasted great.
No electricity means you cook by flashlight!



Baboenhol was my first time sleeping (overnight anyway) in a hammock...so good! Well, most of us slept in hammocks, a few people also had tents and a couple people just rolled up in blankets on mats under the stars. And boy were there stars. So many, the sky was just sparkling. Then the full moon came up and was so bright in the sky you didn't even need a flashlight. It was a PERFECT night for camping.

At one point Firoz was considering sleeping in his boat.

My first night sleeping in a hammock and also my first night of actually being COLD in Suriname. A fleece blanket or some heated rocks for my feet would have made sleeping in my hammock bliss…so I imagined I had that and swung myself to sleep. Hammocks by the way are surprisingly comfortable to sleep in. You just roll them up around you and it’s like a cocoon. So no worries about those bats flying around over your head!

Our hut was right along the water, just steps from the beach.



Here is the view from my hammock.


Maria and I agree...Baboenhol was GREAT!!


So, if you EVER get to Suriname. No question, you have to go to Baboenhol. It’s just a 2.5 hour drive from Paramaribo. You’ll experience the joys of driving down the r-o-u-g-h bauxite roads. You get to swim in one of Suriname’s many rivers. At night, you’ll see crocodiles in the stream next to your hut. And if you want, you can even go down the river in a canoe and see a village. We were fortunate to go to the village on the day they were having a celebration. We got to see them dancing through the streets of the village and we even got to walk along with them in celebration. Sorry, no pictures to show. They don’t allow it. But I can tell you, it is literally like walking into a scene from a World Vision show. Little children everywhere, men banging on drums and singing, women dancing all in the midst of some of the poorest living conditions (by western standards anyway). Huts that don’t seem liveable, chickens running around, topless women and naked kids, yet everyone is full of smiles and during celebrations like this most of the women and some of the men have on their best traditional dress. At this village most of the women and children were in red plaid pangi’s. Though the pangi is not just reserved for special occasions. It’s everyday wear for most of the women I’ve seen in the villages. We managed to sneak in this picture as we were arriving at the village...as you travel down the river this is a pretty common site. The woman seen here is in a pangi and sorry boys, this one isn't topless.


Speaking of villages….I actually visited my first village a couple weekends ago. I’m a bit behind in my blog….I’ll add another entry about my trip to JawJaw – a maroon village on the upper Suriname River - once I can scam some better pictures from Berwyn.
Groetjes,
Tricia
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