Still getting started

May 30, 2009
We have been in Suriname for almost two weeks now. It's been an interesting ride. For a week and a half, we were in a pretty insulated environment at a training site with all our SUR – 15 (the fifteenth group of volunteers in Suriname) mates. The training compound has full-time electricity, clean and safe water and food. It’s right in a small town with lots of amenities (good food and drink, internet, stores, etc). The training site is pretty nice, and it actually seems a little like summer camp…staff does most everything for us, meeting the new kids, listening to the “counselors”, dinner bells, singing around the steps (no campfire needed) into the night. The heat and humidity are taking some getting used to. The earplugs were a great idea. There’s quite a din in the morning when the dogs start barking, birds and bugs start chirping. Every meal has been good with a few minor exceptions – a very bitter vegetable that is locally very common and a stew that had many unidentifiable objects in it. Otherwise, we’ve been feasting on local cuisine – dishes called roti, bami and nasi – and beer. We’re not at risk of starving, that’s for sure. Also, there is fruit served at most meals – bananas, papaya, mangos, some funky grapefruit-like things that we love, along with other fruits we’ve never seen before.
We’ve heard a lot about the dangerous critters in the interior. The most dangerous are the same as in the US – bees, wasps and ants – due to risk of allergic reaction from bites and that they are quite common. Mosquitoes are also bad, but we are pretty protected with the vaccines and anti-malaria medications.
We will be in a village of 200-500 people along one of the big rivers. It is only accessible by boat, but the boat ride is only about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the power of the boat motor and the load in the boat. We will be the first PC volunteers that have been in this village. They are required to make sure we have adequate lodging, and a wash house. So, we won’t be digging our own latrine after all.
The last three days we visited a current volunteer site. This was much more like the real deal. The site we visited was on the same river as ours, about two hours further down-river by boat. Our volunteer host was extremely gracious and made us feel very welcome. The village and the river were beautiful. The site is very rural – we had electricity only in the evening. We washed our clothes, dishes and ourselves in the river. Drinking water is from rain catchment tanks, although not all the villagers had these. A common Peace Corps project could be to coordinate acquisition of catchment tanks for a village. We walked through the village several times greeting and visiting pretty much everybody – coying in Okanisi – which is a very common thing to do. I played soccer with the young men – it wasn’t pretty but it was fun. I lasted about 15 minutes. They are very good players and were gracious enough to tolerate my shortcomings.
People live off the land for the most part – there is money and monetized services but not a lot – the women work at ground and the men hunt and catch fish. Working at ground is essentially farming. This village grows cassava, watermelon, ginger, bananas, peppers, some pineapple and a root crop called tara (pronounced “tire”). It’s pretty tough work, especially in the heat here.
We leave tomorrow to live with a host family for about 8 weeks where our language and cultural training will be more intensive. Hope to post again in a month or so.