Thanksgiving 2009

We came into town for Thanksgiving at the US Ambassador's home. The Ambassador and his wife did an excellent job of making us all feel at home. Dinner was just like home and we over ate which is required on Thanksgiving. David got to watch some American football. There is a pub near the Peace Corps office that has tapped into our little market. He opens up special for Peace Corps when American football is on. Now, to Peace Corps work related details:

We're beginning to feel fairly settled in our new life here. We've gotten to know the people a little better and the language well enough that we have started doing some project work. The people in the village have been really friendly and supportive. Working at grounds with them has been a great way to build trust, acceptance and friendship. At first the folks were very leery about having us work with them. A combination of thinking we couldn't do it, we'd hurt ourselves (or maybe even them), and/or they'd have to pay us made them very reluctant to take us with them. Now that we've shown that we can work hard, not maim anyone and actually contribute, we're getting more requests than we can handle. David tries to go about 2 times a week with different folks. He's "booked" through the new year, even though there is a payment required - one cold Parbo (local beer) after work. One more note on the work - did we mention that it's really hard? Any more than twice a week and David would be a physical wreck. It doesn't let up because you're old either. They do have a minimal social security type payment after age 60 but it's not enough to live on so all the old folks still go to grounds.

Clean drinking water is a big issue in many of the villages in the interior of Suriname so we hope to get a project going along those lines. We had our first big village meeting to talk about what they want and how to go about getting it. It was very well attended which was both surprising and gratifying. We thought it would take about 15 minutes to essentially get the go-ahead to create a water committee to look into the details of what we needed to do. About 2 1/2 hours later we finally circled the wagons back around to creating a water board. We now have one. A lot of the stuff that went on for the 2+ hours of the meeting in between the beginning and the end is still a little fuzzy for us but it was certainly very lively. As in most small, close-knit communities, the people have a lot of history with each other and some of that came bubbling up. It was actually kind of affirming for us in that they were comfortable talking about some sensitive local politics in front of us...they probably thought we didn't understand what they were saying which was about 50% true. One good thing about Suriname is that there is plenty of water (unlike more arid third-world places where water quantity as well as quality is an issue). The quantity problem here is that they have a 3-4 month dry season when it rains very little (it's just ending now). So when looking at rainwater harvesting as a clean water source (a very attractive option given the difficulties with most aspects of maintaining bigger or more complex systems), reservoirs need to be sized for the dry season. There are also a couple of guys from the village that want to start their own business processing pom taya (see last blog post). They're very motivated and it's been really fun helping them get a business plan together. Many folks are also interested in learning English so we'll be starting lessons after the new year. Apparently there is a little break in the farming work beginning in January so people will have a little more time to attend a class or two a week. So there's a lot going on in the jungle right now. One of our fears was that we might not have anything to fill our time...not an issue.

The current big news is the opening of a road from the main town right to our village. Up until now, our village has been accessible only by boat. This is a great thing for the community - much easier and safer access to health care, school, and shopping. This road comes right in time for the upcoming national elections. Hopefully it will be maintained adequately and not wash away in the first rainy season - we'll find out soon. Unfortunately, the road runs right next to one side of our house, and, while the villagers seem to place little value on privacy – (they live very close together and think we should cut down the few bushes left that separate us from the road) we’re still adjusting to the “fishbowl” style of community living.

Speaking of elections, we had our first campaign event in our village to ensure we knew who was responsible to getting us our road. A local politician held a rally last weekend complete with lengthy campaign speeches, lots of food, a live band and dancing. We did not attend, however, as Peace Corps asks that volunteers not participate in any political events to prevent the appearance of support to one or another political party.

That's about it for now. We will be back in the city for Christmas and will post new pictures then.