A little late, but better than never

Certainly life in most countries, after a period of time becomes much like home; Suriname is no exception. 

While I haven't updated the blog since late September, it's mostly because there hasn't been a lot to update.  When you're working full time and only have weekends to explore, it limits your ability to take huge trips or experience the jungles for weeks at a time, however, I have released myself from the shackles of urban life a couple of times since the last post.  Here it is, from the confines of my mosquitoe-drenched apartment.

In the past month or so, the life of the Canadian interns here has been full of parties, parties and more parties with a few forays to the pristine interior or Brokopondo lake.  I arranged a few weeks ago for the group to go to Babunhul, a riverside retreat complete with hammocks, a man-made beach and warung-style restaurant for a day's breath of fresh air.  The excursion happened the same weekend as Laura's birthday, one of my roommates, so it worked out nicely with a bottle of Campari, nasi goreng and some requisite log jumps into the Surinama River.  Take a look at the picture below for said jumps and said lounging :) 

Apparently the river has pirahnas in it, so we stayed close to shore, not only for that reason, but also because the current was extremely powerful.  We survived to tell the tale, although I did find I was missing a toe :)

Dutch

I'm hardly learning anything.  The language of Dutch, for having similar origins to English, is certainly difficult enough to have the extreme challenge of remembering anything of important, save for swear words or requisite phrases such as "thank you" and "I love you" or "sleep well."  It feels sometimes that being a native English is both a blessing and serious curse, considering that everyone speaks it or understands it.  How are we supposed to pick up on nuances of local language and verse, when everyone diverts to broken English (or perfect English) every time we open our mouths?  Not that it would help if they didn't, because my vocabulary is confined to a whopping ten words!  


Perhaps an attempt to pick up the native Surinamese language of Sranan Tongo (Taki Taki) might serve me better in attempts to communicate.  It's far easier to learn and also a far more personal language for the Surinamese, showing you respect and value the local culture; of which there are many.    Leading to my next point:  figuring out what Suriname's culture is.

This is impossible.  It's as diverse as Canada and had an undefinably eccentric perspective on the world.  There are so many differing groups of people here, with different languages, religions, backgrounds and lifestyles that defining Suriname is not something I can do nor expect.  This adds to the daily charm of living here, where every interaction is a surprise, every person tells you a story of their time living in Holland or the USA or their trip to Poland.  For a developing country, they are remarkable travelled and outwordly drawn--globalized in perspective, to say it aptly.

With this globalization in mind, we decided relatively recently to take part in a local custom also know as the "Party Bus," and when I say custom, I mean business.  The Party Bus is a hilarious rememdy to a boring weeknight of TV reruns and eating.  Instead you eat and dance on a topless bus with pounding beats, of your choosing, drinking and honking at locals as you pass by in a glazed stupor at 40km an hour.  I've done this twice in as many weeks, once for fun a couple of weeks ago with my Canadian contingent and our friends, then last night for my friend Milton's birthday, which was distinctly more Surinamese than the first experience.  We danced to soca, calypso, reggae and dancehall along with classics such as "Americano" and "Celebrate."  The world was watching us dance.

Aside from the Party Bus and birthday parties, dancing salsa, doing Capoeira every week and working out at the gym because I feel like a beached whale what with stuffing my cake-hole with large quantities of fried chicken and fried everything, I'm working on a way to keep the fat off.  One excellent way to offset the rich food is to organize a trip to the jungle, Brownsberg to be exact, and that's just what we did last weekend. 

Brownsberg

We met a Dutch guy, who was staying across the street, who managed to coordinate an entire weekend at Brownsberg for us, complete with personal cooks, a small, but functional overnight house and three major hikes through the dense jungles of Southern Suriname.  The first trek involved hiking to two waterfalls in the jungle, one called Leo Vals and the other Irene Vals....take a look below.

The second day we embarked on a journey to Kwitticreek, which was over 3.5 hours of hiking in the woods.  We swam in the dead creek, saw amazing insects and heard howler monkeys,  traversed past massive old-growth telephone trees and narrowly missed losing our guide to leg cramps :)   The best part of the weekend was seeing monkeys perform in the wild--they really do perform for us.  It's a spectacle to behold, especially when they are free from the literal "shackles" of a human master. 

  

The most memorable part of Brownsberg, was not so much the monkeys, but the eternally defective SUV we took to the park.  Firstly, we got a flat tire on the way up, then on the way back, our brake fluid starting leaking, ending in three large jerks forward on the highway out of Brokopondo, jetting out of the smoking car in a flash because of fear of explosion and hitch-hiking back in a van owned by a Maroon couple visiting Pararmaribo for the night.  What an experience it was when the girls who were with me may have had to jump into a truck with six random guys on a dark highway in a strange country; thank goodness the Gods were smiling upon us that evening. 

Life here has been a blast so far, and I find any excuse to enjoy myself, within reasonable boundaries of course.  Life in Suriname is a life well lived.  Here's some final pictures of some of the colonial buildings in the city centre; amazing and beautiful.  World Heritage, thank you very much. 

Tot ziens! 

Getting comfortable in Rainville. Well, almost.

Leaning into week two here in Paramaribo, I'm finding myself getting used to daily life in this fascinating enclave called Suriname.  The blazing Sun and 35 degree (43 with humidity) heat, however, I'm not sure about getting used to.    Apparently October is the hottest month, then the rain begins--for 3 months.

My current residence is in a location called Rainville, which is ironic, considering I've seen approximately 4 minutes of rain in the past 2 weeks, but hey, who ever said irony can't be in a name.  The other night, the other interns and I went to look at a couple of separate properties that are for rent and after about 10 days of looking, we have finally found a place to live for the next 5-6 months.  It's a 4 bedroom apartment on the floor of a large house with a family living above us and offers all the amenities, which was super important for us.   The current place we are habitating is not necessarily bad, but resembles a first-year undergrad student residence and we wanted something more autonomous, especially for the private kitchen space and huge living area.

Suriname is a little gem in South America.  Of course there are the requisite issues with any developing country, such as aggressive street drug pushers, post-colonial racial tension, insane drivers, off-leash guard dogs chasing us down the street and some subtle frustration with our lack of Dutch-speaking skills; but otherwise, the experience has been positive.  Last weekend  I went on a trip to see the River Dolphins at the mouth of the Surinama and Commewijne Rivers where they spill out into the Atlantic--seeing the Dolphins, was nothing short of fantastic.  Take look at this pic:

We stopped off on a beach peninsula and went for a swim in the brackish water of the river mouths and while there, I stepped in what looked like dog poop at first, but turned out to be large wads of clay strewn along the shore from the muddy embankments that hug the coastline of Suriname.  I tried to re-create a native mask we saw in the museum the weekend before, but may have come a little short as you can see in the picture below.

Once the boat ride was done, the driver took us across the river to a town called "Rust en Work" (see pic below) which is literally translated from Dutch as "Rest and Work."  Sounds like a damn good idea to me:)  The day we arrived was a special day for the Javanese inhabitants of this village as it marked the end of Ramadan culminating in a huge community celebration with free food, drinks, music and dancing!  The festival is called Bodofest and is traditionally a time of year where people gather and mark the day they can start eating regularly again.  (I wish had that kind of determination, I guess I'll have to do some talking at the gates of heaven).  We arrived with a boatload of Dutch interns and our hosts and proceeded to dance, drink and eat in the 40 degree heat.  Lots of sweaty shirts that day.    The interesting part in all this is that the South Asian muslim inhabitants had their Bodofest the week before on a separate day as the two communities gather on different days to mark their festivities.

 Peyun, one of the other interns, was actually summoned by a clown (super creepy clown by the way) to pick three young girls from a group to be the principle dancers in a dance-off competition with the boys (see pic above).  To say the least, the dancing was far too provocative for a 5 year old girl, but hey, when in Rome, one can't be judgemental :)  Following Bodofest, we hopped on the fishing boat and floated back into Paramaribo around 5pm after a very long, but super entertaining day.


Otherwise, the first week of work has been shuffling along well and I'm trying to get my head into some of the projects the engineering firm I'm working for has brewing.  Looks like a large master plan for an industrial park in a small town outside of Paramaribo called Paranam.  Suralco, Suriname's largest conglomerate mining company is based there and the Surinamese government is hoping to branch out further into this part of the country to help reduce some of the impacts of urban sprawl on Paramaribo.  I'm looking forward to seeing what some of the results will be once I'm finished this position.

A closing picture of some beautiful boats that will hopefully encourage some of you to head down to Suriname for a visit before a free place to stay isn't available anymore :)

Javanese Fishing Boats

Frigate Bird Perched atop a boat mooring

Much like home, but not quite.

Since arriving last Saturday, September 11th, I've realized that Suriname will be difficult to define in less than a million words.   Well, maybe less than a million.

 

If you didn't know already, I'm taking part in an internship with the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Suriname Trade and Industry Association for 6 months, finishing in March 2011.  The goals and objectives of the program is to build planning capacity in Suriname and enhance cultural awareness between Suriname and Canada.  After only 5 days here, I'm starting to get a feel for what life in this country will bring: namely a relatively difficult culture to define as there are many, including Dutch, Chinese, Indian, Amerindian, Caribbean, African, Brazilian and multiple religions and customs.  Just to give you an example of how multicultural Suriname is, there is a large mosque and synagogue sitting right next to each other; one of a very few examples of this in the world.  (I'll be posting some pictures of this as soon as I buy a new camera, then you'll be flabbergasted and just how great my photography is!)

A large portion of the colonial Dutch downtown has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site and has fantastic examples of 18th and 19th century architecture.   I'll be posting some more pictures soon so you can get an idea of just how beautiful the city of Paramaribo is.

There are not many beaches here, but apparently there is a great spot about 40 minutes from town called "White Beach" which has cabins you can rent overnight and is laced with palm trees and beautiful white sand.  Suriname is not a huge beach country with the culture focused much more around the Surinama River and the fishing industry, although I've heard there are some good beaches along the coast, you just have to travel to them.  This aint Miami Beach!

Altogether, I have to say it's been a good experience thus far.  The residence we're staying in is definitely clean and has all the amenities a spoiled Canadian like myself requires, with one major exception, pounding music from the strip club behind our residence!   Sunday nights are apparently their big night and all I could hear last Sunday was some guy announcing in Dutch: "the next dancer on stage, please," or something to that effect :)  Either way, the food has been delicious, albeit fattening and sugary with Roti, fried fish/chicken and a hybrid of indonesian, javanese, indian, dutch and creole foods being available anywhere, especially the morning market on the Waterkant; a bustling place with a diversity of food choices for cheap prices are available, but if you miss the market, you have to settle for the more expensive grocery stores, where prices are similar to Canada, ie: expensive!!

I'm settling in well and start work on Monday at an engineering firm, where I'll be helping out on a regional planning model focusing on environmental issues (at least that's what I think I'll be doing).  

Will keep y'all posted and until then and let me know if you'd like to come for a visit. Until then, Danke Shoen!     Here's a little picture to keep you amused :)  (this was taken in Trinidad and Tobago the day before we arrived in Suriname).