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!
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