Happy New Year everyone!
2011 was a fantastic year and i'm so thankful for it! The Surinamese know how to celebrate the end of a year and i've learned a few things from them. They throw huge parties with a serious amount of fireworks to celebrate the year that has passed. In America we tend to celebrate the year that is coming, to look forward to doing things different in the coming year. I was inspired by the Surinamese to look back at all the things that happened in 2011.
In 2011, I went to Disney World with my family and that is always amazingly fun! I learned how to clean fish while having a superb hangout with my Mississippi relatives. Dressed up like a medieval lady at my niece's princess birthday party. I walked in Springtime Tallahassee's parade with the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of North Florida while carrying Bolivia's flag (we didn't have a Suriname flag but i still represented South America!). I enjoyed cocktails and literature with my book club ladies!! I showed off my impressive softball skills, ha ha, with a wonderful group of people! Go FMS!!! I ate as much mexican food as possible with amazing co-workers from Retirement! I partied it up at Alligator point with all my close friends and family. I met baby Ari! I received and accepted an invitation to serve in the United States Peace Corps. I googled the crap out of a country called Suriname. I started packing and repacking and repacking some more for moving to another country. I may have repacked some more too. I cried a lot while saying bye to family and friends. I cried on a plane to Miami while flying over my neighborhood in Tallahassee. I got super nervous about the idea of moving to a place I knew nearly nothing about and living in a culture completely different than my own. I met 22 equally nervous people in Miami, all headed to Suriname with me. I got to know 22 amazing people and formed friendships that will last a long long time. I began my 2 years of service in Suriname in May of 2011. From May 2011 to the end of 2011, I learned how to carry a bucket on my head, wash clothes and dishes in a river, clap along to a song (still working on that), fry cassava bread, beat rice, cut rice, make oil from seeds, speak Saramaccan, cross stitch EVERYTHING, how to sleep through roosters crowing, tie a koosu, cook coconut bread, braid hair and i'm in the process of learning how to dance like a Saramaccan woman... I have no rhythm so this is difficult. In 2011, I saw an anaconda eat a bird, saw a caiman hanging out on a rock at my village and I saw a monkey swing by using vines in the jungle! I ate monkey, tapir, iguana, jungle rat, fish face, piranha and iguana eggs. And had the funnest time ever splashing in the river with all the women and children of my village.
All in all, I have to say that 2011 absolutely rocked! I'm beyond excited to see what 2012 has in store for me.
Happy New Year!!!
