One year down and one to go!

Hey there! May 3rd was my one year anniversary here in Suriname! I can't believe how fast and slow at the same time it went by. One of the things you hear all the time about Peace Corps is that the days crawl by but the weeks fly by. It's true! It feels like just recently I moved out to site and I was scared out of my mind but I also remember how I didn't think training would ever end! The one year mark is bittersweet though. We will be saying bye to the 16's, the group of volunteers that came to Suriname a year before my group did. They have reached the end of their service and are headed home over the next few months. It's hard to say bye since we've made such great friendships. I've relied on several of them as a huge support system during my adjustment in Suriname. They new the ropes of life when we arrived in country since they had already lived here for a year. I was assigned a wonderful volunteer mentor a few villages away from my own and I'll miss her presence in Suriname and the long chats we have. I wish her luck though with beginning graduate school!!! I'm excited to have so many new friends in their group that i'll get to visit once I'm done with my own service in a year! Site is going well. Nothing to exciting to report. Since I don't have anything new to talk about I decided that this blog I would tell you all about my good friend Woi. She is my closest friend in my village and pretty much my Saramaccan Mother. Woi is my captains daughter and my counterparts sister. She is the secretary in the women's group that is established in my village. During my very first visit in the village Woi was the person who helped give me a village name, Badjamai, set up my hammock, brought me a table for my stuff since my house was completely empty, brought me dinner, a lantern to sleep with, checked on me right before she went to bed, checked on me first thing the next morning, brought me breakfast and tea, and introduced me to the entire village. Since my first visit she has essentially adopted me into her family. She lectures me on how to live like the Saramaccans and brags on me when I do everything right. She continues to grump at me about my ability to wash pots. I believe they are perfectly clean but she believes they can SHINE and get cleaner. I don't think we'll ever agree on the status of my pots. She checks on me at night before she goes to bed and checks on me first thing in the morning. On days that I get to the village after being in the city for awhile she'll bring me dinner since she thinks i'll be tired. While i'm away from the village in the city or elsewhere she and her daughter Sunuka clean my yard for me and check on my vegetables. Woi wakes up very early to take her dishes and laundry to the river to wash then after washing everything (for a family of 8) she comes back to her house and begins cooking for her family. She also washes dishes and laundry for her elderly mother and father. Once the food for the day is cooked she sends her kids and grandkids off to school then heads to work. Twice a week she walks 45 minutes through the thick jungle to another village and rakes the grounds of one of the organizations there. After finishing her work she walks back to our village and washes the dishes from the morning meal. Once she is finished at the river she walks with some of her children and usually a grandkid tied to her back to her grounds where she tends to her vegetables and looks for Maipa seeds to bring back to the village. When it's Maipi seed season she spends the rest of her day breaking open the seeds with a heavy mortar and pestle in order to eventually gather enough to make Maipi seed oil. I've helped her break open the seeds before and I get tired after about 10 minutes but she sits for HOURS working. At the end of her day she washes dishes and laundry again before preparing the evening meal and getting all the kids ready for bed. The last thing she does before bed is walk over to my house to check that everything is good with me. She has had vast amounts of patience with me and continues to go out of her way to teach me about life in Saramacca. She has taught me about growing vegetables, using a machete, the "right" way to wash clothes and dishes, she taught me how to cross stitch like the women and always checks to make sure i'm included in any events taking place in the village. She knows i'm shy and forces me to come out of my shell. I'm so thankful to have her in the village. She made my first year in Suriname go by so easily. On days when i'm homesick she seems to know and makes me help her with something which always cheers me up. She has also been a key player in helping me with the water project for the village. She is fantastic at reminding everyone we have important meetings and ensuring that everyone shows up to the meetings. She also helped me with gathering information about the village in order to develop the project. Needless to say I don't think I could have made it through the first year without her. She is an incredible person and i'm so thankful for her. Here are some pictures I took of her recently! Another blog coming soon!

Me De - I'm here

It's been a while since i've written. I've discovered that it's hard to find time to sit down and write a blog while i'm in the city. When you are in the city you can't get enough of spending time with other volunteers, doing fun things like going to the movies, and eating lots of pretty delicious food. This trip in to the city was really special because they just opened up a Subway Sub Shop here! It is very expensive (on a volunteer budget) but we enjoyed eating there immensly!

Life on the river is still going well. I've hit my groove with my part in the village. I have my routine and I have close friends now. I feel at ease in the community and am no longer stressing out about how I am going to integrate. My villagers will seek me out to invite me to be a part of things they are doing like working or ceremonies. It's great!

I have had a bit of homesickness lately. I thought I was in the clear of that stuff since I haven't really had it since being in Suriname. I've heard before that the 1 year mark can be surprisingly hard. Well turns out thats true. The novelty of life out here kind of wears off, i.e - rats aren't funny anymore they are just annoying and gross now and so on. I've also had the sense of being disconnected from my life at home. It's difficult to try and be in two places at once. I love my life here and I am so thankful i'm here but I'm sad to miss out on my life back home. Friends are having babies, it's Easter and i'm not with my family, I miss my dog, and I miss Chick-fil-a! The good thing is that several volunteers have been through this or are going through this with me. Luckily I am blessed with an incredibly supportive family. I'm almost at my 1 year anniversary here in Suriname, May 3rd!!!

A lot of eventful things happened in the village during my last stint there. We had an 8 foot Anaconda (which is funny since the name of my village Grantatai means Anaconda) in our creek where we wash clothes and dishes. The village decided to try and blow it up with kerosene, twice, but to no avail. Finally after much chaos the teenagers in my village picked him up with long poles and hauled him to the river. They threw him into the river and we haven't seen him since.

A few days later a little boy (6) was accidentatly cut with a machete on the forehead while another little boy (8) was cutting bananas out of my banana trees. He ended up with several stitches. He was a little trooper through all of it though.

I also had Amry Ants swarm my house. I don't have enough time to explain what those are but you should take a minute to Google them and read about them. It was terrifying and luckily I made it out of my house in time! I had a bit of help from my best little buddies!

I'm going back to site today but only for a couple of weeks. I'll be back in the city for a meeting at the end of April.

Happy Easter everyone!

Seriously awesome New Years Eve!!!

One more quick thing about Suriname on New Year's eve, it is amazing! There are street parties everywhere with live bands and fireworks! The entire day is a huge party. At noon on New Year's eve they set off lines of fireworks that are nearly as long as a city block! The fireworks are extremely loud and you need to wear a something to cover your face because of the smoke and flying objects. :) Pretty intense! At 11pm everyone returns to their families and they spend time giving thanks for the year that has come to an end. After midnight the parties begin again. We brought in the New Year together as a group at a local guesthouse. It was weird to not watch the ball drop on tv and to count down to midnight in Dutch! Tien, negen, acht, sefen, seis, fief, vier, dri, twue, ein!!!!! Woo! Don't check my spelling on those and it's even worse if you hear my attempt at speaking Dutch.

Again, Happy New Year!!!

Thank you 2011

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!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I missed my family more than usual yesterday since it was Thanksgiving. Luckily the US Ambassador invited all of Peace Corps Suriname to dinner at his house. It was wonderful! There was stuffing, peas, sweet potato casserole and TURKEY! Turkey is not something the people down here eat so apparently it was difficult to find enough turkey for everyone. We watched a little football before dinner, YAY PACKERS!!!, then stuffed ourselves with the delicious food. You have to be careful about inviting 30 peace corps volunteers over for dinner because they will eat ALL your food. After dinner I got to talk with the family back in Tallahassee. Karis informed me that she was writing a new song with Pop Pop. I can't wait to hear it!!

Life in the village is still going good. I recently had my first community meeting about the project I will begin to write. The meeting was supposed to start at 9am and by 9:30 no one was there. My counterpart was irritated and decided to ring a bell to make everyone come to the center of the village. At around 10am we finally had a full meeting. It went great! My counterpart did all the talking, which is ideal because i'm supposed to co-facilitate while a community leader actually facilitates the meeting. During the meeting the community decided on what project I would write, how they would contribute and agreed on doing all the labor required. Now i'm in the city and writing up a rain catchment system project. I will begin looking for funding to purchase 60 Durotanks (rain catchment system) and supplies needed to install them. Currently the villagers catch their drinking and cooking water from the creek or rusty barrels that catch rain water. I'm really excited about this project!

I finally went to a Brokodei, a huge village party they throw when a community member passes away. They celebrate the persons life by throwing a huge party. It begins around 8pm and last all night long. I went to my friend Evan's village, about 10 minutes from mine, to go to the party. Before leaving one of my friends in my village decked me out in a new koosu and angisa, she said I needed to dress extra pretty for the party. While waiting to go to the party some women from Evan's village came to house to bring us a traditional soup they eat before the party. It was a meat soup, big chunks of meat in a broth. We ate it with cassava bread. It was really yummy. However, I was looking in the bowl trying to figure out what kind of meat it was and I saw a little hand... Turns out it was Pork and MONKEY soup!!! Yep! There was a little monkey hand in my bowl. After that we decided to go dancing. We danced with the little kids for a little while then called it a night. I didn't have enough stamina to stay up all night!

The next morning we went to a ceremony they call Puu adjo. I don't know what that means but there was a lot of traditional dancing by women and men. The men of the village were sitting together playing traditional drums. It was really incredible to watch. The women danced in a circle to the beat of the drums. It's hard to put into words but it was one of those moments that I think "wow, i'm really in a whole nother world!". Half way through the dance several men came running out dressed in masks. They are called Maasgadu. They chased the kids around and danced with the women. It was so fun to watch. We sat on the side with the older women. People passed out lots of food including cakes and cassava bread. We also washed our hands with Palm Rum as the other women were doing.

I had a blast at the party but I was exhausted by the end and ready to see my little village again. I head back to site in a few days and then i'll be back for Christmas. I'll put up some pictures soon!

Happy Thanksgiving and if I don't update before Christmas, Merry Christmas too!!!!

Bats, Rats and Tarantulas

Site is still going good. I'm still figuring things out and making my life there. I've been keeping track of the highlights that happen at site but ofcourse I don't have my little note book with me at the moment.

Lets see...

One night I was woken up by someone ringing a bell at about 1am. I was super confused on why someone would be ringing a bell in the middle of the night. Then I heard the people of my village walking to the center of the village, which is directly next to my house. I was thinking that it was incredibly bizaare to have a community meeting in the middle of the night. I heard my captain (the leader of my village) speaking to everyone, I stayed in my house the whole time, but I couldn't really make out what he was saying. Then everyone at the meeting began to scream and wail extremely loudly. I was pretty scared. Turns out that a woman in a neighboring village had passed away and my captain was letting everyone know. In their culture they wail loudly when someone passes away. The next week involved a lot of traditional ceremonies that they do when someone passes away.

I went to a ceremonial washing in the neighboring village with the volunteer that lives there. First I walked 30 minutes through the jungle with the women of my village to get there. The jungle is beautiful and scary all at the same time. I could barely see the path that we were walking on that the women seemed to know by instinct. There are enormous trees and huge butterflies that are bright purple. Eventually we made it to the opening to the river and we caught a boat to take us across the river. After a few hours of everyone from Carolines village and everyone from my village washing, a little old man came and took Caroline and I to wash where everyone else was washing. However, a little woman stopped us and tried to get us to take our shirts off... Nope didn't happen! We washed with our shirts still on, thank you very much. Anyway, we stood at a little alter thing they built while two old men poured water with leaves all over our heads. We were completly soaked! It was really neat to be able to be a part of their traditions.

Instead of walking back to my village I rode back in a boat with several people. On our way back one of the men on my boat saw an iguana swimming across the river. Iguana's are highly saught after out here. They LOVE to eat them. Especially a female iguana that has eggs. Yum! The driver of the boat turned the boat around so we could chase after it. We chased it for about 5 minutes but it got away. It was highly entertaining though.

I celebrated my birthday with my villagers on September 23rd. In their culture you are supposed to buy lots of food, drinks and provide the entertainment for your birthday. I told them I didn't have enough money to do that but that I would cook a little for a few people. I cooked bamie - spaghetti noodles with soy sauce, terriyaki sauce, maggi cubs and oil. When it was done cooking I called my neighbors over and everyone brought their own plate and I served everyone some bamie. They loved it! But they told me that next year I needed to buy some chicken and soft drinks. Ha!

Recently we had our early service training in Paramaribo. During the training we (all the volunteers) played a soccer game that had no rules. I didn't have shoes to wear so I played bare foot... Inevitably my foot got stomped by another player that was wearing shoes. I had to get it x-rayed but luckily nothing was broken. However, when I got back to site a week ago one of my friends in my village noticed that I was still limping. She asked me what happened and told me she had something that would make it get better. She came back to my house and poured kerosene on my foot... Other than make me flammable, it didn't do anything.

I'm getting a little more used to all the critters in my house. The newest two are the tarantula that lives outside my front door and the bats that moved in the day before I left to the city again. I'm okay with the tarantula because he's pretty chill and just sits there quietly. The bats on the other hand are obnoxious and need to go. They crawl in my roof making a ton of noise and then fly chaotically around the INSIDE of my house. I told my neighbor that I had bats and he responded with "be careful they bite" THANKS!!! sheesh! So hopefully they will have moved out by the time I get back to site.

This week i'll be helping with Camp Glow. Camp Glow is a 4 day camp for 6th grade girls. We'll play games, have HIV/AIDS awareness stuff and career/life motivation talks. I'm excited to hang out with the girls and have fun.

Soon i'll begin writing my rain catchment system project for my village. My village does not have access to clean drinking water yet so we've decided to write a project for Durotanks. Durotanks catch rain water and store it for clean drinking and cooking water. Right now my village uses creek water to drink. The creek is very unsanitary and causes a lot of health problems. Stay tuned for more information on my project!

I hope everyone is enjoying fall! Carve a pumpkin for me!

I've had a lot of people ask for my address. Here ya go!

Peace Corps Suriname
c/o Jamie Cliburn
PO Box 9500
Franchepanestraat 12 - 16
Paramaribo-Zuid, Suriname
SOUTH AMERICA

PS - I love getting letters!!!

Adjustment time

Hey everyone!

I've successfully completed a month and a half-ish at site! It's been great and luckily i really enjoy my village. PC gave us the go ahead to come in early to restock on supplies so me and a few other volunteers are here in the city stocking up on things.

So much has happened in the weeks i've been at site that i don't know where to start.

My house is great, small but great. It's full of little animals and HUGE spiders. I have rats, lizards and lots of spiders but except for one ruined thing of deodorant nothing bad has come about from having the little roommates. One night the rats knocked my deodorant off the wall and into my pee pot... Needless to say i tossed that deodorant in the trash. The worst problem i'm having with the rats is that they wake me up. They are noisy!! I also get angry that they are running around so in the middle of the night i am beating on my walls half asleep trying to make them leave! I'm sure i'm quite the site.

The women of my village are amazing and are thoroughly enjoying teaching me how to do things they do on a daily basis. I have beat rice, cut rice at grounds, peeled TONS of cassava, made cassava bread, beat seeds to make oil, cooked oil, fished and cleaned fish. They were impressed i already knew how to clean fish. Thanks Uncle Lynn!!!

About two weeks into site, i played Slagball (baseball meets cricket) with the kids of my village. After about an hour of playing one kid went to hit the ball but let go of the bat and it knocked me square in the head! I had a HUGE goose egg on my head for a few days. It was hilarious getting taking care of by the villagers though. They all came to my house with their "medicines" mostly it was viks vapor rub and another unidentified goo they would smear on my head. I smelled really weird for days. But my head got better!

I'm working on my routine at site... So far I wake up at 7am (even though the BLEEPING roosters wake up at 3am!!!) and walk to my Durotank to get water for my morning washing. Sometimes i'll make hot water to bathe with but mostly it's cold. After washing I walk to my neighbors and tell them good morning. Then I make my breakfast of tea with oatmeal. I leave my door and window open so i get to chat with people as they walk by. Once breakfast is finished I read for a bit then walk to the creek or river to wash all my dishes and clothes from the previous day. Washing stuff takes forever... Probably just because i'm slow but I see no reason to rush. ha ha! It's HOT!!! There are always lots of people down at the river so I get to chat while washing my stuff. I've been slowly working washing myself at the river into my routine. Dry season has begun so I need to be cautious of how much of my rain water i'm using. My first time washing myself at the river was pretty hilarious. I wore a sports bra and a koosu (skirt thing). I got water in my ears and up my nose since i looked like i was a flopping around fish in the water. The current was stronger than anticipated so I got knocked over. Probably flashed everyone at the water front too. Whatever! Eventually i was clean and had to the tricky koosu switch-er-roo... There is an art form to this that i haven't figured out yet. You can take one koosu off while putting a new dry one on IN FRONT OF EVERYONE! Well... I am terrible at this and the women had to help me because I got stuck and tried to jump up and down to make my old one fall off... It wasn't working so when they could stop laughing at my they came over and helped me pull my wet koosu off and tie my new one on more securely. The women of my village laugh at the way I do things a lot but i've decided it's good. They think i'm funny and seem to like me. :)

Currently everyone in my village is trying to teach me how to carry my things on my head without using my hands. This is going to end very badly but i'm trying. Ha! They are trying to make me into a real "Saamaka Mujee" Saramaccan Woman.

Everyday in my village people go to their grounds to cut/dig up vegetables, rice, cassava and other food. One woman took me to her grounds so we could cut rice for several hours. The rice they plant out here grows like wheat. You use a knife to cut off the top of the plant. It was kind of fun going to grounds with her. I got to chat the whole time and try to ease drop on her other conversations. I'm really good at understanding what people are saying when they are speaking to me but I'm not so great at being part of a large conversation with several people because I can't understand them when they speak to each other. So i'm working on that.

Speaking of going to grounds!!! One SUPER old man in my village went to his grounds by himself the other day and by nightfall he had not come back. My village was extremely worried so they sent out all the men of my village (about 8 men total) into the jungle at NIGHT to look for him. They came back late that night after not finding him. The next morning men from nearby villages came to help look for the little old man. It was intense seeing so many men decked out in rubber boots, shotguns and machetes walking into the jungle. After about 5 hours everyone in my village that had stayed behind began to yell. The yelling began at the front of the village and like a wave of sound ended at the back of the village where I was sitting. The men had found the little old man!! Everyone in the back of the village ran to the river to see the men bring in the old man. It was really cool. He was okay, dehydrated and hungry but okay. He had missed his path back and gotten lost. After the search party (about 25 men) walked him to his house the women of my village washed him. They carried in a huge bucket of water with leaves in it and washed him from head to toe. He was wearing a loin cloth time thing so luckily he wasn't naked because that would have been massively awkward. My ENTIRE village surrounded his little house to make sure he was okay. When the women were done washing him they washed the faces,heads and necks of all the men that had gone into the jungle to search for the man. It was incredibly interesting to watch.

I can't imagine what sleeping alone without shelter in the jungle must have been like for him. Scary!!! But he survived and he's doing great.

Tomorrow I head back to my little "wosu" house in the jungle. I'll be back in the city in October!

I miss you all and thanks for reading!!!