18 Days In
It’s now 18 days into my great adventure and so far so good. So much has gone on that my head and my heart are filled with feelings and thought that are hard to put down on paper…but, I’ll try.
As you know it started with what I call Peace Corps pre-training. Part summer camp, part medical school, part college studies in sociology. Our quarters were cabins with 4 twin beds (but we only had two to a room), bath room with separate shower (no hot water but who needs it), there’s a dinning hall, meeting rooms, basketball court, volleyball net and a near by off campus beer hall named Madonna. This was much better then I expected (an understatement) and a hell of a lot better then the Peace Corps stories on the Inter-net. If it weren’t for the health and safety lectures…. watch out for…poisonous snake, poisonous spiders, poisonous frogs, malaria, dengue, and a host of unknown rashes and other stuff…it would have been a great learning vacation.
Last week we moved out of camp and into the house of our Host Family. For me and 17 other PCT our families live in the second largest town in Suriname, Population about 15,000. The town isn’t much different then what we use to refer to as a one-horse town. A main road runs north to south thru the center of the town with 90% of the local business on each side of the road. The name of the town is Leyledrop. There are lots of little restaurants (more like snack bars) no real bar (you can get a beer any where) and believe it or not two Inter-net cafes. Both air conditioned ... That’s why this is a long posting. At a buck an hour it’s the best deal in town. There are plenty of Winkels (super markets but not exactly) you can buy almost anything in a Winkel, from corn flakes to underpants. And then there’s the “New City Plaza” (I ‘m not kidding kids) (inside joke). This is the local Wal Mart.
My Host family is made up of a Mom, a Dad, 2boys (19& 17) and a 14-year-old girl. The house is about 800 sq feet (maybe) It has two bedrooms …I sleep in one (about 8X8) the kids in the other and Mom & Dad on the floor in the livingdiningkitchen room. The mattress on my bed is as thick as my quilt at home the box spring is a piece of ply wood…but you know what… I sleep like a baby. That is when the dogs aren’t barking and the rooster is crowing. There’s a TV (got to watch the NBA play offs) and 3 dirt bikes on the pouch and a SUV in the driveway. And they are the most fun people I have been around in years. They’re smart, they’re good hearted and they watch out for me. Of course they think I’m a little nuts. (They never met a 70 year old Peace Corp guy). Any way if I didn’t have to go to language class… life would be perfectly acceptable.
Before I go let me tell you about the weather…it only takes two words…HOT, HUMID.
It rains every day and not just rain but buckets of water. But the sun comes out. It doesn’t dry the rain away it just brightens up the day.
Have a good day…I am.
It’s now 18 days into my great adventure and so far so good. So much has gone on that my head and my heart are filled with feelings and thought that are hard to put down on paper…but, I’ll try.
As you know it started with what I call Peace Corps pre-training. Part summer camp, part medical school, part college studies in sociology. Our quarters were cabins with 4 twin beds (but we only had two to a room), bath room with separate shower (no hot water but who needs it), there’s a dinning hall, meeting rooms, basketball court, volleyball net and a near by off campus beer hall named Madonna. This was much better then I expected (an understatement) and a hell of a lot better then the Peace Corps stories on the Inter-net. If it weren’t for the health and safety lectures…. watch out for…poisonous snake, poisonous spiders, poisonous frogs, malaria, dengue, and a host of unknown rashes and other stuff…it would have been a great learning vacation.
Last week we moved out of camp and into the house of our Host Family. For me and 17 other PCT our families live in the second largest town in Suriname, Population about 15,000. The town isn’t much different then what we use to refer to as a one-horse town. A main road runs north to south thru the center of the town with 90% of the local business on each side of the road. The name of the town is Leyledrop. There are lots of little restaurants (more like snack bars) no real bar (you can get a beer any where) and believe it or not two Inter-net cafes. Both air conditioned ... That’s why this is a long posting. At a buck an hour it’s the best deal in town. There are plenty of Winkels (super markets but not exactly) you can buy almost anything in a Winkel, from corn flakes to underpants. And then there’s the “New City Plaza” (I ‘m not kidding kids) (inside joke). This is the local Wal Mart.
My Host family is made up of a Mom, a Dad, 2boys (19& 17) and a 14-year-old girl. The house is about 800 sq feet (maybe) It has two bedrooms …I sleep in one (about 8X8) the kids in the other and Mom & Dad on the floor in the livingdiningkitchen room. The mattress on my bed is as thick as my quilt at home the box spring is a piece of ply wood…but you know what… I sleep like a baby. That is when the dogs aren’t barking and the rooster is crowing. There’s a TV (got to watch the NBA play offs) and 3 dirt bikes on the pouch and a SUV in the driveway. And they are the most fun people I have been around in years. They’re smart, they’re good hearted and they watch out for me. Of course they think I’m a little nuts. (They never met a 70 year old Peace Corp guy). Any way if I didn’t have to go to language class… life would be perfectly acceptable.
Before I go let me tell you about the weather…it only takes two words…HOT, HUMID.
It rains every day and not just rain but buckets of water. But the sun comes out. It doesn’t dry the rain away it just brightens up the day.
Have a good day…I am.
posted by Robert B. at 4:13 PM
2 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
JUNE 4TH 2006 12:40 PM.
WELL SAID BROOKLYN. GLAD YOUR ENJOYING
Post a Comment
<< Home