Best Time Yet…Gunsi So the bus is loaded up …one motorcycle, a propane tank, 35 gal drum of gasoline, giant truck tire, 2 large coolers, 5 large toke bags full of groceries, back packs and other miscellaneous stuff…plus 24 passengers….me being one… along with 5 other PCV’s …we are heading for the Upper Suriname River…that’s right... I’m in a bus like a real Peace Corps volunteer…no 4 wheel, air conditioned. IICA SUV …this time I’m going native. The road is hot and dusty… but…I’m lovenit….I’m going to do real Peace Corps work…. Joe Schaffner a Sur11 volunteer…(I’ll tell you more about this young man a little later). has organized…along with his fellow Sur 11 and Sur 12 colleagues in surrounding villages… an “Awareness” event in the village of Nieuw Aurora / Tu Tu…. The trip up the river …as always…was peaceful, beautiful, and all Suriname. Our destination??? The village of Gunsi… we would camp out here for the next 3 nights. It was 5pm and the sun was still high in the sky… sweat and red road dust covered us from head to toe…hair coated with the stuff…a bath in the river was certainly called for…I just love that part….but… be careful…it’s the end of the rainy season and the river is high and running fast…get to far off shore and your back in Atjoni in a New York minute. It’s cocktail hour...chip in time to make diner…clean up…cocktail hour …and some strategy work for tomorrows presentations. …We broke in to groups it was Robin Gengeston), Andrew (Pamboko), Jake (city boy) and me….we were to present a health topic to the lower grade, a team work concept to the middle graders and a life path subject to the upper grades. I’ll save the best for last….for the middle graders I set up wheel barrel races. Now…you all know that I can not speak anything but… Brooklyn ees…so getting kids to play a game that they never played… explained to them by a white guy they don’t understand… was quit a challenge…but they got it and did we have fun… For the upper grades we started with the human knot game…I never played it…don’t think it was a Brooklyn thing…probably big in Chicago…certainly never played in Suriname…anyway it went rather well for a while but then the big boys got very competitive and some pushing and shoving started…guess who was supervising this group…you got it...a loud finger whistle brought them to attention…they never saw that either…they settled down and we brought the class together… and with translation by Robin and Andrew… I gave a “Follow your Heart, Follow your Head” life path talk. Seem to go over very well… I liked it… Now the best…for the lower grade kids we put on a health skit… about going to the bath room…you know …a kaka talk….where to go…where not to go…wash your hands …that kind of stuff…Robin and Andrew told the story…Jake was Wase Jake….doing all the right things in all the right places…and me… known by some as Brooklyn Bob… known by others as Bad Bob…well in the interior of Suriname I am now known as Kaka Bob…going in all the wrong places…and picking my noise afterwards…YUK. .After the skit… we sat in the middle of the 85 youngsters and they sang us a couple of songs…I smile every time I think of it In the late afternoon H.E Madam Lisa Bobbie Schreiber Hughes, USA Ambassador to Suriname showed up and joined the fun…great gal…not a Bush appointee. That evening a bunch of Dutch tourists showed up…always a good thing…they love their beer and they bring plenty of it…then a local bongo band showed up… and the party got rockin. . What a great day. Saturday started with a swim and a leisurely breakfast. Then we partnered up to walk and meet the people of Gunsi…I joined Joe Schaffner.. I said I was going to tell you more about this volunteer…he has been in the village for 2 years but, as we walked around… Greeting people and visiting their homes… you would think he has been here all his life… He’s a charmer, his big smile and great personality just gets to you. The village people love him and he gives it right back….I got a little jealous wondering how I would have done in the Hinterland….Let me back up a moment…. it was on Thursday night when we first arrived… I found six kids, ages ranged from 8 to 12… sitting on a bench over looking the river…I sat down and said… “hello”…I got a “hello” back…and we started to talk…in English of course…”where did you learn how to speak English”…in unison with big smiles on their faces….Joe taught us… the Peace Corps job is to build bridges between the people of the USA and people of developing countries….I’ll tell you this… Joe is doing a hell of a better job then those who built the bridge in Minneapolis. Last week 25 new volunteers were sworn in…the importance of that? …I’ve have now served for one full year….the importance of that?…I have only 363 days left to serve…. We’ll be seeing you soon. Yours truly....Kaka Bob