Christmas…New Years… Suriname
The Holiday season for me stared on the evening of December 20th…that’s when IICA had their end of the year office party. It was held in a wonderful restaurant…one that PCV’s can not afford to go to….so when you bring a PCV into this type of an environment you get one happy fellow…you eat …you drink…you get merry…so the holiday started off on the right foot…and it only got better. ..A Christmas Eve party was hosted by one of our embassy staff…the same guy who ran the best Halloween party I’ve been to in 22 years. (Oct 31, 1985 Hollywood). The Christmas gift exchange was a kick….if you didn’t like your gift… you had the right to exchange it with anybody who already had a gift…being one of the last name to be picked… I had the pick of the litter. …I’ll tell you about the gift a little later….Oh yea…best Christmas party ever…( take a guess why). On Christmas day our Peace Corps Country Director put on a feast that made every PCV there fell like they were at home….the house was decorated beautifully…the food great….the wine fine…and the conversation exhilarating…we even sang Christmas carols…a little strange when the evening temperature is 28.9C (84F)
Before I go on I want you to read an article that appeared in the English Bulletin…it comes by email everyday…put out by the “de tijel ware”… a local paper.
FIREWORKS IMPORT PRACTICALLY STABLE
PARAMARIBO - With two more weeks to go before the end of 2007, 17 importers have managed to together import 75 40-feet-containers of fireworks with a total value of US$ 1.7 million. Citizens are allowed to shoot fireworks from 23 of December till 2 January 2008 with the exception of the Christmas and Boxing Day. Last week, the fire department started its annual informational campaign aiming at less or no fireworks victims. New Year’s Eve 2006/2007 saw 33 victims.
Now…think about this…there are approximately 900,000 Suriname citizens of which 50% reside in Holland. For the holidays an estimate 50,000 visitors from Holland come to Paramaribo…where 60% of the population live. .If my math is correct… it could mean that an estimated 320,000 people would be celebrating New Years eve in Paramaribo…with 1.7 million dollar worth of fire works….time to get out of town.
I called Lee …one of the only Sur12 PCV that was staying in his village for the holidays …”sure …come on out…you’ll stay at my place…I’ve got an extra hammock”…A hammock??? This is going to be interesting…well why not…how my times in my life will I get a chance to do New Years in a Rainforest…never again I suppose…so I got on “Blue Wings” single engine 10 seat prop plane a flew into Kajana International Airport…. ..it’s was a one hour flight at 7,800 feet…staying below the clouds…I guess the pilot knew I wanted to see the forest…up close and personal ( I could have taken a boat…being that it’s rainy season the river is high but then I would have missed both New Years Eve and New Years day)…When the plane landed there was Lee standing on the lawn…the same lawn we landed on….a short boat ride across the river to Deboo ( Lee’s village)…a short hike up a muddy path… and there we were… Lee’s river view house…this cement floor one room hut…bath room out back… is the best location in the village. … you get that when you’re a Peace Corps Volunteer….just to clarify…it’s not exactly a bathroom…it’s a whole in the ground with a cement seat surrounded by cement block walls and a wooden door…not a W” not a “Marriot” not a “Days Inn”…yea…been there done that…This is… adventure…more exciting then summer camp in the Poconos
Within 2 minutes of our arrival…two little faces showed up in the doorway…I was prepared for this…I had purchased a super size bag of gum balls…as soon as they received my hand out… they were off…2 minutes later… I realized I should have bought the super duper size. Within the next 30 minutes a couple of dozen kids and a half dozen or so adult men moved in and out of the hut. Each adult ( Grandman, Kapitan, Basha, Boatman, etc.) visitor sat down for …a smoke…a drink…and could I get them a new rice mill. Who else would you ask… if not a tall, elderly, white guy with a safari hat and dark sun glasses…I was either a biggy man from a Foundation or the CIA…when Lee explained … I was a Peace Corps Volunteer who came to celebrate the New Years in their village … disappointed…but…flattered and proud. And that Christmas gift that I took….5 half pints of assorted rums…given out…didn’t hurt to deflect the disappointment…(On Wednesday before I left we did check out the rice mill…when I pointed out…that with a little clean-up maintenance… and changing the milling stone…it would work fine…It was officially determine…I was… a Biggy man)….after most of the Scotch, half the rum and some of the rice wine was consumed we were off to Kajana the next village over… where Lee’s friend…a Ducth school teacher lives… a family from Holland that sponsors him were visiting and staying in the village Tourist House….which happen to have a bar…..as you know…the Dutch love their beer…so as long as the rain was coming down…jugos (1 liter) of Parbo beer were coming too. …when the rain let up and 8 jugos were emptied… Lee and I headed back in the wet dark to his place for a quick nap…It was going to be a long night. …At 10 or there about… we were out and about…going from hut to hut…house to house….lots of… Fa waka (Sranan Tongo greeting) …and…Tan bon (Sranan Tongo goodbye). At each house you’re invited in to have some food and a drink…at midnight the drums started up and the dancing got going….whenever it was… sleeping in a hammock was not a problem…
It was quite in the village on New Years morning…a couple of aspirins …a dip in the cold river …and…the New Year was off to a perfect start. As we walked through the village we stop to shake hands with everybody… giving aloud …Jai- ohhh…Jai… then a big hug . ..At around noon there was a traditional …get the old sprits out…get the new sprits in…ceremony. Followed by a traditional diner meal at the Grandman’s house. The food was different…no Prime Rib… but very tasty and of course… my old friend Johnny Walker was present. An afternoon nap…a cold soak in the river and a night of .good conversation …and when the vampire bat flew out of the hut…it ended the start of what will be a great year….I come home in 2008…hope you have a great year too…see ya soon. Jai-ohhh…Jai
Before I go on I want you to read an article that appeared in the English Bulletin…it comes by email everyday…put out by the “de tijel ware”… a local paper.
FIREWORKS IMPORT PRACTICALLY STABLE
PARAMARIBO - With two more weeks to go before the end of 2007, 17 importers have managed to together import 75 40-feet-containers of fireworks with a total value of US$ 1.7 million. Citizens are allowed to shoot fireworks from 23 of December till 2 January 2008 with the exception of the Christmas and Boxing Day. Last week, the fire department started its annual informational campaign aiming at less or no fireworks victims. New Year’s Eve 2006/2007 saw 33 victims.
Now…think about this…there are approximately 900,000 Suriname citizens of which 50% reside in Holland. For the holidays an estimate 50,000 visitors from Holland come to Paramaribo…where 60% of the population live. .If my math is correct… it could mean that an estimated 320,000 people would be celebrating New Years eve in Paramaribo…with 1.7 million dollar worth of fire works….time to get out of town.
I called Lee …one of the only Sur12 PCV that was staying in his village for the holidays …”sure …come on out…you’ll stay at my place…I’ve got an extra hammock”…A hammock??? This is going to be interesting…well why not…how my times in my life will I get a chance to do New Years in a Rainforest…never again I suppose…so I got on “Blue Wings” single engine 10 seat prop plane a flew into Kajana International Airport…. ..it’s was a one hour flight at 7,800 feet…staying below the clouds…I guess the pilot knew I wanted to see the forest…up close and personal ( I could have taken a boat…being that it’s rainy season the river is high but then I would have missed both New Years Eve and New Years day)…When the plane landed there was Lee standing on the lawn…the same lawn we landed on….a short boat ride across the river to Deboo ( Lee’s village)…a short hike up a muddy path… and there we were… Lee’s river view house…this cement floor one room hut…bath room out back… is the best location in the village. … you get that when you’re a Peace Corps Volunteer….just to clarify…it’s not exactly a bathroom…it’s a whole in the ground with a cement seat surrounded by cement block walls and a wooden door…not a W” not a “Marriot” not a “Days Inn”…yea…been there done that…This is… adventure…more exciting then summer camp in the Poconos
Within 2 minutes of our arrival…two little faces showed up in the doorway…I was prepared for this…I had purchased a super size bag of gum balls…as soon as they received my hand out… they were off…2 minutes later… I realized I should have bought the super duper size. Within the next 30 minutes a couple of dozen kids and a half dozen or so adult men moved in and out of the hut. Each adult ( Grandman, Kapitan, Basha, Boatman, etc.) visitor sat down for …a smoke…a drink…and could I get them a new rice mill. Who else would you ask… if not a tall, elderly, white guy with a safari hat and dark sun glasses…I was either a biggy man from a Foundation or the CIA…when Lee explained … I was a Peace Corps Volunteer who came to celebrate the New Years in their village … disappointed…but…flattered and proud. And that Christmas gift that I took….5 half pints of assorted rums…given out…didn’t hurt to deflect the disappointment…(On Wednesday before I left we did check out the rice mill…when I pointed out…that with a little clean-up maintenance… and changing the milling stone…it would work fine…It was officially determine…I was… a Biggy man)….after most of the Scotch, half the rum and some of the rice wine was consumed we were off to Kajana the next village over… where Lee’s friend…a Ducth school teacher lives… a family from Holland that sponsors him were visiting and staying in the village Tourist House….which happen to have a bar…..as you know…the Dutch love their beer…so as long as the rain was coming down…jugos (1 liter) of Parbo beer were coming too. …when the rain let up and 8 jugos were emptied… Lee and I headed back in the wet dark to his place for a quick nap…It was going to be a long night. …At 10 or there about… we were out and about…going from hut to hut…house to house….lots of… Fa waka (Sranan Tongo greeting) …and…Tan bon (Sranan Tongo goodbye). At each house you’re invited in to have some food and a drink…at midnight the drums started up and the dancing got going….whenever it was… sleeping in a hammock was not a problem…
It was quite in the village on New Years morning…a couple of aspirins …a dip in the cold river …and…the New Year was off to a perfect start. As we walked through the village we stop to shake hands with everybody… giving aloud …Jai- ohhh…Jai… then a big hug . ..At around noon there was a traditional …get the old sprits out…get the new sprits in…ceremony. Followed by a traditional diner meal at the Grandman’s house. The food was different…no Prime Rib… but very tasty and of course… my old friend Johnny Walker was present. An afternoon nap…a cold soak in the river and a night of .good conversation …and when the vampire bat flew out of the hut…it ended the start of what will be a great year….I come home in 2008…hope you have a great year too…see ya soon. Jai-ohhh…Jai
posted by Robert B. at 9:59 AM
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