Ho-Ho-Holy Cow This is Overdue!

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned: It’s been ___ months since my last blog entry!  It’s hard to know where to begin because so much has happened.

First, some quick updates:

• The daycare center construction is mostly complete. We are on track to open the center in January 2013.  The women who will work there will receive an initial overview of daycare procedures this month, and a full training in childcare in Q1 of 2013.
• We are waiting to hear back from a local Lion’s Club about whether or not they are interested in funding the rehabilitation of Rica’s football (soccer) field.  Keep your fingers crossed.
• The community development association of Rica (Stichting Planters van Ricanaumoffo en Omgeving) will receive a USD $3,000 grant from the Crystal City Rotary Club. This amount will fund over half of a $5,000 project to build a playground for the children of the village.  The remaining funds ($2,000) will be sought though individual donations. To contribute, please see the project website at (https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-568-002). All donations are tax deductible (in the U.S.). The Crystal City Rotary Club is a three-time project partner in Rica, having also funded a water catchment system for clean drinking water and the construction of the daycare center.
• A handful of Rica’s residents are seeking financial assistance through the Low-Income Shelter Housing program (LISP) in order to repair their existing homes or to build a new one.  We are working together with members of government ministries and local authorities to ensure that their efforts are successful.

As many people know, I recently went to South Africa for my friend’s wedding.  It’s hard to explain just how beautiful the country was, but I’ve included a couple highlights from the trip below!

Victoria Wharf (mall & waterfront)

One could do some serious damage to the ‘ole pocket book here!  The mall is fabulous and contained a seemingly unending supply of upscale clothing chains, coffee shops and specialty food markets (chocolate, biscotti, pesto, cheese, etc.), as well as a few department stores, a pharmacy and a grocery store.  The wharf itself, though admittedly very touristy, is lined with a large assortment of restaurants and cafes, in addition to boutiques, very nice tourist shops with regional handicrafts and local artists playing live music. 

Also, Victoria Wharf is where you catch the ferry to Robben Island, the former political prison where Nelson Mandela, among others, was jailed for many years.  The ferry ride provides a beautiful view of Cape Town but was quite chilly with the wind and sea spray.  At Robben Island, our guide (and I assume all of the others) was a former prisoner. He was very diplomatic in his description of the prison during his time there and optimistic about the country’s future. I, however, was absolutely baffled by his explanation of the different treatment ofprisoners based on their race.  For example, blacks were not provided shoes or long pants, while “coloreds” (i.e. mixed race persons) and Indians were. Their former’s food rations were considerably lesser than the latter’s, both in terms of quantity and diversity. Keep in mind that Robben Island was a functioning prison into the 1990s.  It seems almost surreal that such backward racial discrimination could have been in practice so recently and so publically.

A Note on the Racial Situation

It’s hard to talk about South Africa without discussing issues of race and class.  Cape Town is indescribably beautiful and ostentatiously wealthy.  Its impeccable roads would be the envy of all of my friends and family in Michigan (not kidding, guys). One sees luxury vehicles like BMWs and Mercedes everywhere, as well as Maseratis and Aston Martons.  Huge mansions with well-manicured lawns line the roads. There isn’t a scrap of garbage anywhere to be seen downtown.  But something doesn’t seem to click: There are white people. EVERYWHERE.

How is it that a racial group that makes up less than 10% of the South African population seems to own all of Cape Town?  Where are the blacks, the coloreds, the Indians?  The only place I saw persons of the non-Caucasian persuasion was in service positions—waiters, drivers, bus stop attendants, street cleaners, and checkout clerks.  Every store appeared to be white-owned.  Wherever there was a group of black construction workers on the highway, there was a white supervisor nearby overseeing their work. 

In stark contrast to the spacious homes of the city itself were the shantytowns along the highway. These “townships” are essentially black ghettos, free of running water or sewage treatment.  Though discreetly hidden behind six-foot high fences, one could still catch a glimpse of the overcrowded homes cobbled together with scrap metal. The condition of Cape Town’s “other half” (or majority, as it were) is astonishing.  The old social laws were evident even with deliverymen—whites entered through storefronts, while blacks came through the back.  Apartheid and its inconceivable pass system may be officially a thing of the past, but its legacy is ever present.

I think that’s it’s worth mentioning, too, the more subtle evidence of South Africa’s turbulent racial history as experienced through my conversations with two individuals.  The first conversation was with the man who drove Anna, Joel and I to our safari in Kruger Park.  He was a light-skinned, middle-aged black man.  Among many other questions, we asked him if the tribal languages of South Africa were similar.  Speaking nine of the eleven official languages of the country, he assessed that, apart from two, they were very different.  We asked him which sport was more popular in South Africa: soccer or rugby.  He replied that soccer is definitely the favorite among most of the population because rugby was considered a white man’s sport.  Later in the conversation, when we asked very pointed questions about the country’s racial tensions, he suggested that there is still a lot of resentment toward the Afrikaans-speaking population and that, among the former, older persons still treat non-whites as second-class citizens.  On the flip side, he noted that among his children’s friends, a mixed race group, he does not observe any difference in the way the kids treat each other.

Later in the trip we asked the same questions of our white guide at the Kruger. Speaking English, Afrikaanse and a little Zulu, he assessed that the tribal languages were very similar stating that, “if you understand one, you can more-or-less understand them all.” When we inquired about the preferred national sport he replied “rugby,” without hesitation. When I challenged that a black man to whom we asked the same question posed that rugby was a white man’s game, our guide became very defensive. He said that if there aren’t blacks and coloreds on a rugby team it isn’t because they aren’t allowed to play but because they didn’t play well enough to make the team. It was purely a matter of merit, in his view.  While that may have correct to an extent, it also revealed his own insulation and blindness to the preferences of non-whites with regard to sport (and potentially other issues). 

On our first evening at the park we went on a night safari.  We used spotlights to identify the eyes of animals since it would have been very difficult to see them otherwise.  When discussing this with our guide over dinner (after the fact), he pointed out that it would be better if the guides who operated the night tours put a red screen/filter over the spotlights.  For the life of me I cannot remember the reason for this—I think because many of the animals cannot see red and thus would not be frightened. No matter the reason, it was the comment that followed this remark, not the remark itself, that gave a shocking representation of the subconscious discrimination that is still prevalent among some white South Africans.  Our guide said that he would suggest the red filter to the other (black) guides but hasn’t because, “what’s the point in trying to teach someone who’s too ignorant to want to learn.” 

I do not think that our guide, a very young, educated man who seemed to get on well with his colleagues, is consciously racist or against an integrated society. He is, on the other hand, a good example of just how long it takes to purge deeply rooted social prejudices that we may not even understand ourselves to possess.

Table Mountain

The most famous landmark in Cape Town, Table Mountain looms behind the city often shrouded in white clouds that look like fingers as they descend its front face.  One day when the wind was not too strong (cable car rides to the top are frequently suspended due to high winds and rough weather), a group of us decided to take the trip up Table Mountain. Within our group there was a contingent that would have preferred to hike it, as opposed to taking the cable car but, being outnumbered and restricted by our timetable, the decision was made to take the funicular.

In addition to breath-taking views of Cape Town, the mountain landscape and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the summit also boast a lovely café and tourist shop.  I’ve been all over the world and service is not equal in all destinations. I must say that South Africans understand tourism and what it means to give tourists a positive experience.  Every staff member in the shop greeted visitors, asked them about their trip and if they needed assistance finding anything. I was genuinely impressed.

While enjoying our refreshments in the café we bumped into another group of our friends, also in Cape Town for the wedding.  At this point the “pro-hiking” group, persuaded by the winding rock paths and comforted that we would no longer have to abandon the “pro-cable car” contingent, decided to split off from the others and make the trek down.

All of this was fine and dandy except that, since we had not planned to do any extensive walking on the mountain, Sanna and I were wearing flip-flops and sandals, respectively.  In the interest of adventure, we took them off and opted to walk down the mountain barefoot. This was not the smartest decision either of us has made, but we managed not to see a single snake on the trip down and avoided injury.  In total, the walk took us about an hour and a half. The trail wasn’t too strenuous and alternates between rocky inclines and relatively flat gravel patches. I highly recommend walking at least one way to anyone prospective tourists.

For good views of Table Mountain from a different perspective, I would also suggest the quick jaunt to Table View. A few of us rented bikes and rode along the coast to the tourist town for lunch and a couple snapshots.  Table View has an impressive collection of restaurants (Italian, Cuban, American, Seafood, etc.) and bars. Just over its dunes you can also watch a hundred-or-so kite surfers catching some wind.

The Vineyards

Stellenbosch is an area just outside of Cape Town marked with rolling hills and massive oak trees.  It’s here that many of the country’s famous vineyard call home.  Although famous for its white wines, South Africa also produces a wide range of reds, including the Pinotage variety with which I was not previously familiar. Both the bachelorette party and the wedding were held at vineyards 

(Neethlingshof and Noitgedacht, respectively) dating back a couple hundred years.  Though our group traveled by taxi and bus, I think it would be excellent to due a cycling tour of the region in order to have the time to fully appreciate the scenery.

Shark Cage Diving

Since I’ll only live once, I pushed my paralyzing fear of fish somewhere into the back of my brain in order to take a swim with Jaws and friends.  A handful of companies offer shark diving tours in and around Gansbaai, about two to three hours from Cape Town.  We selected a company called White Shark Adventures because they have continuous airflow (i.e. oxygen supply) in the cage.  That means that you don’t have to hold your breath when you go underwater and can take more time to observe the sharks. 

On the day of our dive, which began at 4:30 AM with a sleepy ride out to Gansbaai, it was unfortunately cool and overcast.  The clouds made quite a glare on the surface of the water so it was tough to see sharks before they came to the surface near the boat.  In all we saw three or four sharks, between 3.5 and 5 meters in length, which is very few, according to the boatmen.  Likewise, they said that the sharks we did see were quite small but I can assure you that they didn’t seem in anyway little when they were less than arm’s length away in the cage! The trip was really an awesome experience, no matter if it was an “off” day and I would love to go back and do it again.

Geared up in wet-suits and snorkel masks, we entered the cage in groups of six.  I think it goes without saying that the purpose of the cage is to protect you from the sharks and visa versa.  The water was so cold at first that my stomach dropped and I lost my breath. I can’t imagine what it would have been like without the wetsuit, floating idly in the water for 20-30 minutes at a time. 

While in the cage the boatmen throw chum, dead fish parts, blood and oil, in the water just outside the cage.  They also float a tuna head on a line a few feet out. Once the sharks appear, they lure it toward the cage with the tuna head. At one point I could have touched a shark it was so close to the cage and fought every inclination to do so with some difficulty. 

The sharks are much less scary than one would imagine. They are beautiful animals and fantastically graceful in the water. Of those that we saw, none were in anyway aggressive. Once they unfastened the tuna head from the line, they were on their merry way.  Much more frightening, for me, were the HUNDREDS of other fish—the scaly, gross kind, of different colors and sizes that swam right next to and sometimes into the cage.  Horrific!

Hermanus

This seaside town is home to the groom’s father and is also where, once a year, pregnant whales come to delivery their calves.  We stopped in Hermanus on the way back from Gaansbai and for a post-wedding brunch and saw several whales on both occasions. It’s a cute spot for lunch and a wander.

Safari

A few days after the wedding the guests split off to various destinations. Anna, Joel and I hopped on a flight to Johannesburg where we departed for a safari at Kruger Park.  Because my return flight to Suriname was out of Cape Town, I didn’t have the opportunity to see Johannesburg proper, or Sowetto (its most famous township), like the others, but the safari was well worth it.

Our trio opted for a three day, two night trip with Outlook Safari company. It was a perfect amount of time in the park—we managed to see all of the “big five,” and the drive out and back was equally enjoyable. Included in the package were transportation to and from the airport, accommodation at the company’s tourist lodge outside Johannesburg the night prior to departure, travel to and from the Kruger and lodging and meals while in the park.  A variety of accommodation options are available, but we chose to stay in tents in Kruger Park. 

The weather at the Kruger was hot, quite the contrast from mild, breezy Cape Town and temperate Johannesburg.  It was much more of the “Africa” that I had envisioned prior to the trip.  I was overwhelmed by just how many animals we saw in the park. Having lived in Suriname for almost two years now, I’ve only ever seen about ten or fifteen different kinds of wildlife. At the Kruger, we saw more than ten different kinds of animals on the first day alone: impala, kudu, water buffalo, zebras, elephants, giraffes, lions, hyenas, chameleons, rhinos, yellow-billed southern hornbills, etc. Each evening we had a three-course meal and as much wine as we could drink at the camp.  The food was great, too: Fresh bread, salads, kebabs, poached pears, barbequed ostrich, toffee pudding. Highlights from our stay in the park included getting stuck in a water buffalo traffic jam, getting charged by a young male elephant and seeing a leopard on our last full day.

On the way back to Jo-burg we stopped at God’s View, Lisbon Falls, the Three Rondavels and a little chalet town in Mpumalanga whose name I can't remember (Dullstrom or Nelspruit maybe) just before Belfast.  We missed the view at God’s View because the mountains were completely enveloped in clouds. All that was forgotten, though, after a very satisfying breakfast of pancakes, eggs and rooibos lattes.  Lisbon Falls was a few kilometers further down the road.  A picturesque waterfall dropping into a cool, moss covered gorge. I would have liked to hike down to the river, but time didn’t allow.  Between Lisbon Falls and the little chalet town, our lunch destination, we drove through rolling green hills dotted with sheep and grey boulders. If you had told me we were in Ireland, I would have believed you. Even in late spring it was very cool. 

The town, whose name I cannot remember, was chalked full of restaurants and shops. For the Michiganders among you, it reminded me of a combination of Gaylord (Michigan) and Chamonix (France).  We had lunch at a combination restaurant and general store with a front room full of every kind of sweet treat you can imagine. Mid-meal we had to come indoors because a cloud consumed the mountain and the temperature dropped about ten degrees.  We were caught in the ensuing storm for the remainder of the drive back. Our driver smartly navigated the way through a barrage of hail and blinding rain.

The Wedding

Since this was a personal affair, I won’t go into the details. Suffice it to say that the venue was perfect, the bride was stunning, the groom was dashing and the food and music left nothing to the imagination. Ringa and Andrew have set the bar far too high for the rest of us.  Best wishes to them as a married couple and many thanks for the opportunity to be a part of it :)

Almost Done

At long last my brain dump nears a close. I hope the anecdotes weren’t too mundane.  I have seven months left in my Peace Corps service and a three-week holiday in America with my loving family and friends to look forward to. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next entry! Photos forthcoming--I don't have time to upload them at the moment.

In A Tiny Village Very, Very Far Away...

You Know You’re In the Jungle When…

·      You wake up to feel something crawling on your face and, without opening your eyes, brush it off and think, “Thank God. It was only a beetle.”

·      A woman is (successfully) fishing for large piranha off the dock where you are bathing. 

·      While stepping into the water from said dock, you cut your foot on a rusty nail.

·      A tarantula walking on the wall less than one foot in front of you while sitting on the toilet is an inconvenience, not a reason to panic or call the exterminator.

·      Termites invade your home at least once a month…even though it’s made of stone.

·      You have to sweep heaps of bat poop off the walls and floor.

·      You have caulked the holes between the ceiling panels and the walls several times to prevent said poop from falling, but the feces has (yet again) eroded through the caulk.

·      Occasional bedmates include frogs, ants and the occasional bee.

·      Giving a young child a machete to perform a task for you is not only acceptable, it’s encouraged.

·      Watching children set their backyard on fire is not cause for alarm—their parents gave them the oil and the lighter.

·      You see a man carrying an entire tree trunk home for firewood.

·      Breasts are not sexual nor or covered by clothing (visualize the childhood song, “Do your ears hang low…” only replace ‘ears’ with oversized ‘boobs’).

·      Instead of a briefcase, a man goes to work with a pesticide pump on his back, a gun slung over his shoulder, a machete in one hand and a Blackberry in the other.

·      You begin prioritizing how much you really have to go number two according to your willingness to carry a 5 gallon bucket of water back from the river to flush it (only in dry season).

·      You can’t eat soup because it makes you sweat too much.

·      Pit vipers hid under your trashcan.

·      You’ve seen a jaguar (or puma?) on a morning run.

·      Wearing jeans and a bra means getting dressed up.

·      You’ve seen your neighbor barbequing a whole baby monkey on a stick.

·      Friends think it’s strange that you don’t eat fish heads.

Quick Update

A fellow volunteer came out last Saturday to co-facilitate a second “Sport Day” using the One World Futbols (blue soccer balls paid for by many of you fine folks) that recently arrived in Suriname.  The day included learning and team building games for the younger (3-8) and older (9-15) children, split into two groups, as well as soccer and slagball.  The kids were very enthusiastic.  See pictures below.

One of my counterparts was kind enough to invite Suzie Kay and I to her nephew’s 40^th birthday party in Paramaribo.  It was quite the shindig, complete with matching outfits, catering and ten local Christian bands. See pictures below.

My Level II English group has resumed classes.  In the last two weeks we’ve started discussing parts of speech and antonyms.  It’s amazing that you could get to the sixth grade without knowing what a noun or verb is, but maybe I’m out-of-touch.  In any case, they know now!

This past weekend, Suzie Kay, Elliott and I also went to the absolutely fantastic, one-of-a-kind Kermis, a "state fair" like celebration hosted in Moengo. Attractions include four food stands, beer, loud music and a "shoot to win" game, for which prizes include underwear, stickers, teddy bears and tupperware.  A few photos of the lucky trio enjoying the wide-array of activities.

Today I’m in the city for a Low-Income Shelter Housing Program (LISHP II) training.  The objective is to get me up-to-speed on how to correctly fill in the applications so that folks from Rica can apply for government assistance to update their current home or build a new one.  The training, and program funding, come from the Ministry of Social Services.

We’ve received some unfortunate news related to the closing of our post: Peace Corps Suriname’s Country Director will be leaving in December and is not likely to be replaced.  Other staff’s contracts will expire in December and individual employees will be informed of whether or not they will be asked to sign an extended contract through the end of our service (July 2013).  I’m starting to get the feeling that my group is becoming a little abandoned… “The Few. The Forgotten. The Sur17s.” 

That’s all for now. For the ever-generous benefactors among you, below I have included a list of desired items. Note: I do not NEED any of these things.  I am safe. I have food and shelter.  However, if you plan on sending a package and would prefer to send things that I will in fact enjoy, the items below should point you in the right direction. Many thanks in advance for bringing a very large smile to my face (as well as to those who will share the contents with me)!

Pour Moi

·      Sriracha hot sauce (red liquid with a chicken on the front of the bottle)

·      Honey (thank you, grandpa, for the idea and first donation—it was delicious)

·      Almonds or pecans, unsalted

·      Dried cherries

·      Cocoa powder

·      Parmesan cheese (the grated stuff in the plastic Kraft bottle)

·      Food coloring

·      Beef jerky

·      Herbal teas

·      Powdered iced tea, unsweetened

·      Gatorade powder, or other drink mixes (preferably not Kool Aid or Tang)

·      Incense (keeps the mosquitoes away)

·      Fashion, home design or cooking magazines…or any magazines or books

For the Kids

·      Crayola crayons

·      Coloring books

·      Simple board games (think Sorry, Checkers, Scrabble). Nothing complicated like Monopoly.

·      Children’s books (in English or Dutch).  Ideas: Anything from the Little Bear series; Erik Carson books; Goodnight Moon; The Velveteen Rabbit; books that teaching counting or spelling, colors, shapes; anything from the Madeline series.  Stay away from Dr. Suess because the silly rhyming is very confusing to kids who don’t speak much English.

·      Simple puzzles (15 pieces or less).

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Aging Liberal Boasts Small Achievements from Far Away

Today I am 26 and as is often the case on birthdays I find myself reflecting on years past. I have lived in four countries, five U.S. states and one Federal District.  I’ve been a Peace Corps volunteer in Suriname for over a year and by dumb luck have not succumbed to any (fatal) tropical diseases.Disconnected from mass media and far away from friends and family, it seems I’m missing quite a lot: Friends are getting married, societies and governments are changing, JCrew is having sales on cashmere sweaters and Yogen Fruz has introduced new flavors and toppings! 

But it’s not all rainbows and unicorns in the land of the free and the home of the brave.  My divorce from the internet, newspapers, modern life and the non-equatorial climate means that I’ve also been spared grief and frustration from the violence, protests and other general chaos of the rest of the world: massive rights abuses by authoritarian governments during the Arab Spring, whatever the Hell the Occupy Wall Street movement was (or is?) about, hours upon hours of negative campaign ads; snow shoveling, electric bills and, most recently, the blatant disregard for human life demonstrated in the Colorado Batman massacre. So when I find myself sweating uncontrollably, cursing the worms in my durotank water and praying that a hamburger joint, Chipotle or 24-hour CVS will miraculously appear in my cozy little village, I am reminded that life in the jungle isn’t always so bad. Ignorance is bliss and all that…

Quick Updates

Creche

Slowly but surely the daycare center is nearing completion. My counterpart Jowanie is spending most of his free time putting the finishing touches on its construction. I’m crossing my fingers that once the structure is complete, there will be more motivation to get the center’s future employees trained and certified.

Mi Sabi Taki Engels

I’ve begun teaching three English classes after hours at the local elementary school. Each class has between six and ten students ages nine to fifteen. They meet twice a week for one hour and are learning at a genuinely impressive rate.  I suppose it doesn’t hurt that I bribe them with cookies ;)

UNDP Proposal

A new community-based organization (CBO), Stichting Landbouw A Sa Boeng, has submitted a project proposal to the UNDP’s Small Grants Programme.  Yours truly wrote the lengthy document, which the CBO hopes will help them fund a profit-sharing agricultural project to improve livelihoods and increase their farm capacity. Much to its member’s chagrin, if Stichting Landbouw receives the grant they will be required to discontinue the use of all harmful chemicals (i.e. gramaxione and malathion) for the duration of the project. Bummer for the farmers, bonus for the forest!

Other Project Support

I’ve also lent support to other PCV projects in the last few months, including administering a breastfeeding survey and developing an HIV/AIDS educational film in the local language.  The former, designed by Peace Corps Suriname’s Maternal and Infant Nutrition Committee, is meant to glean information about breastfeeding habits in Suriname’s interior.  Information was collected by several Peace Corps volunteers in Saramaccan, Aucan and Amerindian sites.  The data will be presented to a non-profit that promotes breastfeeding education and awareness in Paramaribo to help them determine the needs, practices and local knowledge of women outside the capital. The latter, funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), was designed to help clinics and other community health workers communicate information about HIV/AIDS in a language understood by local constituents.  A major problem in Suriname is that public health information is often only available in Dutch, the official language. If my not-so-technical mind uncovers a way to post the video online, I will do so.

Upcoming Events

A donor delegation from UNICEF will be visiting Ricanaumoffo this coming week to assess the village’s progress toward its water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) goals and to determine whether funding should be provided for additional projects.

Miscellaneous

·      I’m auditioning for the movie “Rasta Aliens” next month! Just kidding. The fake dreads took my friend four hours. My derrière was a little sore by the end of our salon session.

•    For those residing either in the Washington, D.C. or Detroit metro areas, I will be in the beautiful US and A from December 17^th through Jan 9^th. Start getting excited!

•  I’ve submitted an application to a non-profit in the U.S. that donates soccer equipment to underfunded teams.  If they award a donation to the two adult teams in Ricanaumoffo (for cleats and jerseys) I may well be hitting up friends and generous strangers for about $250 to get the equipment shipping to Suriname.  I know all of you eager beavers just can’t wait to get out your pocket books, so try to restrain your excitement.

• The children in Rica go through coloring books and crayons like addicts go through smack.  So if you feel so inclined, they would love a few of those items. Barbie and Spiderman are big favorites. Pens are also a big hit. I would also love a couple simple children’s books in English for my classes, if anyone feels so inclined. Special thanks to Nick and Sarah Levine for feeding their addiction.

A Few Funny Tid Bits

Item 1:

(Apologies to Pam, who has already heard this story).  About a week ago, I was sitting in the large plastic bucket that serves as my bathtub. As usual I'm washing, relaxing, scrubbing the jungle grub off my feet and kind of zoning out. Then I happened to focus on the bottle of body lotion I've been using twice a day for about four months, sent in a care package from my former colleagues at UTC, and something catches my eye...

It says, "Intensive care for damaged hair." 

"For damaged hair?" I think. Why would I be putting body lotion on my hair? Then I look again.

"Daily moisturizing conditioner," it reads, very clearly.

I HAVE BEEN USING THE DOVE HAIR CONDITIONER AS BODY LOTION FOR FOUR MONTHS!!! My idiocy clearly knows no bounds. However, since I have not developed a skin disease as a result and very much like the smell, I think I will continue to use the hair product on my skin. Why not, right?

Item 2:

So the village of Ricanaumoffo has no regular electricity, no running water, no middle school, no gas station, etc. It does, however, have an Avon representative. That’s right! We have a local Avon salesperson who distributes the cosmetics/accessories catalogues and takes orders right there on the Cottica River. Who da thunk it?

Cool Stats About My Blog

Google now offers its blog subscribers free analytics.  Below is a highlight of the stats from my page.

·      Pageviews by Country: 99, United States; 7, Suriname; 2, United Kingdom; 1, Austria; 1, Canada; 1, Cameroon; 1, Spain; 1, Haiti; 1, Kenya; 1, the Netherlands.

·      Pageviews by Operating System: 61%, Windows; 19%, Mac; 11%, Android; 3%, iPad; 2%, Linux; 1%, iPhone; 1%, other.

·      As a point of interest on social networking, more people access this blog from Facebook than all of the other referring sites.

My last post received 75 pageviews.  That’s a big increase from the last few posts, but still down from the first three. Thanks for reading!

Trials, Triumphs and Challenges

Changes

After along battle with staff to obtain separate housing, a decision was made that my roommate will move to Moengo.  While bittersweet and certainly not the outcome that we originally had in mind, this arrangement will allow each of us to have our own sites and, most importantly, our own homes.  Suzie Kay has already established a relationship with the RGD health clinic in Moengo which, given her experience as a dietician, should open the door to a variety of project options. I will continue to live in Rica and work with the stichting on existing and future projects. Managing two separate sites will also expand our collective impact, enable us to work with a larger section of the population.

Daycare Center Update

The daycare has been under construction since January 2012.  Progress has been coming in waves depending on the availability of labor, the weather and the supplies that have been purchased.  On an extremely positive note, the stichting bought the remaining building supplies and budgeted materials for the daycare center (i.e. baby cradles, mattresses, wash buckets, mops, a water catchment system), which were delivered Monday, April 23^rd.  Final construction should be completed within the next two months with a training schedule for its local employees and an operational plan to follow in June and July. 

The community has taken some liberties with the initial building blueprint, but all changes have been unanimously approved.  The price of gas has also recently gone up, which has increased the price of several of our building materials. Receipts are due back to Rotary, at this point the sole funder, by the first week in May along with a progress report. 

Photos of progess:

The original structure (the former dance/community hall) was falling apart. The wood was decaying, eaten by termites, the cement floor was foll of holes and broken nails protruded from the busted walls.

A picture of the original structure on the inside.

Local construction worker Lando builds new walls from cinder blocks and concrete.

Construction worker Daniel takes a break after sealing the new wall.

Rehabilitation of the floor before the new cement was poured.

A young mother, Saa Dindin, with a handfull of the villages young children.

New walls built. Heavy duty screen will be applied to open areas to enclose the space while still providing for a comfortable breeze.

A makeshift door keeps young children off the newly poured floor and away from the other building supplies.

Wood beams mark the demarkation between where the napping and play rooms. A wall will be consrtucted. The far door space is where the bathroom is to be constructed. Small matresses (left) will line the baby cradles and the larger ones will lay on the floor.

Girls Empowerment Camp (i.e. Camp GLOW)

The girl’s camp for Marowijne has been funded!  A fellow PCV, Michelle, and several local women and I are working full time to secure lodging, transportation, guest speakers and local support for the event, which will cover a range of topics from nutrition and sexual reproductive health to career paths and protecting the environment.  Sessions and activities are designed to educate and empower, with a strong focus on improving self-esteem and developing leadership.  Given Peace Corps’ impending withdrawal from Suriname, we strive to involve and train a group of local women (school teachers, community leaders) in the planning an implementation of the camp so that they can replicate it in the years to come. This year’s camp will serve 30 5^th and 6^th grade girls from the villages of Ricanaumoffo, Wan Hatti, Moengo, Erowarte and Tapuku.

Ideas Requested

Rica has been active in UNICEF’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program for the last few years. Trainings have been excellent, when available, but have been cancelled since August 2011. As with any large organization, the application process is long and the pace is slow.  In light of the latter, the community has secured some of its objectives, namely Durotanks and garbage pick-up, without UNICEF’s financial assistance.  Now, with the daycare center project winding down the toilet project is next in line. And here I find myself in a bit of a pickle: UNICEF has pledged to help but we don’t know how much and by what time.

What we know—We know, for example, that UNICEF has about USD $48,000 to be split amongst 16 different villages.  If every village gets an equal part, and there’s no guarantee they will, Rica would recieve about USD $3,000 (~ SRD $9,800).  Rica’s own community development organization has a small store of cash earmarked for the toilet project, in addition to any amount provided by external sources. Also, it has been agreed that each of the family 61 households that would to obtain a toilet will have to put up half the cost of the materials and do their own labor.  However, all of this considered, and assuming we get the money from UNICEF, Rica still won’t have enough money to buy the materials.

It is important to consider that the community should also have an engineer come out to verify where we can and cannot build toilets and to help us draw a model of the septic tanks and the structure that will house the toilet so that we can draft a budget. Plus, there’s always the possibility that UNICEF will not provide any money or technical expertise, or that it will take a very long time before any funding may be received.

A final complication is that members of the community do not agree on how to go about the project generally: Should a modest number of shared toilets be provided to the community to be shared at no cost to individual households or should each household be able to buy into an in-home pour flush model that would be subsidized by the community development organization and its funders?

What we don’t know—What to do? So, here’s where I solicit you clever folks for suggestions.  I’ve listed three basic options below and am open to other suggestions.

1. Wait to hear back from UNICEF. Assume they will provide technical expertise and the maximum funding (USD $3,000). In the meantime, devise a way to make up the difference in funding between the UNICEF funding plus what the community already has, and what it needs.
2. Assume that UNICEF will not be able to help in a timely matter (if at all) and seek all funding and technical expertise elsewhere.
3. Abandon the project entirely. Perhaps the community is not ready for a project of this scale at this time.

Random Project Ideas

The project ideas below are small in scale and outside the priorities of the community, which still doesn’t have running water, regular electricity or, in many households, toilets. You’ll notice that all of them involve Rica’s youth, who are its best chance for a better, more developed future.  In my opinion, that is why these projects are of the utmost importance.

I do not have any plan of action or funding scheme in mind for any of the items below at this time. Therefore, I look to you as creative individuals and experienced professionals for ideas about how to get them done. Thank you, in advance, for your feedback!

Just Shoe It!  Most children in Rica own two pair of shoes: A pair of flip-flops and a pair of dress sandals that they where to school/church.  A handful also has thin, plastic boots for the rainy season. That means that they do not have closed toed shoes to play sports or go to grounds.  You can imagine the amount of injured feet I see in a day! I’m trying to get in touch with the organization Tom’s Shoes about getting a donation, but a shoe drive would serve the same purpose, if the former isn’t feasible. (Heart & Sole; Take a Walk in Their Shoes…Or Not; Not-So-Famous Footwear; Keeping Toes Intact)

A Book A Day (…Keeps Poverty Away)  I’m fully absorbed in the Hunger Games trilogy right now and have been spending a good part of my afternoons over the last week lost in the pages of the second book, thanks to my newly acquired Kindle App.  Two days ago, my neighbor girl, 9-year-old Simone, asked me what I was doing on my computer. After explaining the logistics of how a book could be in my computer in the first place, we got to a more confusing question: Why do you read books? 

With the exception of those in my house, most kids in Rica have only ever seen one book: The Bible.  We could debate its merits and intrigue or even its instructive value, but I don’t think many would argue that the Bible is most kid’s idea of a good time. Additionally, the Bibles in Rica are written in Sranan Tongo, a language all of the kids can speak and understand, but not one that they learn to read or write in school. School instruction is in Dutch as is the professional sphere outside of the Interior.  Oral story telling is so valued here and yet the children don’t have access to the written word—the world of stories, of history of imagination!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that without books, kids don’t learn to read. And, if you can’t read it’s unlikely that you will learn to write worth a damn.  Children here are held back year after year.  Some drop out, others push on and a lucky, gifted few will make it past middle school. What does Rica need: It needs books. A lot of them. As such, I would like to build a small library.  I’m pretty confident I can get the books donated, but the community will need a small amount of money to buy the wood, zinc and cement to build the structure itself and some shelves.

Written in the Stars; Pinworm, Ringworm, Bookworm?; The Written Word; Giving Your Word; Read Between the Lines; Kindles Are for Rich Kids; A Book A Day; The Power of Words; Great Books

Play First  Other than the football field, which is in serious disrepair, there is no location within the community that is designated for children to play. Kids collect found objects to use as toys. These object vary but include sticks, empty metal fuel barrels, mud, pieces of Styrofoam and even razor blades.  While the kids’ creativity sometimes leaves me awestruck—like when I realized that they were making kites from plastic trash bags that they found or that their play cars are constructed from old nails and empty water bottles, but there is an additional need. There is plenty of space surrounding the primary school and a playground would provide a safe environment for the children to play.  I envision something minimal: A slide, swing set, teeter totter and perhaps a series of half-buried large tires.

Women’s Group in Pikin Santi

I’m continuing to work with the women’s group in Pikin Santi to help sell their handbags and identify artisan bazarres and other local markets.  At the Suriname Heritage Festival the group sold over SRD $1,000 in products and we hope to exceed that number at this week’s Made in Suriname Fair.

Wildlife

I have killed yet another Fer-de-Lance (viper) snake outside my home in Ricanaumoffo.  The little bugger was hidden underneath my trash bag and poised to strike when I removed the bag to take out to the garbage truck.  Thankfully my new machete was nearby and the snake met his end after about five slashes (the machete needs to be sharpened).

I killed it. Take that, you deadly viper, you!

My counterpart's new baby monkey. The mother became someone's dinner.

Tarantula on the side of my house.

Alms for the Poor…Peace Corps Volunteer That You Love

Special thanks to recent benefactors Davis Smith, Bob & Janet Bennett (i.e. Grandma & Grandpa) and my mother and father for their lovely packages.  I relish your treats and they make the hot days so much more enjoyable! For any of you benevolent readers out there, ideas are below. Surprises are also welcome—I like EVERYTHING except tuna.

Things I need:

• Duct tape—an American brand like 3M or scotch or something
• A USB stick (my four sticks are almost full with project proposals, etc.)

Things I would like, but don’t technically need:

• Books in French or Spanish (even just printed articles) to help me retain the languages
• Books/magazines in general. I have the Kindle Ap on my computer so you can send electronic books via Amazon.com too!
• Stationary, American stamps, envelops (and your address if you would like a
• Granola
• Dried cherries
• Almonds or pecans
• Parmesan cheese (the grated kind, not fresh)

Things for the kids:

• Tennis balls (for the girls to play slagball)
• Coloring books and children’s books in English or Dutch (for the children)
• Crayons/watercolors/markers
• Lanyard material



GO BLUE!