Awarradam Paramaribo

... faded. <br><br>After supper we were suddenly told 'we're going to see something now', so we followed Jay and Baba back to the boat. Quietly, using paddles, they set off onto the pitch black river. We shone torches into the dark, and saw points of light glinting back at us. These were caiman, relatives of alligators and crocodiles, floating in the water. We sidled up to one that turned out to be a metre-long juvenile, which Jay suddenly snatched from ...

... we were the only people waiting, together with Maria from Gunsi who had insisted she come with us to ensure we would safely get away, a man who sells the tickets, and another man who we assumed was the air traffic controller although we only saw him lying down. The airfield is clearly a shortcut, as women with huge baskets on their heads would pass through, not infrequently speaking on a mobile phone at the same time. Half an hour before the plane arrived lots of people ...

... Suriname is one of those great unknowns, a question mark on the map, like Madagascar or Ethiopia or Cambodia or Yemen or maybe even Tunisia, awaiting discovery. With the exception of Tunisia, these places are not particularly easy to get to, nor necessarily easy even once you get there. Their pleasures are more subtle and you need some time. I've been daydreaming about Suriname for years, enticed by the ethnic mix, but put off by the presence of a ...

... more people before getting out of town. It was soon getting light and we were in the countryside and passing small towns. On the way in from the airport the night before I had noticed that most people's houses are on stilts, and that there were bicycle lanes at the side of the road which I guessed was a Dutch influence. As dawn came and went I saw lots of drainage canals and realised we were on marshland. I wondered if they had been saltmarshes originally ...

... they call bombels, which are fireworks. Well Uncle Bissoon and I were lighting a box in the yard and even though we had it on a flat surface, it shot up a few times, then fell down and started spinning like crazy and shooting fireworks in every direction, including at us. It was fun. I love the city of Paramaribo. It's like being in Amsterdam without having to go there. I didn't get a chance to really walk around because I was laid out all the time, but I hope to ...

... een biertje drinken. Zij vertelden ons hoe ze eerst door de Surinaamse Marine en Luchtmacht werden beschoten nadat ze zonder vergunning in Surinaamse wateren hadden gevist. Na enkele maanden opsluiting hebben zij hun vergunningen gekregen en staat er nu een goed lopend bedrijf met drie grote kotters, waar zo´n 70 mensen een baan vinden. Voor 7,5 SRD (&euro; 1,75) koop je er een Djogo, een halve liter "Parbo" onder de Heineken vlag gebrouwen. De eigenaresse heeft altijd ...

... wife, is lovingly picking near invisible mites off my friend's back with the tip of a kitchen knife. I'm asking myself two things: How did I end up here? And why can't I have someone to remove the parasites from my skin? Hey, a guy gets lonely living so long single in the jungle! Well, I ended up here because this is where I always wanted to be. I don't mean in the rainforest of Suriname, I mean just someplace foreign and challenging, someplace where I would teach and ...

... really with all sides open. There is a table, a bench and some homemade wooden chairs (also 2 plastic bucket chairs - more comfortable) and a table with a 2 burner stove. Oh, also electricity from 7 to 10 p.m. Although, as is typical the town ran out of diesel on Saturday about 9 p.m. and we had no electricity Sunday evening at all. Robbie has also built a toilet and shower. It was delightful to see a sparkling white brand new toilet in this primitive place. The "loo ...

... history of a nation and they entered nationhood at a time when the world was changing rapidly. It has been difficult for a tiny country of under a million people to establish markets and develop their resources without aid. The question for a country like Suriname is how much aid too much and how do you strike a balance that allows a country to build their own capacity. This week there was a major chemical leak from Rosberg mine (a subsidiary of Canada's ...

... that SNMP has put in to a Dutch consulting company to do a year of organizational work with them. She seems quite certain that this proposal will fly and she and another trainer from this company will be doing leadership skill building, training with the volunteers and staff and a number of other initiatives that are meant to strengthen the organization. Spending time with Jack and Teneke has helped me prioritize what I will focus on with the time I have. Other work ...