Hotel La Petite Maison Paramaribo

... ready to be grated (which they now do with a petrol-powered machine), squeezed in long bag woven from reeds and pounded into flour in a large pestle. Baba demonstrated the pounding action to the great amusement of the two women, either because his technique was poor or perhaps just because this is traditionally female activity (Baba told us that the men concentrate on growing the cassavas). Another woman was baking oval flatbreads over a fire ...

... something herbal. Suddenly a tropical rainstorm saturated everything within minutes and we tried to keep dry against the wall. The rainstorm stopped as suddenly as it started, which seemed to be the sign for many of the waiting boats to leave. We saw no sign of Ronald and hoped for the best as all our gear had already been loaded onto the boat, and Aniel had left to go back to Paramaribo. We were unable to identify which boat our stuff was on as all looked the same ...

... around us as well as exotic birds, lizards and little squirrel monkeys. They are greenish with yellow feet. The historic part of town contains many picturesque wooden buildings in the Dutch style. The area has been designated a world heritage site by UNESCO, so we feel honoured to be staying in it. We really like Paramaribo, it is very culturally diverse, Dutch, Black, Asian, Indonesian, Indian, all seem happily integrated and living ...

... TOO nice. I was afraid of losing street cred with you, my readers. You don't want to hear about what's happening 'in there'; you want to hear what's happening 'out there', right? So I reluctantly moved into the center of town yesterday 30 Jan., even lying to the inn keepers that I was going on to Guyane Francaise so as not to hurt their feelings. Can you believe that? But I was right. There was a huge street party last night and today was even ...

... road from the south of South America right up to the USA, apparently. On to Georgetown. Shifting of passengers meant I was now sitting next to a pretty 15 year old Indian girl who decided to adopt me for the duration. She was travelling with her Aunt and Uncle - who is a bird fancier and had a cage with birds in. In her nice Guyanese accent she told me a little about life there, the marshes, the rice fields, and how Indian languages were not being ...

... sent a Christmas card to me and demanded that I continue with the blogs because she can't live without my smart-assedness. I just made that word up. I can do that. I'm in a HP cult. Well folks, as always, leave me comments, please. Let me know that I'm still loved. And pray for me, please. Ps I have no pictures of Suriname b/c well, I was sick, but also b/c the camera was on timer that took a pic every two seconds (literally) and I don't know how to change it. Yeah, I know. Sal

... Also a lot of people colecting honey. Known as the best honey and sweetest the Parwa Honey. Driving to the east we came in Nickerie where there are only rice fields. All the rice of Suriname comming from that district. Small town and other style of living. Most influence from Brittish Guyana. After a good rest and relaxing night we take a boat to the Bigi Pan Nature Reserve. There ...

... and the many cultures that coexist here. I've had the opportunity to do things here that I could do no place else, for instance, searching for the rare bird, the Cock of the Rock, freeing an anaconda from a fishing net, drinking lots and lots of cassiri, (a fermented cassava beverage), eating strange and wild foods, and dressing in the traditional Amerindian loincloth and headdress. And I'm doing good work too, I think. How do I know? When people say things like this ...

... this for some time so I expect she is normalizing herself into the idiosyncrasies of bus travel in Parimaribo. Settled into a seat one of my favourite pastimes is watching the little old wooden houses along the streets. They often seem to me to be slowly melting in the tropical sun as they often have a slightly crooked appearance of the old and tired. Shades of days long gone. These, I expect, would have been homes of the less well to do Dutch in the colonial times who weren't ...

... no real needs assessment and no real identification of the existing HIV/AIDS radio programming currently being developed and/or delivered. We had been of the impression in the beginning that there was none and were quite surprised to hear from various people that this or that radio station or organization was doing HIV/AIDS radio. Jess and Sherilyn are both creative and skilled young women, but they are also high achievers and inexperienced in project development ...