Chaos

"Oh no... I fell in the river"--Matt Nofzinger mocking me

Yes, I made a joke about this on facebook two or three days ago and then it actually happened. I sort of sank into the Suriname River on New Year's Eve--hopped a railing, walked down the shore and then my shoes got caught in the muck of the river, my pants fell down cause I didn't have a belt and I almost fell into the river. Almost, Matt, almost. Sadly, my jeans and shoes were ruined in the muck and I looked like a complete idiot. Otherwise, New Year's was solid.

The party started December 30th when we started setting off fireworks in a lot, right before going to a street party where a band was playing a few blocks from our hostel. The next day, I showed up at 10 am on Domineestraat, the main street downtown. At first there was a marching band and party truck. Then the firecrackers were busted out. I can only assume about 50 million firecrackers were lit off yesterday. Guys were carrying crates of 500,000 down the street and lining em' up and down Domineestraat. I saw at least 15 lines of firecrackers blown up and heard a lot more. There was a bit of a scary moment when one of them caught a house on fire right in the middle of the party. Luckily the authorities were on top of that one and got the fire out quickly.

We were at this party more or less until 5 when the bands stopped playing. By 8, I was setting off fireworks in some random lot, again. Totally legal here in Suriname and awesome. We set off a couple of rockets and mortars then headed towards the touristy side of town for a dance party. Then we showed up at the waterkant, this collection of small food shops and restaurants beside the river, at 10:30. At the waterkant, we kicked back and watched a ton of fireworks that were being shot off across the river and wrapped up the night. In all, a wild and entertaining New Year's.