Posted about 20 videos online tonight including the infamous peanut butter collection video (link below - ate 43 jars in 2 years at site), videos of trips to Langu, Commewijne and life in the village of Gunzi. Check out my channel, username: if21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYAg7omrISs&feature=channel_video_title
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Coming home....
"Like a river that don't know where it's goin, I took a wrong turn and I just kept goin..." --Springsteen (song I was listening to when I get my name from Kwami and Koni)
I had put this last blog off for a whiles for several reasons. One, I needed some time to let the experience settle in; I've been back home for a little less than two weeks now. Also, I needed to wait to find some time between sci-fi movie trilogy marathons and San Francisco Giants games. Now that the Giants are basically eliminated I found sometime to sit down and write this. And my opening quote, I pay homage to the great Eddie Murphy in Coming to America. This was a movie that had been translated into Saramaccan/Sranan and I'd watch it with some of my friends in the village.
I guess the best place to start is after The Last Dance. After Basiapai's going away party, I had one week left in the village which was supposed to be a quiet week but turned out to be a rather eventful one. After the remnants of Saturday night had been swept up at the community center, I had my last fun-day with a few of the volunteers who stayed over for one more night. As to our usual fun-day M.O. we did some good cooking--banana pancakes and we made a last pizza for my counterpart, Kwami. I stayed up until 2 am on Sunday night/Monday morning chatting away with my buddies, reminiscing about the good, the bad and the taangapai. There were a lot of sweet memories with all the Peace Corps guys: the lake trip, the Langu trip and just about every Saoto Soup or beef complete with endless amounts of Parbos consumed at Madonna's.
After the volunteers had left on Monday morning, I began going through all the extra food in my meat buckets (which were used to keep the rats and creepy crawlers out of my food supply) and started hosting a lot of lunches at my house. On Monday, I did a Tuna Mac with hot sauce day and had about 7 kids come over and eat lunch at my house. The following day, Tuesday, August 16, I went to the end of school ceremony in Tutubuka, the neighboring village. It was a rather bittersweet day as I had extended my stay in Suriname to see the school kids graduate but many did not. Even the brightest girl in my village who was expected to pass the graduation exam did not. I am not sure what I could have done to help her as school materials are in Dutch, but I still wish I could have. Later on Tuesday evening, I made my last batch of cinnamon rolls. I passed out some rolls to the families that helped with cooking at my party. The next day, Wednesday, the rolls were the talk of the village.
Wednesday was a slow day. I decided to stay in my house and watch 300, which was an awesome movie. Beyond that, I spent the better part of the day resting, working on a DVD I had been making for my village and spent the night at the river doing some star gazing one last time. There are several things I miss about Suriname, other than friends, the night sky is the thing I miss most. Walking out the back door of my house and being able to see endless amounts of stars for two years was quite a privelege.
On Thursday, I began passing out some of my belongings. Being the last volunteer in the village, I needed to clear out my house. I also did my last radio show which almost a year ago I had planned on doing with the other volunteers in my group. But due to changed plans, I did the show alone with a bottle of whiskey. The whiskey clearly had no impact on my selection of songs which included "Love Me Sexy" by Jackie Moon twice in a span on 30 minutes.
The big event of my last weekend in the village of Gunzi was on Saturday night when I premiered a DVD I had made in Saramaccan with two years of stories, pictures and videos of my service in Gunzi and travels through Suriname. About two-thirds of my village walked down the hypothetical red carpet to watch the DVD and indulge in some free marshmallows. The village gave the DVD two thumbs and thought the funniest scene was when I told a story about a guy who had given me the bush medicine equivalent of viagra. For some reason, the night before I showed the DVD I was very nervous about the electricity in the village. Coincidentally, after my DVD was down playing, not more than five minutes later the generator was shut down. In conversations I've had with the villagers since returning to the States, the power was not fixed and back on for almost three weeks after my movie. Talk about a great stroke of fortune for me!
Sunday and Monday were spent saying goodbyes. Sunday was probably more difficult than Monday. On Sunday, I walked over to Tutu and spent some time at the Captain's house and watched some of the local soccer league. The most difficult part of the day was walking past all the houses on the way home to Gunzi, telling all the old men and women who I regularly pass and greet while they sit on their wooden stools infront of their porches that they wouldn't see me again. Most of them had no idea the hour had arrived for my departure and their responses were generally the same, "Keeeeeee", the Saramaccan expression for sorrow or sadness. I said good bye to some good friends too, Elsa in Tjaikonde who was Catherine and now Alyssa's neighbor whose twin children I have played with since they were two years old, two years ago; now they're four year olds in pre-school.
Monday I spent the entire day in Gunzi and did a last paddle boat expedition out to the Kadjoepai sand island with a few of the kids. Most of the day I spent with one of my best friends in the village, a 60 year old woman named Teti. I had asked her to cook me one last suti (sweet) meal. She cooked me up some rice with vegetables and then surprised me by putting boiled hog's tail on top. The hog's tail was.....memorable and chewy. That night, I made her entire family as well as most of the other people in my village spaghetti. Teti, her daughter Beita and Teti's sister Marlene, were always very kind to me during my two years in Gunzi. When I needed a meal or someone to sit down and talk with I'd go to their houses, sit down, get a bite to eat and talk about what was on my mind. I had lots of meals cooked by those ladies, usually rice with fish and some kind of green vegetable--leafy green, green beans or okra, and sometimes we'd talk for hours about any range of topics from my family, their family, how the old Gunzi volunteers were doing or just the daily happenings in the village. When I needed to learn something, they were the ladies who'd have patience with me. I'd sit down with them and I'd learn new Saramaccan words, how to weave baskets or get tips on how to paddle about back to shore--they were concerned when they saw me swim a boat back to shore once due to my lack of paddling proficiency. When I left, they filled up half of my bag with rattles, calabashes and koosus (locally worn clothing). I left them some electronics and nice pots and pans.
My last morning was hectic. I woke up on Tuesday, August 23 to black clouds above my house at 5 am before falling back asleep until about 6 am. When I was up and about again, I had a massive army ant attack at my wash house and latrine! A sea of red consuming the structure. And the kids were already invading my house by 7 am giving me some of their last drawings they wanted to send with me to America and seeing if they could score any items in the house that hadn't yet been passed out. To make matters more complicated, the black clouds from 5 am had now turned into a huge down pour of rain, the first time it had rained in the morning in over two months and I was really biting my nails when my always dependable boatman was 40 minutes late. A year ago, I may have been rattled. At this point, I was pretty much just going with the flow. After the kids helped bring my bags down to the river they had ran back to my house to raid it which upset my neighbor, I had a good chuckle over it. A few of the women stayed behind at the river and bid me adue. Tudi brought me to Atjoni and I said goodbye to some friends who had walked from Pokigron to come and see me off--Ryan and Lindsay, Franklin Adipi, as well as to some of my other boatmen friends. When Kwakoe slammed the van door shut it was the last time I'd be called Basiapai and I was off for America.
After two years of service, I can not begin to describe in any simple or concise statement what I went through in Suriname. There were ups, there downs, there were times I thought about quitting, times I thought about staying even longer. My advice to anyone contemplating doing Peace Corps: do it! I was a little disappointed in that I didn't develop a tangible skills, I thought at times the skills I had were under utilized in my village, but the life experience I had, the friends I made and looking back at the things I did accomplish, I am satisfied with what I did. At the end of the day, I could have done things differently but I am happy where I ended up. Suriname was a great country and its people are great. Since returning to the States, I attended a Surinamese living in Northern California (BRASA SF) party and was taken in by the group just like I was by so many people in Suriname itself. Coming back to the States, I am happy to be here and I miss Suriname but there will be a time when I go back to see my friends, my people, my night sky. Thanks to all who followed the blog over the two years.
Duumundu (Saramaccan final good bye)
--Chris Rodriguez, Basiapai
I had put this last blog off for a whiles for several reasons. One, I needed some time to let the experience settle in; I've been back home for a little less than two weeks now. Also, I needed to wait to find some time between sci-fi movie trilogy marathons and San Francisco Giants games. Now that the Giants are basically eliminated I found sometime to sit down and write this. And my opening quote, I pay homage to the great Eddie Murphy in Coming to America. This was a movie that had been translated into Saramaccan/Sranan and I'd watch it with some of my friends in the village.
I guess the best place to start is after The Last Dance. After Basiapai's going away party, I had one week left in the village which was supposed to be a quiet week but turned out to be a rather eventful one. After the remnants of Saturday night had been swept up at the community center, I had my last fun-day with a few of the volunteers who stayed over for one more night. As to our usual fun-day M.O. we did some good cooking--banana pancakes and we made a last pizza for my counterpart, Kwami. I stayed up until 2 am on Sunday night/Monday morning chatting away with my buddies, reminiscing about the good, the bad and the taangapai. There were a lot of sweet memories with all the Peace Corps guys: the lake trip, the Langu trip and just about every Saoto Soup or beef complete with endless amounts of Parbos consumed at Madonna's.
After the volunteers had left on Monday morning, I began going through all the extra food in my meat buckets (which were used to keep the rats and creepy crawlers out of my food supply) and started hosting a lot of lunches at my house. On Monday, I did a Tuna Mac with hot sauce day and had about 7 kids come over and eat lunch at my house. The following day, Tuesday, August 16, I went to the end of school ceremony in Tutubuka, the neighboring village. It was a rather bittersweet day as I had extended my stay in Suriname to see the school kids graduate but many did not. Even the brightest girl in my village who was expected to pass the graduation exam did not. I am not sure what I could have done to help her as school materials are in Dutch, but I still wish I could have. Later on Tuesday evening, I made my last batch of cinnamon rolls. I passed out some rolls to the families that helped with cooking at my party. The next day, Wednesday, the rolls were the talk of the village.
Wednesday was a slow day. I decided to stay in my house and watch 300, which was an awesome movie. Beyond that, I spent the better part of the day resting, working on a DVD I had been making for my village and spent the night at the river doing some star gazing one last time. There are several things I miss about Suriname, other than friends, the night sky is the thing I miss most. Walking out the back door of my house and being able to see endless amounts of stars for two years was quite a privelege.
On Thursday, I began passing out some of my belongings. Being the last volunteer in the village, I needed to clear out my house. I also did my last radio show which almost a year ago I had planned on doing with the other volunteers in my group. But due to changed plans, I did the show alone with a bottle of whiskey. The whiskey clearly had no impact on my selection of songs which included "Love Me Sexy" by Jackie Moon twice in a span on 30 minutes.
The big event of my last weekend in the village of Gunzi was on Saturday night when I premiered a DVD I had made in Saramaccan with two years of stories, pictures and videos of my service in Gunzi and travels through Suriname. About two-thirds of my village walked down the hypothetical red carpet to watch the DVD and indulge in some free marshmallows. The village gave the DVD two thumbs and thought the funniest scene was when I told a story about a guy who had given me the bush medicine equivalent of viagra. For some reason, the night before I showed the DVD I was very nervous about the electricity in the village. Coincidentally, after my DVD was down playing, not more than five minutes later the generator was shut down. In conversations I've had with the villagers since returning to the States, the power was not fixed and back on for almost three weeks after my movie. Talk about a great stroke of fortune for me!
Sunday and Monday were spent saying goodbyes. Sunday was probably more difficult than Monday. On Sunday, I walked over to Tutu and spent some time at the Captain's house and watched some of the local soccer league. The most difficult part of the day was walking past all the houses on the way home to Gunzi, telling all the old men and women who I regularly pass and greet while they sit on their wooden stools infront of their porches that they wouldn't see me again. Most of them had no idea the hour had arrived for my departure and their responses were generally the same, "Keeeeeee", the Saramaccan expression for sorrow or sadness. I said good bye to some good friends too, Elsa in Tjaikonde who was Catherine and now Alyssa's neighbor whose twin children I have played with since they were two years old, two years ago; now they're four year olds in pre-school.
Monday I spent the entire day in Gunzi and did a last paddle boat expedition out to the Kadjoepai sand island with a few of the kids. Most of the day I spent with one of my best friends in the village, a 60 year old woman named Teti. I had asked her to cook me one last suti (sweet) meal. She cooked me up some rice with vegetables and then surprised me by putting boiled hog's tail on top. The hog's tail was.....memorable and chewy. That night, I made her entire family as well as most of the other people in my village spaghetti. Teti, her daughter Beita and Teti's sister Marlene, were always very kind to me during my two years in Gunzi. When I needed a meal or someone to sit down and talk with I'd go to their houses, sit down, get a bite to eat and talk about what was on my mind. I had lots of meals cooked by those ladies, usually rice with fish and some kind of green vegetable--leafy green, green beans or okra, and sometimes we'd talk for hours about any range of topics from my family, their family, how the old Gunzi volunteers were doing or just the daily happenings in the village. When I needed to learn something, they were the ladies who'd have patience with me. I'd sit down with them and I'd learn new Saramaccan words, how to weave baskets or get tips on how to paddle about back to shore--they were concerned when they saw me swim a boat back to shore once due to my lack of paddling proficiency. When I left, they filled up half of my bag with rattles, calabashes and koosus (locally worn clothing). I left them some electronics and nice pots and pans.
My last morning was hectic. I woke up on Tuesday, August 23 to black clouds above my house at 5 am before falling back asleep until about 6 am. When I was up and about again, I had a massive army ant attack at my wash house and latrine! A sea of red consuming the structure. And the kids were already invading my house by 7 am giving me some of their last drawings they wanted to send with me to America and seeing if they could score any items in the house that hadn't yet been passed out. To make matters more complicated, the black clouds from 5 am had now turned into a huge down pour of rain, the first time it had rained in the morning in over two months and I was really biting my nails when my always dependable boatman was 40 minutes late. A year ago, I may have been rattled. At this point, I was pretty much just going with the flow. After the kids helped bring my bags down to the river they had ran back to my house to raid it which upset my neighbor, I had a good chuckle over it. A few of the women stayed behind at the river and bid me adue. Tudi brought me to Atjoni and I said goodbye to some friends who had walked from Pokigron to come and see me off--Ryan and Lindsay, Franklin Adipi, as well as to some of my other boatmen friends. When Kwakoe slammed the van door shut it was the last time I'd be called Basiapai and I was off for America.
After two years of service, I can not begin to describe in any simple or concise statement what I went through in Suriname. There were ups, there downs, there were times I thought about quitting, times I thought about staying even longer. My advice to anyone contemplating doing Peace Corps: do it! I was a little disappointed in that I didn't develop a tangible skills, I thought at times the skills I had were under utilized in my village, but the life experience I had, the friends I made and looking back at the things I did accomplish, I am satisfied with what I did. At the end of the day, I could have done things differently but I am happy where I ended up. Suriname was a great country and its people are great. Since returning to the States, I attended a Surinamese living in Northern California (BRASA SF) party and was taken in by the group just like I was by so many people in Suriname itself. Coming back to the States, I am happy to be here and I miss Suriname but there will be a time when I go back to see my friends, my people, my night sky. Thanks to all who followed the blog over the two years.
Duumundu (Saramaccan final good bye)
--Chris Rodriguez, Basiapai
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