The End of Home Stay

"You know you've been in Suriname too long when this(Parbo) is refreshing."--One PCV

So, the last three weeks of home-stay/training could be summed up in three big events: taco day, the jungle walk and the Peace Corps project. Otherwise, we had language class in the morning and spent most of the afternoons watching films with the locals--an Office marathon one day, and eating a lot of ice cream.

So, first things first, the work. For my business training I did a project with youth on how to create a product. It went so-so. I took the idea from a past project at Chico State which was a great success. The jist of the project was to brainstorm different activities or things you liked and try to put together a new product. It could be anything, even something imagined and unrealistic. In the United States when I did this project, the kid decided to build a miniature wooden rocket car. When I practiced this project, in English, with other Peace Corps Volunteers two of the girls came up with a high heel that could double over as a hiking shoe and have a portable pouch inside. Anyways, here, in Suriname, because the learning style and classroom setting is different and because I am not fluent in the language yet, it was hard to convey this process to the kids and even the ones who did understand it were hesitant to do the project. Even though the execution of the project was not a huge success I learned a lot about how to more effectively work with youth here and that's the small victory I am going to have to take with me from here on out.

The jungle walk. Myself and a few other volunteers staying at our home stay put together a little walk with these kids. Myself and Mike, from Florida, split from the main group to go do a nature walk on our own. We saw some cool shit. We saw a ton of toucans, a couple of monkeys going through the trees and a rare crab sighting. The highlight of the trip though, was when we were walking back. In mid-conversation Mike suddenly stops me and says, "Look!" I don't see anything. Within a couple of seconds this huge bird with about 5+ feet of wing span flies out infront of us on the road. It was awesome.

And finally, the taco day. As an appreciation for our home-stay families we cooked up tacos with guacamole, tomatoes, beef, cheese, lettuce and beans. It was a huge success. There are a lot of pictures of this up on facebook. Also, I have never been so sick in my life. Go figure that Mexican food would've been the cuisine to thrash my stomach in Suriname.