Since April 4...

Since April 4, quite a bit has happened here for me in Suriname.

I spent one weekend in April working a basketball camp with Stanford alum who played for the women's basketball team. Shelly's teammates from Stanford flew into Suriname and I helped them out for 3 days. We worked with young girls in the morning and the women at night, teaching them basic basketball fundamentals.

After the camp, my mom came to Suriname. We did a few nights in the city, a few nights at the luxurious eco-tourism camp called Bergendal and 5 nights in Gunzi. In the city, I took my mom to Madonna's for a traditional Peace Corps dinner--Saoto soup washed down with several Parbo beers. At Bergendal, we did zip lining through the jungle canopy. And at site, we hung out with the women and threw a dance party for the village. The highlight of my mom's stay actually came after she left. A women from my village named Teti called my mom's cell phone number that I gave her a year ago while on vacation in the States. She dialed but my mom didn't have the phone on. When I asked Teti what she'd talk about with my mom since she didn't speak a word of English, she told me she just wanted to call and give my mom some "weki" (good morning).

After my mom left, I went with Craig and Matt to French Guyana to go and visit Julien (who had already come and visit us). We crossed the border from Suriname to French Guyana by boat and met our friend in St. Laurent. We stayed at his place near Kourou and he took us around French Guyana. There were highlights a plenty during this trip, including some hikes to jungle prisons, great dinners, endless caprinhas and a trip the Cayenne market as well as a trip to the infamous French Guyana penitentiary, Devil's Island, which is the more fucked-up Alcatraz equivalent of France (Papillion is based off this place).

Upon returning to Suriname I spent about a week in the city to go back out to the border crossing. But instead of crossing into French Guyana I'd be embarking on what I thought would be a several hour boat ride south to go and stay with a friend named Dave who lived on the Lawa River with the Ndjuka maroon tribe. The several hour boat ride turned into a two day adventure. We left Albina and headed south with a fully loaded boat around 10 am. When we finally docked that evening after 5 pm, we stopped at a random camp with a Chinese owned store. were not halfway to our destination but we had a place to hang our hammocks and grab a cold beer so I was a happy camper. We finally made it to our destination the following day at 6 pm. That week, I worked with Dave, three other Peace Corps volunteers and local residents of the area to construct a playground. I helped bring pieces of wood from the jungle into a boat and then unloaded from the boat onto our work area. I think 6 of us transported over 300 pieces of wood in 2 days. With the heat, some of the hardest work I've ever done. When I left, all the beams for the frame of the towers had been put into the ground. I've since seen some pictures of the playground and it looks pretty awesome.

Another note worthy event which I hope to post some videos (there are already pics on facebook) was the 4th of July party in Gunzi that I hosted. Basically, to promote American ideals I bought a bunch of hot dogs, opened up a can of sauerkraut that PC Sur-14 volunteer, Josey, gave me a year ago, hung some American flags in the community center and brought some games and threw a nice party. We played some pin the tail on the donkey, Operation and colored some photos of famous American Civil Rights heroes. To conclude the celebration, we hung a poster of all the flags of the World on the World Map that we did in Gunzi and a Monte Ellis Slamadamonth poster from a Slam magazine my mom had brought me. Go Warriors!

Since the end of May, I've most been in Gunzi. With most of the volunteers in my group already gone or leaving, I've been attending going away parties almost every week. Of course, the big kahuna of going away parties was held in Zemoise where Craig and Casey paid to bring in the best band on the river, Lawa Style.
Highlight of the night was definitely all the volunteers dancing on stage with the band.

At this point in time, I am the last Peace Corps volunteer for Sur 15 still at their original site. All others have gone to America, moved out of their village and are staying in the city, and three folks from our group will be staying in Suriname for a 3rd year and are already working in the city. I will be here one more month to see out the end of the school year. And yes, there will be one more going away party.