I made it! Through my first three months at site; what a time it has been! I can say that overall everything is going great and I feel very lucky to be in my village and to be in the situation I’m in, things couldn’t be going better. That is not to say that these first three months have not been difficult, everyday has presented a new challenge, some bigger than others, but its all part of what I’d like to call the Peace Corps experience.
Let’s backtrack to day one, or just before that to the first trip coming up here. For our initial move in we (the two other Peace Corps volunteer whose sites are close to mine and myself) had a lot of stuff, household items and food, so we took a boat instead of flying, since it was just way to much stuff to fit in a plane. When flying it takes a little under an hour to get from Paramaribo to my site, but taking a boat takes just bit longer, in this case about a 5 hour car ride to the river and about an 8 hour boat ride. My village out of the three of us is the furthest up river so I was last one to be dropped off, we actually ended up staying overnight at the first volunteers village since it was already evening when we got there, and at that point in the river just upstream of the village there are huge rapids that require taking some stuff out of the boat and hauling it across an island while the boat with less weight can maneuver the rapids; then loading the stuff back in the boat, so that adds about an hour to the whole trip. So by day two I was finally at site by around 10 in the morning. Though it took forever it was actually nice to take a boat up the river to see the country from that vantage point, I intend to take the boat again eventually, but not as a regular thing since it takes at least a day.
Luckily for me, Mike the previous Peace Corps volunteer did an excellent job on the house, and it was in move in condition once I got there, so all I had to do was just move my stuff in and get it all sorted. By the next day I was ready to get out into the village. To me this was a very important thing to do, because success in these next two years would depend how well known I would be in my village, in order to do this I knew that I would have to make myself seen and get to know people on a personal level. To achieve this, to me would be simple but difficult at the same time, I would walk the village every day, stopping and talking on the way, so this I started on the second day and have kept it up ever since, not a day goes by that I don’t walk somewhere. Usually I walk the whole village, since it’s large it usually takes me about 3-5 hours a day, depending on how long I stop and talk for. I also concentrate on focusing on different parts of the village in order to try to equally spend time with everyone. I can say that after my first 3 months this has been a huge success, the majority of the population of the village knows who I am and what I’m doing there. Getting myself out there was very difficult at first since no one knew who I was and my language was really bad, but it was a great learning experience and a great life experience, to really just throw myself out there.
As for the reason of me being here in the first place, the whole Peace Corps thing, and what I’ll be bringing to the village, in this time I’ve as been lucky in that I’ve been able to identify all the projects that I’ll be doing in the next two years, now who knows if I’ll be able to complete or even start all of them, but just knowing what is needed and wanted in my village is huge, because now I can focus the projects at hand. Below is a list of these projects, its sorted out in two categories long term and short term projects, the long term being projects that I think will take a while to get done, and the short term being projects that I think I’ll be able to pull off in a time frame of months once I start them. I’m going to be working on the long term and short term projects simultaneously, with the short ones one after another. Below, the CHE stands for community health extension and CED stands for Community economic development.
Primary Activities (Long Term)
- Hypertension/Nutrition Awareness Program (CHE)
- Home Utility Training Program (CED)
Secondary Activities (Short Term)
- Church Lifevest Project (CHE)
- Radio Education Program – Astronomy, HIV/AIDS, Climate Change (CHE and CED)
- Suriname Map Project
- ECO Sustainable Gardening Training (CHE)
- English Lessons
- Computer Training (CED)
As for challenges, there are many, some are there by default, just by living in this situation, while others are a surprise. My biggest struggle in the village, something I’m very surprised about has been with the women who live around me, there a huge a pain in the ass, it’s kind of funny though. Next to my house, literally right next door, about 10 feet away, is the moonhouse. Now this is a very special house where when a woman starts and is on her period she has to go and live there for the duration of her period, so, what this means for me is that I have a constant flow of women on their periods living right next door to me, sometimes 3 at a time. And these women aren’t your normal women, they’re, how shall I put it, loud and proud. That’s means a huge pain in the ass for me, let me tell you! But looking to the positive, a really good experience in dealing with woman as moody as they come. So, all in all, for this being my biggest struggle is a cake walk compared to what could be.
Another challenge is the amount of free time, but free time without the distractions that we’re used to, like TV, internet, sports, or really anything. This is something that I feel is going to be one of the biggest learning experiences since without these distraction the focus comes down to the people, which is something that I feel is very important for relationship building. This applies not only here but everywhere in the world, especially in the states, where we have to many things that take away from what I consider the key component in life, relationships. To me most people have very poor relationships with one another, on every level possible, from friends to married couples. Being here I’m getting a chance that I would most likely have never got, that is to have none of these distractions, and really build relationships with others on levels that wouldn’t really be possible in the states since there are just too many distractions.
So there you go, that’s my first three month for you, that is essentially what’s been going on, there’s much more than that but it’s hard to put it down here since I’m really not the writer/blogger. I did though; take a bunch of photos, the focus being on the environment of the village, buildings and such. Take a look, if anyone has any questions, just ask in a comment, I’ll get back to you, but in a while, I don’t plan on being back in the city until Christmas time, so it’ll be two month or so before I’m back on.
Take care…
