Welcome to Suriname

If any of you have checked out Suriname on Wikipedia, one of the country's major claims to fame is having a broad mixture of ethnic groups and languages. This aspect of Suriname has already completely fascinated me. I thoroughly enjoy sociology, general people watching, and cross cultural experiences. Sooooo...Ryan and I visited a PC volunteer who has already been here for 2 years last week. He was a gracious host and we had a relaxing, mostly kid-free stint. The third day there, however, my ear started to hurt, so I gave the PC doctor a call. He said that he had a good contact at the nearby medical mission, so I should go there to get it checked out. We show up and the Doc's contact was very excited to tell us that he had two doctors in that day, so he would have them look at my ear. The two doctors walk out. One is about 6'7” and from Holland while the other is about 5'5” and from Cuba. Apparently Cuba sends healthcare providers to many nearby nations in need and I am told they are very good. Holland is Suriname's biggest investor, charitable partner and, of course, former colonial power. Apparently, they send an array of skilled individuals (largely in the medical field) to Suriname for field experience.

At one point, the Surinamese contact was taking to the PC doctor on the phone in Dutch with probably a mix of Saramaccan and Sranan Tongo, then the Surinamese guy would tell the Dutch kid what the doc said in Dutch, who in turn told the Cuban doctor what was said in English and they both tried to tell me in English. I then turned to the Cuban guy and spoke to him in Spanish. It was a very entertaining experience.