Christmas in a Nutshell

The week before Christmas: All of the school kids put on a Christmas pageant. They sang songs in Sranan Tongo, Saramaccan, Dutch and English. Talk about multiple languages! It was really fun to go.

A couple days before Christmas: The women cleaned up the yard around the church and asked Ryan and I if we would help put up their Christmas tree. I am sure some missionary gave them one back in the 70s. I had never put one together like that before- branch by branch!

Random fact: I helped put up and decorate no fewer than 5 Christmas trees this year. Personal record.

Women cleaning

Ryan and Tante Fe working on the tree

Christmas Eve: We went to church twice. Yep, twice. Once in the evening around 7ish, then back again at 11:30ish. Tradition dictates that everyone wear white (if you have it).

All the kids received a lit candle to walk back to their homes in the dark.

 In between church, Ryan and I exchanged gifts. We decided to set a 15 SRD limit (less than 5 USD) to buy each other a gift at the local convenience store. We already had Christmas and presents with our families while we were home, so no need to feel sorry for us. We just thought it would be fun to have something to open.

Unwrapping my gift

Christmas Day: Can you guess? Our village went to church again. Sidenote: Lefurny keeps up with the latest styles by importing all her dresses from Grandma Barb in America. I do my part with the matching hair beads!

Day after Christmas: 2nd Christmas. Yes, we went to church.

Click here to see more Christmas pictures. Spoiler: You have GOT to see this tree.

Annual New Year's Meeting

Around the 1st of January, our village holds an annual meeting to discuss what is going on in the village and address any issues. Many people come out from the city. From my experience, it is the only time of the year that men wear traditional clothing and  out number the women at a village meeting. This year it was 5 hours long. We took some great pictures, though!

Meeting 

Traditional Saramaccan dress for men: badja koto and camisa (Giyer and Gio). Cross stitched by their wives, of course.

Tante Fe, Me, Basia Shirley and Jei

Me and Basia Simon- he is over 90 and so sweet! That is the official basia (village leader) uniform.

During this meeting, Ryan announced to our village that Peace Corps is phasing out of Suriname due to budgetary issues. Unfortunately, several small, expensive Peace Corps countries are being shut down, at least temporarily because Peace Corps worldwide was just not awarded enough money to keep all of their programs running in this year's budget. The group that arrived after ours (SUR 17s) is the last Peace Corps group for Suriname. When they finish their service in 2013 Peace Corps will pull out. This is an unfortunate and challenging addition to our Peace Corps experience. However, Ryan did an excellent job communicating this difficult and sensitive situation to our village, using the traditional Saramaccan meeting etiquette.

For more pictures, click here.

For pictures from actual New Years Day in our village (the New Years meeting was held a couple weeks into January this year), click here.

Thank you Mrs. Tracy's class!

While we were home for the holidays, Ryan and I were able to visit Mrs. Tracy's class. In fact, we had the opportunity to talk about Peace Corps and our experience in Suriname during an assembly. It was great for us to finally meet Mrs. Tracy's current and past students in person after communicating via Skype and snail mail for the past two years from Suriname.

Today Ryan and I both received birthday cards from Mrs. Tracy's class! They must have been planning ahead because snail mail takes awhile to arrive and they came 7 days before my birthday. Thanks so much everyone! We really enjoyed reading all of your beautiful cards. This one even has some Saramaccan:

Pretty impressive!

The Amazon: Terrifying and Awesome

Every time I talk to my friend Jason, he always asks me if I have seen a poison arrow frog yet. Every time, I laugh and tell him no. Like any area around a settlement, the animals who once lived around my village, figured out to go deeper into the jungle where they won’t be disturbed by humans. Honestly, I did not think that I would see one of those frogs my entire tour. Well, Jason, I've seen a poison arrow frog! In fact, I have seen three in the past two days. Two black and lime green:

And one black and neon yellow:

 The Amerindians (American Indians) indigenous to this area used to rub the tips of their arrows in the poison from these frogs’ skin. Once it hits the bloodstream, I am told that it can be deadly. The yellow frog Ryan found next to our latrine…truth be told he peed on it. The two lime green ones we saw while camping at a nature reserve. About 12 of us went for a day and a half, to hike and look for animals. On our longest hike the group collectively saw four snakes. Yes, we are pretty sure they were all poisonous. I was able to get this awesome picture:

 My favorite part of the trip, though, was the monkeys! I saw so many monkeys! Four separate troops of at least three different species. Three of those four troops passed directly over my head! SO COOL. They seem so carefree, frolicking and free falling from tree to tree. We saw tiny ones, medium ones and bigger ones. I think one was a howler monkey. I saw one baby on a mother’s back. They are all so fast, plus very high up, plus covered by the thick trees, so very hard to capture with a camera, but I got lucky with the last troop:

 There were also pretty birds, creepy spiders, lots of army ants, a kokoni (large rodent- not sure what the English name is) and unreal flora. 

We saw a couple Morpho Butterflies. They are beautiful! I see them frequently when I go to the creek by my house to wash dishes and clothes. They do this drunk, kamikaze flying pattern that makes it impossible (for me) to take a picture. They are said to be a sign of good luck. Here is a picture I found online:

I had my first experience with fish biting me hard enough to hurt. No, not piranhas, don’t worry. We hiked for about 2 ½ hours to a fresh water pool and went swimming. The pond had aggressive minnow-like fish that kept biting everyone. Not enough to cause damage but, boy, did they catch me off guard every time.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the company was awesome. We have some amazing and talented individuals here in Peace Corps Suriname.