The Last Days in Mabaruma

1/31/14


Hi all, pretty busy week so I figured I'd give y'all a rundown of what happened.


Monday started with PDM but I actually came in Saturday to attend the party of our great and fearless leader, Linda, the current Country Director. One thing they don't tell you about Peace Corps staff is that they are on a two year cycle just like we are. No one stays at their post for longer than two years which seems really unhelpful when you think about it.


Anyways, we went to the party, myself, Mark and Lauren who I met up with in Parika. We all hung out together, played some ping pong and had a good time in general. Afterwards we stayed at a hotel in town and the following day we headed out for Grand Coastal for the Project Design Management conference/training.


Normally, you're supposed to bring a counterpart to the conference and the idea is that you work on a project together with your counterpart that you can bring back to the community and implement. I was unsuccessful in finding a counterpart and, as it turns out, so were Mark and Lauren. So the three of us spent some quality time together at the conference, counterpartless.


Looking back at it now, I can't remember a single thing about the conference. The information that was presented was how to design a project using different strength and weakness tools. Now, these tools might work in an American environment where everyone is fairly well educated but out here where easily half of all adults, adults mind you, can't read it makes everything a lot harder. Not to say the techniques that were presented weren't useful, I'm sure they are but they aren't appropriate for their audience in their current form. And this was never, ever addressed by the staff presenting the material. I don't know if it was a given or they legitimately thought these tools would be helpful.


So that went on for three days. Then, I accompanied my good friend Andrew up to his site in Mabaruma. The only way to get there is by plane. It was quite a small plane, a Cessna 208B Caravan, it held about 12 people. So we flew out about 8am and arrived in Mabaruma about 9. It was a great flight, plenty to look at.


Mabaruma is a hilltop community. When we landed I noted that the altimeter said we were at 1000 feet which is probably the highest I've been in Guyana so that was pretty cool. Anyways, Mabaruma is sort of an extended community that flows down the road into a little valley where Kamaka is. Past Kamaka was Andrew's site, Wauna. We got a ride into town then walked down to Kumaka where we found a bus going to Wauna. Andrew picked the bus and as soon as we got in, I knew we'd made a mistake. Upon entry, we were met by a racket of chirps made by chicks sitting in a cardboard box. There were about 50 of them and throughout the whole ride every time they quieted down we'd hit a bump in the road and they'd start all over again. it was terrible.


After 45 minutes of our own personal hell we arrived in Wauna, which was beautiful Everywhere you looked, fruit trees, coconut trees, anything and everything that grows in Guyana grows in Mabaruma. We hiked up to Andrew's house packed up his stuff then we walked around Wauna. Literally, around, the whole village exits on a loop in the road that takes about 15 minutes to walk. It's a small dirt road that you take your car's life in it's own hands if you try to drive on it there's so many ditches and holes. We walked down to Andrew's health center where I saw the sign he had hung and the skeleton he'd painted. We went and met the Project Trust volunteers, the British equivalent of Peace Corps but way worse, and a few people that had been particularly kind to Andrew.


We left in the afternoon, back to Kumaka and stayed at a guest house there and the flew out in the morning. If you hadn't guessed, Andrew is leaving. He's a good guy and a good friend that I'll miss a lot. For those of you that are counting, that's five that have left now. Kristen, Rob, Emily, Kelly H, and now Andrew.


On the flight back, I got to sit in the copilot's seat. When you're a kid and you get to go in the cockpit and it's pretty cool. That still holds true as an adult. And if the flight was great on the way to Mabaruma the way back was even better. The whole time, All you could see was the lush, green jungle stretching out to the horizon. It was truly amazing and one of those moments that you realize that you're just a very small piece of something bigger than yourself. It felt good. And our pilot was actually an American from San Diego, California. Obviously, I told him my brother was a flight instructor in Oregon so if the pilot needed someone to take over the controls I was willing and able. and I might just do it for fun. He didn't laugh at the last part.


That brings us to today. Joe and I saw Andrew off at the airport. He's not leaving quite yet. He had a vacation planned in Barbados with his mom so he's doing that, coming back to finish the required paperwork then he'll be gone for good.


Thanks for listening everyone. If you want to Facetime or something I'll be in town week after next from the 9th to the 13th. My number is 592 674 8145 there's probably a country code or something, you'll have to figure that out on your own. That number is also good for whatsapp if you want to do some texting. I really do love hearing from people at home so don't be shy. They say one of the hardest things for volunteers coming back is realizing that life went on without them so please let me know what you're doing.


Okay, I've taken up enough of your time, take it easy everyone.

New Years

1/13/15

New Years was pretty cool this year. Maybe two weeks before I was talking to another volunteer, Ryan, about previous new years and we came up with the hypothesis that going somewhere special for New Years is preferable to staying in the same area. This year, I can’t imagine a better place than Suriname, easily in my top three New Years. Even though, for the first time in at least 5 years, I celebrated without John Kammerzelt.

I left for Suriname on the 28^th. There’s a new ferry schedule across the Essequibo, it leaves at 6am, 11am, and 4pm. My friend and Andrew was supposed to be getting to the Peace Corps office in Georgetown about 10 so I thought I’d take the 6am ferry and get to town about the same time if everything went well. I got to the office about 9:30 and Andrew informed me that his plane, the only way out of his site, was delayed by weather. Apparently the plane had made it to the airport in Mabaruma, seen the weather, and turned around so now Andrew wouldn’t make it to town until early afternoon. Secretly, I was pleased to hear the news because it meant I could hang out at the office and use the internet.

Other volunteers passed through the office also on their way to Berbice on the east coast where we would meet up and enter Suriname. A group had just finished hiking Kaiteur Falls and they congregated at the office then dispersed. I continued to wait for Andrew, soaking in all the news and content I’d missed since my last trip into the interwebs. I didn’t want to bring my computer to Suriname so I set it to download some things and found a spot for it in the office where I’d pick it up on my way home.

Finally Andrew made it to the office and we amassed a small party, myself, Andrew, Holleigh, Mollie, Ashley and Ashley’s girlfriend from Spain who spoke very little English, Miriam. The bus park was a nightmare. As soon as we got close drivers and conductors pawed and grabbed at us trying to get us to board their bus. It was not my favorite moment. They swarmed and harassed us until we got onto a bus. It was like feeding time at the zoo, and we were the food.

After we got on a bus we waited for a solid 20 minutes for it to fill then headed for the east coast. We arrived at Matt and Kathrina’s house where most of the group had congregated for the White Elephant game. White Elephant is that game where everyone brings a gift and everyone takes turns stealing and opening gifts. Long story short, I brought three tennis balls and two decks of cards in a black plastic bag and left with a bottle of neutrophil, a nerve tonic.

Most people left to continue the party at Jackie’s house. Andrew, Kelly, Jerrell, Ashley, Miriam, Eben, Naomi, and I all stayed behind. Some of us started slinging our hammocks since we planned on sleeping outside. Normally, since the average temperature at night is in the high 70s, this wouldn't be an issue. I’ll return to this in a second.

A few days before this as I was getting ready to leave I decided I needed a net for my hammock. So I went down to the pharmacy and got one. Now, nets specifically for hammocks are a little hard to come by so I bought one for a bed, brought it home, wrapped it cocoon style around my hammock, and pronounced it good enough. I was and continue to be pretty impressed by my ingenuity and it held up perfectly in its real world application, plus, sleeping in a hammock is pretty cool.

The bus came to get us the next night at midnight. The ferry didn’t leave until 10 but it had been filling more quickly and we wanted to guarantee our spot. We got there about 4am and proceeded to wait until 10AM. Then, we remembered this is Guyana and realized we’d be lucky to leave the shore before 12. 12 comes around and we finally get on the boat for a 20 minute ride to Suriname.

As we got closer, people started to bunch near the front of the boat. We were all quizzical and I was standing on the second level so I could see the horde getting more and more anxious. When the boat landed and the ramp dropped it was pure anarchy. Masses of people rushed for the immigration building. I mean just flat out running like the ferry was on fire. Needless to say, we were all confused by this. We proceeded to disembark like normal humans in an orderly manner.

It was only as we approached the terminal we realized our mistake. Before us lay a swath of humans. A line 10 people wide, and 40 people deep had manifested in front of the building. Initially our thoughts were that this was not a big deal. Suriname customs must be way better than the Guyanese we had just come through. We were wrong. 4 hours later we had all made it through the line. But finally, we were in Suriname. Right?

Wrong, were about a 4 hour drive from Paramaribo where we were all staying. At this point, I was getting tired of the uncomfortable seats and unbearable temperature. Luckily, I had a friend who could take care of that. The bottle of Neutrophil was a godsend. Looking at the ingredients, I read that it was basically a bottle of nicotine. Recalling my psychopharmacology class, I remembered that nicotine is a mild stimulant with some muscle relaxant properties. Between me and my seat mate Lauren we had about half the bottle and sat in relative comfort until Paramaribo.

The next day, we walked around town a little bit, scoping out the place for good New Year’s spots. There was lots of music and people partying. And a plethora of cute Dutch girls. The streets were filled with people drinking and dancing. We hung around for most of the afternoon then about 2pm we headed back to the hotel, napped for a little, then headed out about 9 to party a little bit. It was at this time I really started to have fun. Andrew, Mark, Jerrell, and met up with most of the other crew at Subway, one of the many American influences on Suriname. When we got there another volunteer, Ryan, suggested we go put 20 Suriname dollars on black at the nearby Princess casino. So Andrew, Ryan and I went down to the casino. For some reason, we decided to warm up with a little blackjack. A little blackjack turned into a lot of blackjack and a lot of alcohol. But the alcohol fueled my luck, I was up $300 when we decided to call it quits about 11 or so. At that point the rest of the crew had caught up with us and here’s where things got a little hazy because of how lucky I was feeling.

Ryan had acquired some free passes to the local night club, Starz. Apparently we went there, it was close to the casino, and they said they didn’t open until 1am. Whatever, if they wanted to turn away business that’s their problem. After that, I remember being on the rooftop bar of the casino counting down to midnight. And as we reached midnight fireworks went off all over the city. Jets of streaking light soared up and exploded in the sky. It was like watching 20 fireworks shows at once. It was pretty cool. We continued to hang around the rooftop bar, meet some Dutch oil prospectors and have a few more drinks.

That about sums up the night, really. The next day we went on a dolphin site seeing tour. Saw some dolphins and then we left at midnight, again.

1/23/15

On my way back from Suriname I met up with a volunteer from another organization, Project Trust. It’s an English organization and the volunteers name is Natasha, Tash for short. As we’re getting on the ferry, I look down and realize the water is really low. I figure this must be because of the new ferry schedule. Before the New Year, the ferry changed from running every 13 hours, to accommodate the tide, to running at 6am, 11am, and 4 pm. When I heard this, I even said, “that’s not going to work with the tide”. So there we are, on the ferry, she’d never been on the ferry before and she was excited about how little it cost compared to a speedboat, almost $1000. So the ferry departs, we’re sitting outside on the side deck enjoying the jungle cruise when all of a sudden, something bad happens.

The boat starts inclining. The front starts angling up and we could hear a horrific grinding noise. Then the boat shudders, which was scary for a boat that size, and slams back down into the water. The best I could figure, the boat hit bottom, rose up as it pushed through, and came back down the other side. After wiping myself I felt fairly validated in my assessment of the ferry’s capabilities.

Now, one of the ferries is broken and there is absolutely no schedule. They have literally no idea when the boat will show up. The only way to find out is to call down to the office which wouldn’t be a bad system if they actually picked up the phone. The new schedule lasted exactly 3 weeks before one of the ferries broke down. Classic Guyana.