Tapanahony: Matt’s Village and Jungle

Next, we toured his village. It is a large island with a phone tower (great phone reception), and a radio station. He showed me his favorite shady spot to sit. By the way, the bench has “fight my” written on it. There is no word written after “my”.

The Obama Restaurant:

Next he led me through the jungle. I can now officially say that I have walked through the Amazon rainforest.

Unfortunately, there are no large wild animals there. All the large animals are farther away from human settlements. However, there were some LOUD bugs.

There was also a pet monkey in the village.

Matt's Neighborhood

Matt’s neighborhood consists of jungle behind his home, several families on one side, and the moon house on the other side. The moon house is the place where menstruating women sleep. Njuka communities sometimes require menstruating women to follow a system of rules about where they can go. Sleeping in a separate house is one of those rules. Basically, Matt is lucky enough to have a rotating group of women on their periods move in next door to him each week!

These are the neighbors’ houses.

This is the view when you step outside his front door

After touring his neighborhood, we went to the river to wash dishes, and fill buckets with river water. (He bathes in the river during the day, and bathes in the shower at night using buckets of river water.)

Matt showed me the spot on the river where he was stung by a sting ray.

“Now,” he instructed, “Wade into the river chest deep and fill up the buckets with water.”

“What about the sting rays?”

“I’m sure they’re gone. Stop standing in the shallow end. The deeper water is cleaner and better for filling buckets. There are lots of other people here.”

“Yes, but all the other people are in the shallow end. There is no one else in the deep end.”

As I waded deeper into the water, one of the women washing dishes noticed my hesitancy.

“San pasa?” (What’s wrong)

“Mi fede den chopula!” (I’m afraid of sting rays!)

“Ay! Yu mus waka so.” (You must walk like this) (Njuka is an English -based language, so if it looks like a word in English, it probably represents that word)  She showed me how to kick sand in front of me and drag my toes in the dirt. Apparently, sting rays run away when kicked from the side, and attack only when stepped on from above.

I dutifully collected the water in the deep part while dragging my toes carefully.

Matt, thanks for trying to kill me.

Tapanahony: Matt's House

Matt took me across the river in his boat! Also featured in this picture is his decorated paddle.

Next, we visited his home. It is an “A frame” house with a two tables and a chair inside. He sleeps in a hammock, which he tucks in a corner each morning.  This is the outside of his house.

This is him in the back of his house, which is his kitchen area. I took the photo from the front door.

He has a latrine a few feet behind his house, and a shower area. He collects buckets of river water and brings them to his shower. This is a picture from his house looking at the latrine.

This is his latrine.

Tapanahony: The Plane Ride

First, there was the plane ride. The plane was the smallest plan I have ever been on! The plane technically had space for about 18 people.  However, since two entire rows were covered with boxes, there were only six seats available.

The view from the plane window was gorgeous.

I have been to Native American villages (like Pierre Kondre Kumbasi) but this is my first time staying in a maroon village. This is also my first time going this far south in the country. Pierre Kondre is a few hours south by bus. This section of the Tapanahony River is an hour south by plane. The environment here is completely different. Redi Doti (which is the Sranan word for red dirt) has lots of red sand. It is the savanna. The Tapanahony River has more mud and some white sand.

When I landed, Matt greeted me at the airstrip, which is not technically in his village. Matt’s village is an island surrounded on either side by the Tapanahony River. The strip is a field next to an elementary school on the mainland.  This photo was taken from the airstrip, looking across that river at Matt’s village.

Broko dei fu a Graanman Intro

I visited Matt, a Peace Corps volunteer in a village on the Tapanahony River (where the funeral is taking place), for a few days during the broko-dei for the graanman of the Njuka people. A broko-dei is a maroon funeral. The Njuka people are descendents of escaped slaves (maroons) who hid in the interior of Suriname. Funerals are typically weeklong celebrations of the life of the deceased. The word broko-dei literally means “break the day” because family members party in front of the casket until dawn. In the interior, the head political figure is called a graanman (like grand man). Since the graanman of the Njuka people was a public figure who was in power for over 40 years, his broko-dei has been a several month long event. He died in 2011, and the funeral is still going on in March of 2012.  

Zoo

I visited the Paramaribo zoo with several friends. We found it funny that so many wild animals that did NOT belong to the zoo had come to the zoo looking for food that people drop. There were stray dogs, birds, and even monkeys. One wild parrot flew down to stare at the caged zoo parrots.
There were wild squirrel monkeys hanging out in a huge tree across from the caged zoo monkeys. The wild monkeys did not appreciate being photographed. When throwing food at us did not work, they tried peeing on us, since they were in a huge tree overhead. Actually, I was not beneath them. I decided not to dodge monkey pee, so I backed away. I did not get any photos of that ignorant mess. Oh well.

Pink Bananas!

These are my personal statements and do not reflect the opinions of PeaceCorps.

I am a Peace Corps volunteer in Suriname. Suriname contains a massive amount of unspoiled Amazon rainforest. This place has the most beautiful plants I have ever seen.  My personal favorites were the pink bananas I saw yesterday.

I have stopped working with the schools in the district. I was teaching biweekly typing lessons at a primary school and a junior high school / high school. There was a HUGE range of skill levels. Some kids had never used computer before while others had their own computers at home. On Fridays I worked with the teachers on Powerpoint, Excel, Word and Google. The hope was to eventually train them to teach the lessons in my place.

Now, I have moved to the city.

Yesterday I visited a flower shop. I thought it was a small indoor flower shop selling fresh cut flowers like the ones in the US.  Instead, it was a huge outdoor field, and all the flowers were still on the trees. The walkway through it was like a giant maze, so they hung traditionally decorated cloth (Maroon cloth is called pangie or kosu, Javanese cloth is called batik) to keep us from getting lost.
Along the way, I tried guava jelly/ jam/ marmalade (not sure which one) and awara juice. Awara looks like an orange but tastes like a mix of melon with citrus. 

At the end of the maze was food stand with performers. I saw a traditional Amerindian dance.