A First Taste of South America

I arrived in Suriname very early on Saturday morning. As we walked off the plane, the heavy South American air hit us like a wave, and we could taste it. All twenty-five of us piled into a small bus for NAKS, the training site that will function as our base of operations for much of the next three months.

My fellow volunteers are both passionate and serious. The projects that we will be engaged in are practical, and the ways in which we are supposed to perform the projects are responsible and lasting. The approach to development is similar to my dad's approach to leadership, coming along side the people to function as a conduit and a catalyst for the people to fulfill their own needs. That being said, I am sure to learn a lot more about our actual effectiveness, and if I can learn something along those lines, I will consider my time useful.

We have had a lot of learing activities already. On our second day in-country, we went into the hinterland to see what the villages look like there. We swam in a river after lunch while a dog was chewing on a piranah head on the beach. That was a bit disconcerting, but we all made it back. The Ambassador to Suriname gave a presentation today and ate lunch with us. Sranan Tongo language training is going very well. In the first day we laerned greatings and simple conversation, numbers (Dutch ones too), time, locations and directions, days of the week, and started foods. We have been very busy.

We received our site assignments today. I am in one of the remotest places for volunteers in the interior. To get to my site I have to take a bus for about four hours than a canoe for about four or five more hours. There may be an airstrip built there soon, and that is actually one of my many potential projects. I will be able to communicate by SAT phone or HF radio, but I think it will only be for emergencies. Electricity will be available in the evenings if there is enough diesel for the generator. This will be a different way of life than I am used to, but I am confident that it will be good. I will be with a few other volunteers for all but the last hour or so to my site, but then, I am on my own. I will be the first volunteer in my village ever, and apparently the people are very excited about it.