Adoption (almost)

For the past three and a half weeks, and soon for another three and a half weeks, I have been living with a Surinamese family in a town of about two hundred people, called Marshall Kreek. Humphrey and Rita have been the best of adoptive parents, giving me plenty of good food, helping me practice the Aucan language, and making sure that I bathe with a full bucket of water three times a day. They have four children, but still have enough space for me to have my own ten by twenty foot house, which is very nice. They also have a couple of green parrots that do not talk much but have excellent personalities nonetheless.

During this stage of training, I have language classes in the mornings with the two other volunteers in my homestay village, and I have technical training two afternoons a week. On Fridays, all of the volunteers meet in a central village for guest speakers and additional technical training. I also have a community-building assignment for which I teach English to about 25 kids in the village on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. In my free time I spend time with my host family and learn practical things like shaving cassava, planting vegetable gardens, and clipping the wings of parrots so they can walk around outside their cages.

It is not difficult for me to adapt to a new set of living routines, but at first, with my limited Aucan, it was quite a challenge to learn what those routines are. Since language was an issue for the first couple of weeks I had to observe and try to communicate in other ways. For instance, it took me a week to learn that I should use a full bucket of water when bathing, even though I washed three times a day.

In terms of adventure, I sleep in a hammock, and I have a collection of unwelcome visitors in my house such as cockroaches, bats, and a band of giant spiders larger than my fist. These have led to some exciting, and often very funny late night hunts and punitive expeditions within my house. After all this is South America.