Want to tour the port of Paramaribo? Sure. Want to join us on a trip to Guyana? Sure. This week in Suriname, other people have made suggestions, and all I have done is comply or refuse.
I was met at the airport late, late, late Sunday night by Kevin J., friend and former boss who lives here in Suriname and is pastor at the church, Mary C., friend and ELCA colleague I've visited 8 countries with (including Cuba, back in February), and Stephen D., from Holden. Mary was here with another ELCA person on an official delegation trip to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Suriname (ELKS), so the first round of activities I tagged along with was theirs. The port. A little church in the town of Lelydorp. A Roman Catholic mission in Moengo, in eastern Suriname, where the church might have a youth retreat next fall. A small village of Maroons, or what they call in Dutch "bush negros"--descendants of slaves who escaped and hid in the jungle a couple centuries ago, and are still there.
The trip to Guyana starts in an hour and a half. The Lutheran Church in Guyana is having its annual convention. Kevin and two other people from ELKS are attending. Stephen and I will attend for one day and then go off by boat and bus for a trip to Marshall Falls. Guyana and Suriname are in a large delta. There are many rivers to cross, so to speak. It will be hot, buggy, but beautiful, we hope, and next Tuesday we rejoin our colleagues for a ride back to Suriname.
To get to Guyana, we will drive to the town of Niewe Nykerie and stay in an orphanage. Tomorrow we take the ferry to Guyana. There is only one a day. Then we go to Georgetown. Then our trip to the interior. Then back to Georgetown and Skeldon, where there is a Lutheran retreat center, for a night, and then back on the ferry to Suriname.
This week has been lots of rushing around; next week I'll start settling in here. But some initial impressions:
Suriname was fought over by the Dutch and English for a long time. To resolve the dispute, they swapped two colonial possessions. Holland took Suriname; the British took Manhattan. Suriname is independent today, but they still speak Dutch. Just today I took my miniature Spanish dictionary out of my backpack. I'm unlikely to need it this month.
People here are Indian, black, European. Hindu temples, Muslim mosques, and Christian churches are everywhere. On one street, the Jewish synagogue stands next to a mosque. These are very elaborate buildings. I'll post photos next week.
So far I've eaten Indonesian food, Chinese food, and Surinamese food, and even cooked my own dish of curried eggplant with peanuts. All delicious. The beer is good, and the juice. We mix tamarind concentrate with water, ice, and freshly squeezed lime. Yummy!
Kevin has to remember to drive on the left side of the road, but he did that for many years in Papua New Guinea, so that's no problem. I'm glad I'm not driving.
And it's extremely hot, and rains several times a day.
More next week, when I get back from Guyana. Meanwhile, click HERE for a map of Guyana and Suriname, two countries tucked into the "lost coast" of South America.
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