Ah, weekend, finally! Ellen and Evi still had a school day today, but the rest of us has today off to “work for the project”. The other two needed to go to school for the annual “Kangoeroebazaar”, the school’s carnival. While they were off having fun with the kids, we stayed home to do the weekly cleaning again. While Marij and I did the down stairs, Sharon and Tineke cleaned the upstairs. We got into a little “water fight” at some point, cause I was cleaning the downstairs terrace and they were doing the upstairs one. All the water they used ended up on my clean one, so I just gave up and waited till they were all done to do the rest of mine.
In the early afternoon Marij and I left to the Hermitage Mall to do some project shopping: we need a whole bunch of materials to be able to make all our lessons work. At about 1.30pm we had about half of what we needed and though it was time for a lunch break. Instead of going for the local bamie or nasie, we went for the third option: fries and chicken nuggets!
After the yummy lunch, we continued our shopping spree. After spending around 150 SRD on arts and crafts materials, we thought it was time to get a bit selfish and see if there was something for ourselves as well. So we entered the book store (our heaven!). I bought some very nice Animal Alphabet cards and a Surinam cook book. (not that I’m a good chef, but perhaps one of my house mates would like to try something from it? And I’ll have something to show when I get back home :p)
When we were waiting for the bus, I got bitten by a red ant (and those bites sting!) which didn’t really put me in a good mood… though the sulking didn’t last long.
Dinner looked awful but tasted pretty good. We didn’t do much else and went to bed shortly after. (For some reason we always end up having dinner around 8-9 o’clock…)
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The second day of our weekend started (again) with sleeping in and having sandwiches for breakfast. I think, by the end of this three month period, I’ll have sandwiches coming out of my ears and nose…
After lunch, Gero came around asking if we were interested in going out of town for a swim. Of course we couldn’t say no to that! Sharon and Tineke could come with us. A child from their school had drowned earlier this week and they had to go to his funeral. (Pretty sad really, a 6 year old in a little white coffin, because no one was watching him in the swimming pool…)
The rest of us packed in a hurry and head to Bersaba, a little local holiday centre with a small river you can swim in. when we got there, I unloaded everything from my backpack to discover I left my bikini pants at home. Typical… No swimming for me :( Though I did enjoy just walking at the bank of the river.
There was a big birthday party happening and, like all Surinam people, we just invited ourselves, took a plate and helped ourselves to some delicious food, even though we didn’t know any of the partying people.
Around 5pm we packed everything up and drove back to Paramaribo. When we arrived home, we had about 5 minutes to get changed, because Gero was taking us to one of his friends for a BBQ. No sign of Tineke and Sharon when we got home, so we assumed they were still at the funeral (it started at 3pm).
After a great evening meal, we did get a bit worried, since we hadn’t heard from them yet and it was getting late. So around 9pm I called them. Apparently they had left a note on the table saying we should call them when we get home, cause they were heading into town for the big carnival. But since we had to rush to get ready, none of us had noticed it…
When we got home afterwards, they were a bit pissed at us and we got very short, snappy answers when we asked them any questions about how their day went.
We decided to leave it at that, since we thought they could’ve rang us as well to ask where we were and if we were back already…
After an eventful and tiring day we all went to bed early.
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Last day of the weekend already… nothing much happened really. We had a house meeting to discuss diner plans for the coming week. This way, we can buy all ingredients in advance and don’t have to rush to stores to search for what we need.
We also set up a task schedule: people to do the shopping, people to do the cooking and people to do the dishes. Next week it’s my turn to cook, so I sincerely hope no one will end up in hospital with food poisoning…
The last point on our agenda was trips. When, who, what, where, …? All things were discussed and we decided that we are going on a two day trip to Brownsberg in a fortnight. Brownsberg is a natural environment where you can do all sorts of adventurous or recreational stuff.
After all this was discussed, Marij and I left to do some of the mentioned last minute shopping for tonight’s dinner. We needed to find some fish and “kousenband”, but since it’s Sunday, we needed to ride around a bit before we found what we needed. When we left the shops, one of those typical rain showers had started again, so we hurried back home and changed clothes real quick.
When we were done, some of us started dinner, while the rest of us worked for school.
Not long after dinner we all headed to bed; tomorrow is a new school day after all.
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Pffft, getting up early again…
At school we are concentrating on taking some reading tests to see which kids can and which can’t read and how good they are at it. This will take up about a week, cause we have to test each child individually and we have about 120 students.
We also had our first evaluation with the principal, about our observations. This lasted about the entire morning, so we didn’t have much time left for the testing. We were also advised to have more conversations with the teachers and the students, so this week we’ll also concentrate on that.
Because of the rain this morning, we took a taxi home again.
We didn’t do anything else till about 6.30pm. Tineke and Sharon’s vice-principal had invited us all to a Hindu temple for a celebration. Lots of singing, chanting and talking, but we didn’t understand a word of what they said! (Apart from a few thank you words that were translated)
We also got some very delicious food: barras (a sort of savoury donut) and roti (looks a bit like burritos, but it’s filled with potatoes, beans and some sort of curry).
When we got home, we all ate everything fast (it was 9.30pm) and went to bed.
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On the second day of the week we again did the reading tests and took a taxi home again (two days in a row where we wake up with rain, kinda depressing).
After calling a taxi, we waited for about half an hour. Still no sign of him, so we called a second cab. 15 mins later the first one finally arrived, so I called the second taxi driver again to cancel, but he didn’t pick up his phone…
When we got home, that cab driver was waiting for us at the supermarket on the corner, pissed off cause we “stood him up”. After explaining we did try to contact him, but we didn’t get any response, he got back in his car and drove off.
Marij and I worked a bit for school and then she and Ellen head to the supermarket to buy some flour. Ellen had found a Mac and cheese recipe and she wanted to try that one out. (Let’s just say it was a lot of mac, a lot of cheese and not much else.)
After some relaxing and finishing our work, I headed to bed.
Halfway the working week again, time flies by when you’re having fun!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
About teaching, libraries and swimming
Don’t really have anything interesting to say about Sunday: just was a typical lazy Sunday.
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Today we observed a PE lesson. “PE”, cause I didn’t really see the kids moving much…
Marij and I taught for the first time today, no preparation, no materials, no nothing! Thankfully the 2nd grade teacher appeared with a few exercises the children could make. After an intense search for the right books for the kids, we finally got them to make the exercises. We got home extremely exhausted. Let’s hope a whole week of teaching isn’t going to be as bad as this one day or I won’t even make the first weekend…
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We had a meeting with all Dutch student teachers. We were getting a bit more info about Suriname, the habits, culture, values, … (not really *that* interesting, cause we had already figured out most of what the policeman/social worker said)
Afterwards we went for a drink and then headed into town for some shopping. Since I don’t like shopping (at all!) I was bored after visiting two shops already. Evi and I headed back home, while the rest continued spending all their money.
After one last game of Time’s Up I was so exhausted I couldn’t even think straight anymore, so I went to bed early.
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On Wednesday we got our hands dirty at school. Marij and I had our minds set on cleaning up the school library. We got about half of it done when school was out, so a pretty productive day. Continuing this tomorrow and hopefully have everything done then, so we can start using it next week.
We also went for another refreshing swim today and met two of Tineke and Sharon’s fellow student teachers (from The Netherlands). Two very cheerful and sociable girls who already invited us over to celebrate their birthdays with them.
We got hopelessly lost riding back home, but after about 15 minutes we came back near our starting point and Marijke and I took over pole positions to lead everyone home safely.
Once home I realised how very tired I was, so after unpacking my wet towels I went straight to bed.
Our second week is already halfway… time flies when you’re having fun!
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Last day of the school week for us already again. Marij and I finished the last bits of the cleaning up right before school was out. The entire library is now done and ready to be used again.
When everyone got home we had a quick lunch (bread again) and Sharon went to bed for a nap. Ellen and Evi have a carnival at their school tomorrow, so they spent some time making their improvised costumes (a flower girl and a butterfly).
A few of the house mates got ready to go out to Zus en Zo (a little pub/meeting place thing) while Evi and I stayed home to work for school (feeling a bit guilty about not having done a lot yet). But it paid off, I’m very proud to announce I have finished one of the assignments already! (this one’s due on Monday, so yay for me: I’m three days early!)
-----
Today we observed a PE lesson. “PE”, cause I didn’t really see the kids moving much…
Marij and I taught for the first time today, no preparation, no materials, no nothing! Thankfully the 2nd grade teacher appeared with a few exercises the children could make. After an intense search for the right books for the kids, we finally got them to make the exercises. We got home extremely exhausted. Let’s hope a whole week of teaching isn’t going to be as bad as this one day or I won’t even make the first weekend…
-----
We had a meeting with all Dutch student teachers. We were getting a bit more info about Suriname, the habits, culture, values, … (not really *that* interesting, cause we had already figured out most of what the policeman/social worker said)
Afterwards we went for a drink and then headed into town for some shopping. Since I don’t like shopping (at all!) I was bored after visiting two shops already. Evi and I headed back home, while the rest continued spending all their money.
After one last game of Time’s Up I was so exhausted I couldn’t even think straight anymore, so I went to bed early.
-----
On Wednesday we got our hands dirty at school. Marij and I had our minds set on cleaning up the school library. We got about half of it done when school was out, so a pretty productive day. Continuing this tomorrow and hopefully have everything done then, so we can start using it next week.
We also went for another refreshing swim today and met two of Tineke and Sharon’s fellow student teachers (from The Netherlands). Two very cheerful and sociable girls who already invited us over to celebrate their birthdays with them.
We got hopelessly lost riding back home, but after about 15 minutes we came back near our starting point and Marijke and I took over pole positions to lead everyone home safely.
Once home I realised how very tired I was, so after unpacking my wet towels I went straight to bed.
Our second week is already halfway… time flies when you’re having fun!
-----
Last day of the school week for us already again. Marij and I finished the last bits of the cleaning up right before school was out. The entire library is now done and ready to be used again.
When everyone got home we had a quick lunch (bread again) and Sharon went to bed for a nap. Ellen and Evi have a carnival at their school tomorrow, so they spent some time making their improvised costumes (a flower girl and a butterfly).
A few of the house mates got ready to go out to Zus en Zo (a little pub/meeting place thing) while Evi and I stayed home to work for school (feeling a bit guilty about not having done a lot yet). But it paid off, I’m very proud to announce I have finished one of the assignments already! (this one’s due on Monday, so yay for me: I’m three days early!)
Monday, February 16, 2009
Mi lobi joe for troe
An early start again: we were expected at the police station at 8am, to go to the ministry to get our passports checked.
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
So we arrived about an hour late (and still actually were an hour early, go figure).
It took us half a day to get everything sorted out (and a lot of driving from here to there and back again), but eventually everything was ok. Our “Tour guides” also took us to a place where we could rent a bike. Marij and I now ‘own’ our own little bicycles to go to school (daily taxis would turn out to become a pretty expensive thing)… I just hope we don’t get lost tomorrow!
When we finally got back home, some of us went to the cybercafé, while the rest stayed homework for school. After dinner (yummy hot dogs!) the rest of us made the trip to the internet café to upload part of our blog already and talk to friends. Being this busy, I didn’t even realise I missed them so much! And an hour is gone so quickly when you have lots to talk about…
Back home for some late night chit chat and a good rest.
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The alarm went off too soon (yes, again! I’m just not used to it anymore!) And I had a horrible night. Woke up at 1am, sweating like a pig and feeling extremely nauseous. Took a pill to calm down my stomach and didn’t have much problems after that, though it did f*ck up my sleep…
Went to our school again today, by bike. And we didn’t get lost! (Yay for us!) We spent a whole day of observing local teachers doing their job. Did notice that discipline isn’t something they’ve heard of yet. Chaos everywhere, which is very exhausting cause you need extra energy to be ably to concentrate on what they’re saying. I’m glad school is only half a day over here. Got back home (again without making any wrong turn) and had a quick lunch.
We managed to lock ourselves out on the terrace… But luckily we have very friendly neighbours and Roché came to the rescue! We got our bikini’s out and just chilled out a bit.
Roché took us out for ‘bakabana’, a baked banana. Then off to the supermarket for some last minute shopping and Roché took us on a little sight seeing trip around the block. Back home, we quickly did the dishes and cooked dinner.
Only one more day and it’ll be weekend! (We arranged to have Fridays off to work on our project) So more chilling, relaxing and doing nothing! :p
-----
Last day of getting up early! We all had breakfast together and then went our own ways.
Observing the fourth and third grade was our job today. After the raising of the flag and the national anthem (like every morning), all kids went to their own classroom.
The fourth grade wasn’t any better than the others we had already seen: a lot of noise and running around. And while the teacher was writing everything down on the blackboard, the kids had fun switching their shoes and parading through the classroom.
After the break it was time for the third grade. Apparently this is the worst one. All kids were just walking around and it seems that hitting, kicking, pulling and pushing each other is a daily activity.
After lunch we hung out with the guys from our neighbourhood. We had our personal chefs for the night: Gero and Roché, our neighbours from across the street, promised us they’d cook dinner.
Three hours after he started, we were all starving and ready for some food, but still no sign of it… At 10.30pm everything was finally ready and we had the most delicious bami we had ever had!
We were all exhausted from this last day, so after dishes we chatted a bit more with our chefs and went to bed. I am looking forward to not having to get up at 6 for once!
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Friday today and got out of bed at 10.30am. a quick trip to the supermarket and then sandwiches for breakfast.
We decided that today would be cleaning day, so we went on a little search to find the brooms, buckets and detergent. We rid the kitchen from all ants, cleaned our bedrooms, the living room and the terrace. By noon we were all sweating like pigs, but we were done! So time for lunch. Afterwards, half of us went on a trip to the Hermitage Mall while the other half stayed home for some chilling, relaxing and sunbathing. Even though it’s rain season, we had a few days with loads of sunshine, so we’re definitely not complaining!
After about half an hour of sunbathing the three of us decided we wanted to go swimming. So we invited our neighbour and took a taxi into town. At the swimming pool we stood before a closed door: seems that the pool wouldn’t reopen till 7pm (it was 5.30 at that time)… So we headed into town for a drink till it was time to head back. Marij en Roché also felt like going for a swim, so when we got back to the pool they arrived as well.
After about an hour of swimming and playing, Roché needed to go to football practice and we went to get something to eat. A delicious eggroll with “kousenband” (kind of beans) and “bakabana” (baked banana).
When we got home, there wasn’t a sign of the other two and everything was dark. Seemed that they were taking a nap. By midnight we went to wake them up, since we had plans to go out today. Roché showed up right as we were all dressed and off we went to Zsa Zsa Zsu, the local disco.
We had a blast! It was pretty empty, so loads of space for dancing and moving. To our surprise there weren’t many Surinam people, most of the people inside were Caucasian (probably students as well) and even the music wasn’t much different from the music we play at home.
By 5am our feet hurt like hell and so we left to go back home. Thank god we can sleep in late tomorrow.
-----
The next day was a very relaxed day. Some of us headed into town to go food shopping, while we stayed home to work for school (after all, we’re not on vacation). Luckily we didn’t have the temptation we had the past few days: the sun was hidden behind a layer of dark clouds and soon rain started pouring down. We kinda feared our city housemates would be soaked by the time they got home, but fortunately they found shelter at the house of the other Belgian students.
When it had finally stopped raining, we got a nice surprise. Our neighbours from across the street had company. And one of them had brought a cute, sweet cuddly little monkey with him! He did seem to like me, since I got a thorough grooming. Even though it was one of the cutest things I had ever seen, it was also very sad to see the little thing with a chain around it’s waist…
Spaghetti for dinner tonight. Apart from the fact that the sauce had too much pepper, the pasta was too salty and the meatballs had turned into schnitzels (the shoppers took the wrong kind of meat home), it was very delicious!
Today and tomorrow is washing day and I was the first one to try the weird washing machine out. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not that hard and everything came out of the machine in the same condition as how it went in (but it was clean!).
Another nice fact: Marij brought a hammock with her, and we tested it out today. Very cosy and comfortable for napping! ^^
Mi lobi joe all for troe!
(I love you all a lot!)
P.S. I'm trying to upload a few pics to my photobucket, hopefully it'll work, since the internetcafe has a very slow connection...
http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa171/Myrea1986/Suriname/
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
So we arrived about an hour late (and still actually were an hour early, go figure).
It took us half a day to get everything sorted out (and a lot of driving from here to there and back again), but eventually everything was ok. Our “Tour guides” also took us to a place where we could rent a bike. Marij and I now ‘own’ our own little bicycles to go to school (daily taxis would turn out to become a pretty expensive thing)… I just hope we don’t get lost tomorrow!
When we finally got back home, some of us went to the cybercafé, while the rest stayed homework for school. After dinner (yummy hot dogs!) the rest of us made the trip to the internet café to upload part of our blog already and talk to friends. Being this busy, I didn’t even realise I missed them so much! And an hour is gone so quickly when you have lots to talk about…
Back home for some late night chit chat and a good rest.
-----
The alarm went off too soon (yes, again! I’m just not used to it anymore!) And I had a horrible night. Woke up at 1am, sweating like a pig and feeling extremely nauseous. Took a pill to calm down my stomach and didn’t have much problems after that, though it did f*ck up my sleep…
Went to our school again today, by bike. And we didn’t get lost! (Yay for us!) We spent a whole day of observing local teachers doing their job. Did notice that discipline isn’t something they’ve heard of yet. Chaos everywhere, which is very exhausting cause you need extra energy to be ably to concentrate on what they’re saying. I’m glad school is only half a day over here. Got back home (again without making any wrong turn) and had a quick lunch.
We managed to lock ourselves out on the terrace… But luckily we have very friendly neighbours and Roché came to the rescue! We got our bikini’s out and just chilled out a bit.
Roché took us out for ‘bakabana’, a baked banana. Then off to the supermarket for some last minute shopping and Roché took us on a little sight seeing trip around the block. Back home, we quickly did the dishes and cooked dinner.
Only one more day and it’ll be weekend! (We arranged to have Fridays off to work on our project) So more chilling, relaxing and doing nothing! :p
-----
Last day of getting up early! We all had breakfast together and then went our own ways.
Observing the fourth and third grade was our job today. After the raising of the flag and the national anthem (like every morning), all kids went to their own classroom.
The fourth grade wasn’t any better than the others we had already seen: a lot of noise and running around. And while the teacher was writing everything down on the blackboard, the kids had fun switching their shoes and parading through the classroom.
After the break it was time for the third grade. Apparently this is the worst one. All kids were just walking around and it seems that hitting, kicking, pulling and pushing each other is a daily activity.
After lunch we hung out with the guys from our neighbourhood. We had our personal chefs for the night: Gero and Roché, our neighbours from across the street, promised us they’d cook dinner.
Three hours after he started, we were all starving and ready for some food, but still no sign of it… At 10.30pm everything was finally ready and we had the most delicious bami we had ever had!
We were all exhausted from this last day, so after dishes we chatted a bit more with our chefs and went to bed. I am looking forward to not having to get up at 6 for once!
-----
Friday today and got out of bed at 10.30am. a quick trip to the supermarket and then sandwiches for breakfast.
We decided that today would be cleaning day, so we went on a little search to find the brooms, buckets and detergent. We rid the kitchen from all ants, cleaned our bedrooms, the living room and the terrace. By noon we were all sweating like pigs, but we were done! So time for lunch. Afterwards, half of us went on a trip to the Hermitage Mall while the other half stayed home for some chilling, relaxing and sunbathing. Even though it’s rain season, we had a few days with loads of sunshine, so we’re definitely not complaining!
After about half an hour of sunbathing the three of us decided we wanted to go swimming. So we invited our neighbour and took a taxi into town. At the swimming pool we stood before a closed door: seems that the pool wouldn’t reopen till 7pm (it was 5.30 at that time)… So we headed into town for a drink till it was time to head back. Marij en Roché also felt like going for a swim, so when we got back to the pool they arrived as well.
After about an hour of swimming and playing, Roché needed to go to football practice and we went to get something to eat. A delicious eggroll with “kousenband” (kind of beans) and “bakabana” (baked banana).
When we got home, there wasn’t a sign of the other two and everything was dark. Seemed that they were taking a nap. By midnight we went to wake them up, since we had plans to go out today. Roché showed up right as we were all dressed and off we went to Zsa Zsa Zsu, the local disco.
We had a blast! It was pretty empty, so loads of space for dancing and moving. To our surprise there weren’t many Surinam people, most of the people inside were Caucasian (probably students as well) and even the music wasn’t much different from the music we play at home.
By 5am our feet hurt like hell and so we left to go back home. Thank god we can sleep in late tomorrow.
-----
The next day was a very relaxed day. Some of us headed into town to go food shopping, while we stayed home to work for school (after all, we’re not on vacation). Luckily we didn’t have the temptation we had the past few days: the sun was hidden behind a layer of dark clouds and soon rain started pouring down. We kinda feared our city housemates would be soaked by the time they got home, but fortunately they found shelter at the house of the other Belgian students.
When it had finally stopped raining, we got a nice surprise. Our neighbours from across the street had company. And one of them had brought a cute, sweet cuddly little monkey with him! He did seem to like me, since I got a thorough grooming. Even though it was one of the cutest things I had ever seen, it was also very sad to see the little thing with a chain around it’s waist…
Spaghetti for dinner tonight. Apart from the fact that the sauce had too much pepper, the pasta was too salty and the meatballs had turned into schnitzels (the shoppers took the wrong kind of meat home), it was very delicious!
Today and tomorrow is washing day and I was the first one to try the weird washing machine out. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not that hard and everything came out of the machine in the same condition as how it went in (but it was clean!).
Another nice fact: Marij brought a hammock with her, and we tested it out today. Very cosy and comfortable for napping! ^^
Mi lobi joe all for troe!
(I love you all a lot!)
P.S. I'm trying to upload a few pics to my photobucket, hopefully it'll work, since the internetcafe has a very slow connection...
http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa171/Myrea1986/Suriname/
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
First days in Suri
What a "wonderful" first day... The alarm went off WAY too soon! Felt like I didn't get any sleep at all... But it was a 9h flight, so I did get some rest.
School arranged for us to be picked up at the airport. The people from Suri have a very unique driving style! I don't think I'll like the sight seeing tour Ina (our chauffeur) promised... The house is... nice, I guess. Not as big as I thought it would be, but big enough for the six of us. The cleaning lady hadn't finished yet when we arrived (she even kept on going till about 11pm) so there went the idea of an early night.
And have I talked about the fact that our house is bugged? You can take that auite literally... Mosquitos, ants, moths, ... they're everywhere! And of course my mosquitonet has wholes the size of elephants, very effective... I hate bugs, btw... I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight.
I already miss being home, in my own house, my own room, my own bed, ... But I guess I just need some time to get used to it.
I still can't believe I'm actually here!
We already have a meeting scheduled tomorrow (VERY early, so I'm not really that excited about it), but we'll see how it goes :)
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The alarm went off WAY too soon (again)! But I was awake much faster today: I found out the hard way we don't have hot water... at all! So I must say the shower was very refreshing!
After a 10min taxi ride (which was very cheap), we arrived at the school where we'll be teaching and executing our project.
We were a bit early (and the principal was a bit late), so we spent half an hour looking around the classrooms and the school grounds.
After the (apparently usual) morning prayers and chants came the raising of the flag and the national anthem. I hope they're not expecting us to be able to know all chants by heart anytime soon...
Next on the principal's agenda: sending kids to class and meet with us in his 'office (which wasn't much bigger than our toilet cubicles)
'Any questions? What are your expectations?Fill in these forms please. What is your project? What are your plans?" He just didn't stop! After the 'official' part, we got a guided tour around the grounds and classrooms and got the chance to meet all teachers. Don't compare this school to any you know. It has 5 rooms, 1 office, 2 restrooms, a paved court for when they have a break and all this for about 200 children of 6 different grades (it was quite a 'culture shock')
We went to observe the sixth grade (which looked more like a bunch of monkeys on the loose). No one did as they were asked, they all looked bored and all but motivated for their reading assignment.
At 10am they had their break and we were off. Quickly let the taxi take us past an ATM machine and back home again.
Ate a small lunch and went for a walk to the centre of town.
BIG MISTAKE!
It was a walk of about an hour and halfway there we got a typical Surinam rain shower> By the time we reached the shops, we were all soaking wet and didn't feel like shopping anymore. So we just bought the most necessary things and headed back home again.
When we arrived, our entire street had turned into a large swimming pool!
We had noodles for dinner, spicy but good! After that, some time for relaxing and a bit of 'group bonding' with a game of UNO..By 11pm we were all exhausted, so we quickly did the dishes and went to bed. by the time I finished writing this down,our entire street has lost all electricity! So a nice time to finally go to bed and get some sleep...
No more reading, I guess...
School arranged for us to be picked up at the airport. The people from Suri have a very unique driving style! I don't think I'll like the sight seeing tour Ina (our chauffeur) promised... The house is... nice, I guess. Not as big as I thought it would be, but big enough for the six of us. The cleaning lady hadn't finished yet when we arrived (she even kept on going till about 11pm) so there went the idea of an early night.
And have I talked about the fact that our house is bugged? You can take that auite literally... Mosquitos, ants, moths, ... they're everywhere! And of course my mosquitonet has wholes the size of elephants, very effective... I hate bugs, btw... I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight.
I already miss being home, in my own house, my own room, my own bed, ... But I guess I just need some time to get used to it.
I still can't believe I'm actually here!
We already have a meeting scheduled tomorrow (VERY early, so I'm not really that excited about it), but we'll see how it goes :)
-----
The alarm went off WAY too soon (again)! But I was awake much faster today: I found out the hard way we don't have hot water... at all! So I must say the shower was very refreshing!
After a 10min taxi ride (which was very cheap), we arrived at the school where we'll be teaching and executing our project.
We were a bit early (and the principal was a bit late), so we spent half an hour looking around the classrooms and the school grounds.
After the (apparently usual) morning prayers and chants came the raising of the flag and the national anthem. I hope they're not expecting us to be able to know all chants by heart anytime soon...
Next on the principal's agenda: sending kids to class and meet with us in his 'office (which wasn't much bigger than our toilet cubicles)
'Any questions? What are your expectations?Fill in these forms please. What is your project? What are your plans?" He just didn't stop! After the 'official' part, we got a guided tour around the grounds and classrooms and got the chance to meet all teachers. Don't compare this school to any you know. It has 5 rooms, 1 office, 2 restrooms, a paved court for when they have a break and all this for about 200 children of 6 different grades (it was quite a 'culture shock')
We went to observe the sixth grade (which looked more like a bunch of monkeys on the loose). No one did as they were asked, they all looked bored and all but motivated for their reading assignment.
At 10am they had their break and we were off. Quickly let the taxi take us past an ATM machine and back home again.
Ate a small lunch and went for a walk to the centre of town.
BIG MISTAKE!
It was a walk of about an hour and halfway there we got a typical Surinam rain shower> By the time we reached the shops, we were all soaking wet and didn't feel like shopping anymore. So we just bought the most necessary things and headed back home again.
When we arrived, our entire street had turned into a large swimming pool!
We had noodles for dinner, spicy but good! After that, some time for relaxing and a bit of 'group bonding' with a game of UNO..By 11pm we were all exhausted, so we quickly did the dishes and went to bed. by the time I finished writing this down,our entire street has lost all electricity! So a nice time to finally go to bed and get some sleep...
No more reading, I guess...
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