Not much to say about Monday. We slept in, worked for school, ate, worked for school some more, ate again, worked again, and so on… 9pm and I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, so by 9.30 I went to bed, knock out!
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Today is the first day of our second teaching week. I teach second grade this week, hopefully they’re a bit more mannered than the first graders.
We also had another meeting with the principal today. He told us about STARS, a project he works on to help sixth graders with their difficulties so they have a better chance of succeeding their final exams. Later today there’s a meeting with the parents to inform them about it. We are also invited and if we want, we can help and pitch in where needed.
Or so he said… after the parents were informed, he took us back to his office to tell us what parts we were going to take care of. No more “pitching in”, no more “see for yourself how involved you want to be”, no more “helping out”… But we’ll see how it goes.
When we got home, it was past dinnertime already, so we quickly ate, worked some more for school and went to bed.
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Another school day. The second graders are much easier to work with than the first graders. They actually listen to what you say and act on it!
After school quickly grab something to eat and get ready for STARS. From 1.30pm till 3.30pm we help the kids with math, Dutch, geography, biology and history, the main courses.
We also work on social skills.
It was a fun day, but quite exhausting. Teaching 8-3.30 really isn’t the best idea when it’s this hot… We got informed about tomorrow and what we would be doing then (STARS is three times a week): maths. Yippie!
We expected someone around 6-6.30pm who promised us he’d BBQ for us. He finally arrived at 8.30… We were all starving!
Eating this late wouldn’t be such a problem if you had plenty of time to relax afterwards. But we needed to get to bed, cause tomorrow is another looong day at school!
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Today was terrible. I think the kids were sensing the nearing of the weekend, cause they were horrible little brats! But we stood our ground and got through the day. Even STARS worked out fine! We helped with the social skills and the math.
Yet again, we got home tired. But good news: it’s leftover day, so I don’t have to cook ^^
Watch a bit of tv and go to bed to read a bit before falling asleep. Tomorrow is the last day.
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Because we stayed home on Monday, we had promised to come to school on Friday. So today is the last school day of the week.
We don’t have to stay for STARS today, cause Marij had to get to the post office. Of course they had closed already, so she’ll have to wait till next week.
We’re on a tight schedule for the weekend, cause we have to get everything done in just two days instead of three. So not a lot of time to relax, because all lesson preparations had to be done today…
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Finally, weekend! When I woke up, it was 7.30am… Waaay too early for me, so I just lay myself down again and slept till noon.
We didn’t really do much else today but work for school.
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Sunday as well was a very productive day. We worked out the tutor and reading project and waited for pizza. By the time everyone had decided what they wanted for toppings, it was past 7pm already. The 200 SRD price tag was a bit too much for us, so we ended up going to Burger King instead.
By 9.30 we were exhausted and went to bed.
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Yet again time for school. I’m teaching fourth grade this week Our first interactions with those kids hadn’t been all that positive, so I’m nervous as hell.
It turned out pretty ok. They worked hard, and listened to what I had to say. Not too bad then! The only down side is, that the fourth and fifth grade share a classroom, so you have a lot of back ground noises.
School ended early today because of a staff meeting about some actions of the kids (beating, hitting, lying, annoying stuff)
Tineke and I are on shopping duty again this week, but she needed to head into town to buy some stuff for school. Glad Roché was around, who could come shopping with me (car > bike, especially for carrying everything).
Pizza for tonight, yummm!
The owner of the house had come around to give it a good clean. Apparently a once-a-month-cleaning is calculated in the price we paid for the house. After he left, I rearranged our room again and we watched a movie. By the time it was done, it was way past bedtime, so I ddin’t have any troubles falling asleep.
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Today turned out to be a very relaxing school day: the kids were supposed to have 1.5h of PE, which turned out to be the entire first half of the day. After the break they had a calculus repetition and arts and crafts… very tiring for them, not a lot of action for me…
It was extremely hot today! So after school I stripped a jumped right in the shower.the cold
water has never felt this good!
Nothing much to say about the rest of the day. Every day’s the same: come home, relax, work for school, eat and go to bed…
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Halfway the week again and today was as boring as yesterday was relaxing… I started with maths, but halfway the lesson, the teacher took over. And she’s taught the entire day. I just sat there, doing nothing, observing, trying to stay awake.
Her intervening has a much bigger downside to it as well. She constantly undermines my authority in the classroom.
When I say yes, she sais no and the other way around. She constantly reminds the kids about the fact that I am a teacher as well, but by acting like this they see something completely different.
Later this evening, Marij, Ellen and I were expected at the other student’s house where we would be getting information about our next trip: a four-day one to the Blanche Marie waterfalls (and other things of course, but that’s the main “attraction”).
It was a pleasant evening and by the time we got home, it was time for bed already. Last school day tomorrow, and let’s hope it’s a bit more active than the last two.
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Today is the day where we are going to introduce the reading corners in the third and fourth grade. And yes, I did get the chance to do some more teaching! The only time the teacher interrupted, was when I asked her to take over a lesson so I could prepare the reading.
Marij started after the break. I was going to do the reading the last hour of the day.
The kids all like reading very much, but don’t have the means at home to do so nor the time at school to read what they actually LIKE to read.
We had all sorts of books and stories: comic books, fairy tales, poems, stories and informative books. We divide the kids in groups and each group gets a different type. And each week the group gets another type. The kids loved it! 15 minutes before the end of the day, I took them to the school library so they could all pick out some books to take home for the weekend. Let’s hope we’ll get all our books back as well…
At the end of the day, Marij and I got the subjects for the next week. She’ll be teaching fourth grade and I’ll be doing third. So we both knew what to do when we got home…
Around seven the two of us quickly ate something and got ready for our planned activity: this week’s been so hot, that we’ve been looking forward to going swimming all week!
We wanted to leave at seven(ish), but Wouws (a mate) wanted to come along as well. By the time he arrived, it was almost 8 o’ clock, so of course, when we got to the swimming pool it was already closed…
Never mind the swim then, we’ll just go out for a drink. We found a cosy little café with a terrace and had a very nice time. Around 1am it really was time to head back home, cause Wouws’ friend (who was our driver) had to go to work the next day and had to get up at 6. Oops…
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Our first trip
Berg en dal
Today is THE day: we’re leaving for our three-day-trip to Brownsberg, Berg en Dal and Ston Eiland (pronounced
When we got to Trips (the tour operator) the little bus was already ready to go. But our fellow travellers (the other students) hadn’t arrived yet.
When everyone was there and all backpacks were on the bus, we were ready to go: a three hour drive to our first destination. Our tour guide, Winston, was a very enthusiastic, smart and funny guy.
When we got to Berg en Dal it was noon already, but we decided we wanted to do something active before we ate lunch. So we all went on a 2h hiking trip on the mountain, where Hans (our puppy-cute guide) told us all sorts of things about the history of Berg en Dal. It was all very interesting, especially since most of the buildings were still intact. His “people” and “yes” got a bit annoying after the tenth time we got to hear it, but we coped with it.
A little spooky fact: one entire side of the “mountain” has once been used to bury the slaves that worked on the plantage. So where ever you go, you might step on the remains (or bones, since it’s been a few hundred years since they were buried there) of someone.
After two hours of sweaty walking and climbing, we finally were back to our starting point and ready for the next challenge: kayaking.
Marij and I got a double and Tineke was lucky enough to be “carried” over the water by the guide. The rest of us had to manage on their own. We decided to go upstream first and let the currant carry us back to where we started. And lucky me I got Marij with me, cause a HUGE bee-like insect decided to come over for a free ride. The “insectophobe” that I am, I totally freaked out and got hyperventilating… she calmed me down and when I was ready, we continued our trip peacefully. When we reached the turn of the river where we were supposed to stop and turn back, we took our peddles in the kayak and let us float back. This gave us the opportunity to enjoy all the nature around us. And of course we got another visit from our bee-friend, but Marij splashed it away (which got me all wet too, but it was refreshing rather than annoying). When we eventually arrived back at the starting point, we got the chance to go for a bit of swimming. After that: lunch time!
The third part was the most exciting one: canopying! The group got divided into two, because there were too many of us to go in one turn. I waited for the second round, to give lunch some time to digest first. When it was our turn, we got geared up and got a ‘how to’ and a trial run. This was going to be fun!
Two guides were going to come along: one to go First and catch us and one to stay behind and get us all going. There were 10 platforms, so 9 cables. The first ones were pretty mild ones. The ride from platform 7 to platform 8 was the craziest one: 35m up, 174m long… Right across the
We also got the chance to do some animal spotting: at platform 9a we saw a huge tarantula and when we got to 9b monkeys were all around us, curious to what caused all that turmoil.
The last cable was also a nice experience: this was the one where we could hang upside down. The girls were too chicken to try that, so instead they just let go of the cable, which made the circle around their cords.
To compensate for my freaking out with the bee, I on the other hand DID try it out and I must say it was the most spectacular thing I have ever done! You look down and see the forest shoot by while you go, you can’t see where you’re going, only where you’re coming from. Only sad thing is that none of us had a camera with him :(
When everyone had arrived, it was time to head back to the other side of the river and head to the location at which we would stay for the night: Ston Eiland. Not a minute of boredom on the way there: singing wrong songs, telling jokes and stories, … (as compensation of not having music)
The cabins both smelled weird (manure-like) so Marij and I chose to sleep in the kitchen (with our hammocks of course).
Evi, Tineke and Sharon went to bed early, the rest of us stayed up for some socializing. Around 3am we eventually got tired and went to bed.
For the third time today I got a creepy visitor: a spider this time, who had decided to have a nap on my mosquito net. And yet again Marij came to the rescue. How I love having her around! :p
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Brownsberg
At 6am the nice aromas from Kokki’s (our personal chef) cookings woke us up: scrambled eggs with tomatoes, cucumber and sandwiches with sandwichspread, peanut butter or jam.
When our tummies were filled, we got on the bus again to go to our second stop: Brownsberg.
One hell of a ride up the mountain. Steep, slippery, narrow roads, quite an adventure on its own.
Finally arrived at the reception, where we could recover from the ride and stretch our legs a bit. When everyone was ready, we went on a long hiking trip. First stop: the Irene waterfall at about a 2h descending walk through the rainforest. Too bad we couldn’t enjoy nature at its fullest, since we were too busy looking at our feet so we wouldn’t trip over tree roots, step in mud pools or miss a step. All sweaty and tired, we arrived at the fall. And what a beautiful sight! A 10m waterfall, with a small clear creek running away from it. Everyone quickly undressed and hurried to the waterfall for some cooling down. The water was freezing cold (colder than our showers at home), but after a walk like this, no one cared and was happy with the refreshment. We stayed there for a little while longer, just enjoying the cold water and sunshine.
It was past noon already and everyone was getting a bit of an appetite. Too bad no one had thought of bringing something to eat with them… We head back up the mountain, there was another fall we wanted to see: the Leo waterfall. After about half an hour, we reached it. We thought the Irene fall was beautiful, but it was nothing compared to this one! Leo fall was only a bit higher than Irene, but it was a straight drop down and we could feel the difference when, for the second time today, we took our clothes off and had a good shower. Leo was one hell of a masseur and everyone enjoyed it. You couldn’t stand under it for too long, cause the force with which the water came down literally took your breath away.
When everyone had enough of the relaxing water, we head up the mountain again and head back to our starting point. By that time, our stomachs were all completely empty and growling, so we all hurried back up. The food was delicious and satisfying and we all needed a bit of time out after that. Winston had one more thing to show us: the top of the Brownsberg. It was one more climb, but it was so worth it! The view was spectacular, almost 360° around you, nothing but forest. You could also see the Brokopondo lake with Ston Eiland. After a moment of silence, the guide told us it was time to head back, cause we really should be off the mountain before dark.
When we got back to Ston Eiland, Kokki (you know, our chef) was busy getting the BBQ ready. And after dinner: a campfire by the lake, the perfect way to end the day.
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Ston Eiland and the Brokopondo lake
Today we are going for a trip in a korjaal (think: speedboat meets rowboat) over the lake. When everyone had their super sexy life jackets on, we were ready to go. It will be a more relaxing day today, not too much hiking and walking. Even the boat ride was a quiet and serene one. The boatman first took us to a small rapid (not on the lake, but rapids that lead a small river in the lake) which we could climb. The way up wasn’t a problem, only needed to make sure you didn’t step on a slippery rock. The way down was a bit tougher. Tineke slipped and leaned on me for support, which made me loose my balance. I didn’t have anyone to turn to, so my foot slipped and got stuck between two rocks. Hurt like hell, but no big problems. I got my foot out, rested for a little while and was able to get down safely again.
After that, the boat guy took us to a small island. It was first used to dump sand on, when it had been checked for gold. Now, the poorer gold diggers come here to double check it. We used it as a great beach and went for a swim in the warm water. We weren’t allowed to go too far, cause the lake was piranha territory. Luckily (or too bad?) we didn’t come across one.
After about 15 minutes, the korjaal came back to take us back to Ston Eiland. Again, we took our clothes off and went for a swim, while we waited for lunch to be ready. Seems like we stripped a lot this weekend, huh? :p
Before we could eat, we had to pack everything and put it on the bus. After lunch, it was time to head back to the city. We were all exhausted and I tried to nap a bit on the way there, but that wasn’t quite possible: the road was very wobbly and bumpy and shook you awake every time you even though about falling asleep.
Back in town. God, how I hate being here now. The silence of the nature really got to me and I absolutely don’t want to get back in this rushing, busy, stinking city.
We got out, took our stuff and head straight to ‘t Vat for a drink. Winston and Kokki joined us not long after to talk a bit about the weekend. When they had left to go their own ways again, we walked to
We are all completely worn out from this weekend, but thankfully we have a day off tomorrow, so we can recover.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Phagwa
Exciting, our very first official teaching day. And how very tiring as well!
The “river” we had in our street has vanished, luckily, and we were off to school. Teachers looked at us in a very weird way when they saw us putting everything ready before the actual start of the lessons. I’m teaching first graders this week. When my mentor-of-the-week disappeared to have a “quick” chat with the principal she never returned. Seemed that the sixth grade teacher was absent and she had to take over. So it was just me and the kids. Meaning: a whole lot of testing me and getting me pissed! But we’ll deal with those trouble makers on Thursday… No fun stuff for them!
I was exhausted after school, could barely even stand and walk anymore. So I crawled into bed and took a two hour nap.
Woke up when it was time for dinner and could hardly keep my eyes open. So went to bed almost straight after the delicious improvised spaghetti (very limited shopping because of the weather). A national holiday tomorrow, Holi Phagwa, so no school and loads of fun, I hope.
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How wonderful, sleeping in late in the middle of the week! No need for a shower, cause celebrating Phagwa = getting covered with coloured powder and water and everything people can find to throw on you.
Marij and I first had to make a trip to the bike rental, cause we needed to renew our contract. When we met the others after that, we started our search for Phagwa celebrators. Didn’t need to search for long, cause we quickly found a bunch of people covered in pink from top to bottom!
You know, Catholic holidays can really learn something from these ones: free drinks, free food, free music and free dirt! What more can you want?
After only a few seconds, we could find Phagwa powder just about everywhere. Our clothes were completely covered, our faces were covered with Phagwa paste and even our ears were filled with powder!
At around 2pm most people left to go to the big Phagwa place: a soccer field with a stage, a small bar and loads of space for all celebrators.
Because of the rain these past few days, it was more a mud field than a soccer field, but we were already dirty, so who cares?
Around seven, some got pretty hungry and left to find something to eat. The rest of us stayed to enjoy the wonderfully coloured festivities. After the show of the drum band (which was pretty cool) we as well had a bit of an appetite and went in search of some food. We found a small Chinese restaurant just around the corner of where the other students lived, which had very good bami and nasi.
After dinner, Marij, Ellen and I jumped back on our bikes to head home again. Crossed some huge “rivers” (some streets were still flooded from the rain), but the water was very refreshing.
We hit the showers asfast as we could to finally get all the smudge off our faces, arms, legs, hair, … We all kinda looked like the Hulk.
I don’t think I have ever scrubbed this hard, and still there was no result. After 40 minutes of washing and cleaning and scrubbing, we finally gave up. Most of the green stuff had come off, but our eyebrows and hair are still green…
But hey, it was one hell of a party, so why not enjoy and let everyone else in Paramaribo know we Bakra’s celebrate Phagwa as well?
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Oh I hate getting up at 6am! It’s good to have a holiday in the middle of the week, but it sucks getting up early the next day…
Our second day of teaching today, and it went a lot better than Tuesday. The kids were under control (with of course a few exceptions) and they worked very hard.
Today was also the first day I tried out our project in the first grade. I read a story and they had to do all sorts of tasks about it: painting, colouring, drawing, writing, … which they found very fun to do. The trouble makers of course, were excluded from this fun assignment. I hope they have learned their lesson and will be a lot better next week (though I’m teaching second grade and Marij will be in the first then…)
We’ll spend the rest of the day preparing for next week and preparing for tomorrow. We have our first real trip then: Brownsberg, Berg en Dal and Stone Island, an adventurous weekend trip. Very exciting, so lets hope everything works out ok… At least my hammock is already packed!
The “river” we had in our street has vanished, luckily, and we were off to school. Teachers looked at us in a very weird way when they saw us putting everything ready before the actual start of the lessons. I’m teaching first graders this week. When my mentor-of-the-week disappeared to have a “quick” chat with the principal she never returned. Seemed that the sixth grade teacher was absent and she had to take over. So it was just me and the kids. Meaning: a whole lot of testing me and getting me pissed! But we’ll deal with those trouble makers on Thursday… No fun stuff for them!
I was exhausted after school, could barely even stand and walk anymore. So I crawled into bed and took a two hour nap.
Woke up when it was time for dinner and could hardly keep my eyes open. So went to bed almost straight after the delicious improvised spaghetti (very limited shopping because of the weather). A national holiday tomorrow, Holi Phagwa, so no school and loads of fun, I hope.
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How wonderful, sleeping in late in the middle of the week! No need for a shower, cause celebrating Phagwa = getting covered with coloured powder and water and everything people can find to throw on you.
Marij and I first had to make a trip to the bike rental, cause we needed to renew our contract. When we met the others after that, we started our search for Phagwa celebrators. Didn’t need to search for long, cause we quickly found a bunch of people covered in pink from top to bottom!
You know, Catholic holidays can really learn something from these ones: free drinks, free food, free music and free dirt! What more can you want?
After only a few seconds, we could find Phagwa powder just about everywhere. Our clothes were completely covered, our faces were covered with Phagwa paste and even our ears were filled with powder!
At around 2pm most people left to go to the big Phagwa place: a soccer field with a stage, a small bar and loads of space for all celebrators.
Because of the rain these past few days, it was more a mud field than a soccer field, but we were already dirty, so who cares?
Around seven, some got pretty hungry and left to find something to eat. The rest of us stayed to enjoy the wonderfully coloured festivities. After the show of the drum band (which was pretty cool) we as well had a bit of an appetite and went in search of some food. We found a small Chinese restaurant just around the corner of where the other students lived, which had very good bami and nasi.
After dinner, Marij, Ellen and I jumped back on our bikes to head home again. Crossed some huge “rivers” (some streets were still flooded from the rain), but the water was very refreshing.
We hit the showers asfast as we could to finally get all the smudge off our faces, arms, legs, hair, … We all kinda looked like the Hulk.
I don’t think I have ever scrubbed this hard, and still there was no result. After 40 minutes of washing and cleaning and scrubbing, we finally gave up. Most of the green stuff had come off, but our eyebrows and hair are still green…
But hey, it was one hell of a party, so why not enjoy and let everyone else in Paramaribo know we Bakra’s celebrate Phagwa as well?
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Oh I hate getting up at 6am! It’s good to have a holiday in the middle of the week, but it sucks getting up early the next day…
Our second day of teaching today, and it went a lot better than Tuesday. The kids were under control (with of course a few exceptions) and they worked very hard.
Today was also the first day I tried out our project in the first grade. I read a story and they had to do all sorts of tasks about it: painting, colouring, drawing, writing, … which they found very fun to do. The trouble makers of course, were excluded from this fun assignment. I hope they have learned their lesson and will be a lot better next week (though I’m teaching second grade and Marij will be in the first then…)
We’ll spend the rest of the day preparing for next week and preparing for tomorrow. We have our first real trip then: Brownsberg, Berg en Dal and Stone Island, an adventurous weekend trip. Very exciting, so lets hope everything works out ok… At least my hammock is already packed!
Monday, March 9, 2009
About hammocks and floods
Yet another “work week”. We started this week with the last of the reading tests. Finally all done with those, it took long enough… Now we can make tutor couples for the tutor reading we have planned.
We were supposed to have our weekly meeting with the principal, but he was in meetings with the teachers today, so it got postponed to tomorrow. And since the fourth grade teacher was absent, they dropped us there to keep them busy (in an educational way, of course). After today, we were completely exhausted. Now I know why the teacher doesn’t wait for silence to start her lessons, but just continues: they absolutely don’t listen and just can’t be quiet for longer than a few seconds!
Tineke and I are the shoppers this week, so after lunch we got on our bikes and left to get grilled cheese sandwich ingredients and some potatoes, veggies and meat for tonight.
On our way back home, we saw two extremely cute monkeys in a cage at the car wash. I felt so sorry for them, cause the cage was barely big enough for them to move in…
Didn’t do much else today.
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On Tuesday and Wednesday Marij and I observed and helped in the first and second grade, cause we’ll be teaching those kids next week. And yet again we got to teaching as well, since the second grade teacher was late. This time, it worked a lot better and the kids actually listened to us. And yet again we were tired as hell when school was over. I hope it’ll be a lot better once we start teaching ourselves, cause I dunno how we’re going to get through a whole week of this otherwise…
While three of my housemates went to a birthday party (the lady had turned 60, so yay, what a party that must have been!), we stayed home to watch another movie, a real chick flick this time :P
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The next day, we finally had our meeting with the teachers to introduce and talk about our project. I think it went well, cause we got a lot of smiles and good comments and even some nice suggestions. Let’s hope it all turns out as planned as well.
Around dinner time, Wesley came over: he was going to make us some saoto soup. Some of us had already had the chance to taste it, but the saoto from this weekend was nothing compared to what we ate today! Really the best soup I’ve ever tasted!
Later this evening we all felt like stretching our legs a bit and we decided to go out. Havana Lounge seemed the best spot, since we hadn’t been there yet. It’s a very nice place: partly terrace, partly inside. There were a lot of people, so it got very hot inside (no airco, not even some fans). That’s where the nice terrace comes in: you can just step outside for a little while, chill out in the little comfy sofas and then head back inside.
By 3am Roché got tired and wanted to go home. His argument “I have to get up to go to work at 7 again” was a pretty good one, so we all went back home.
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Ah, weekend again ^^ We had planned to go to the Saramaccastreet to buy ourselves some nice hammocks, but we hadn’t even reached the end of our street when it started raining. I really didn’t feel like walking around all soaking wet, so Marij and I decided to head back home while the rest continued on.
Of course we didn’t go home to do nothing. We kept ourselves occupied with all sorts of school work. Our lesson plans for next week are sorta ready, my second reflection is done, and we’ve also worked out the planning for the rest of our student teaching.
Around 5.30pm we got a phone call: What are our plans for dinner and if we didn’t have any, were we ok with coming to ‘t vat to get something to eat?
Of course we were and after a bike ride of over half an hour (with the occasional wrong turn) we finally got something to eat.
After dinner we all got on our bikes and head back home. Tineke’s foot is swollen and she really needed to let it rest.
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Today we went hammock shopping. Both Marij and I bought a very nice one! Ellen joinedus, cause she still needed to buy some stuff for school. The rest of the housemates went to Paramaribo Zoo for the day.
We both also bought a panji, which is a piece of cloth some of the inland people wear to show their adulthood. After that a quick stop in Steps, a shoe shop. Bought some very nice slippers! We also met Ellen there again, so off we went to ‘t Vat again for some lunch.
We then walked to Trips, an organisation that organizes trips (duh) to various places more further into the country.
When we got back home, our tummies were empty and complaining about it. So Tineke and I walked to a waroeng (a small place where you can buy some food like bami, nasi, rice, chicken, …) and brought home some yummy bami and nasi for all of us.
We didn’t do much else before going to bed.
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Last day of the weekend which means: sleeping in late! We didn’t do much today but work work and work for school. Since we start our student teaching next week, we really needed to get everything done.
I also got a phone call from Trips: our trip to Brownsberg, Berg en Dal and Stone Island was going to be a bit more expensive than we had first planned… Seemed that there was an entrance fee for Berg en Dal that hadn’t been taken into account yet. But we all really wanted to go, so we’d gladly pay an extra €35 for three days of adventure and fun.
After that, back to work! Never knew how unorganised teaching over here actually is…
Again our stomachs protested about not getting enough food, so we ordered some roti and Roché was so kind to go get it for us.
After that, yes, again schoolwork!
Around 10pm we were fed up with lesson preps and schedules and tests we called it a night and went downstairs. This is the first night that Marij and I have to sleep together, so we changed the sheets and crawled into bed (which actually is a bit too small for the two of us…). After a bit of reading we turned the lights off and went to bed. Our very first official teaching day tomorrow!
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Well, there goes the teaching… When we went to bed yesterday, it was raining. When we got up today, it was STILL raining! No, water was gushing down. Even the locals told us this was the worst they had ever had. Our entire street looked like a giant swimming pool. It almost reached up till our front door… So we called our principal, asking whether it was ok to stay home today, cause there was no way we were getting outside… Luckily he understood and didn’t make a problem of it.
It kept raining till far in the afternoon, so we were locked inside. Too bad it’s not clean water, we could’ve gone for a free swim otherwise!
We watched a movie while some of the others ventured into town, they still needed to go pay for our trip this weekend.
Around 3pm our curiosity won. The three of us put on shorts and went outside to see how deep the water was: it almost reached our knees!
We’ll have to go outside again later on, cause we need to send our reflection to the teachers in Belgium today. Let’s hope it’ll stay dry for a little while longer…
We were supposed to have our weekly meeting with the principal, but he was in meetings with the teachers today, so it got postponed to tomorrow. And since the fourth grade teacher was absent, they dropped us there to keep them busy (in an educational way, of course). After today, we were completely exhausted. Now I know why the teacher doesn’t wait for silence to start her lessons, but just continues: they absolutely don’t listen and just can’t be quiet for longer than a few seconds!
Tineke and I are the shoppers this week, so after lunch we got on our bikes and left to get grilled cheese sandwich ingredients and some potatoes, veggies and meat for tonight.
On our way back home, we saw two extremely cute monkeys in a cage at the car wash. I felt so sorry for them, cause the cage was barely big enough for them to move in…
Didn’t do much else today.
-----
On Tuesday and Wednesday Marij and I observed and helped in the first and second grade, cause we’ll be teaching those kids next week. And yet again we got to teaching as well, since the second grade teacher was late. This time, it worked a lot better and the kids actually listened to us. And yet again we were tired as hell when school was over. I hope it’ll be a lot better once we start teaching ourselves, cause I dunno how we’re going to get through a whole week of this otherwise…
While three of my housemates went to a birthday party (the lady had turned 60, so yay, what a party that must have been!), we stayed home to watch another movie, a real chick flick this time :P
-----
The next day, we finally had our meeting with the teachers to introduce and talk about our project. I think it went well, cause we got a lot of smiles and good comments and even some nice suggestions. Let’s hope it all turns out as planned as well.
Around dinner time, Wesley came over: he was going to make us some saoto soup. Some of us had already had the chance to taste it, but the saoto from this weekend was nothing compared to what we ate today! Really the best soup I’ve ever tasted!
Later this evening we all felt like stretching our legs a bit and we decided to go out. Havana Lounge seemed the best spot, since we hadn’t been there yet. It’s a very nice place: partly terrace, partly inside. There were a lot of people, so it got very hot inside (no airco, not even some fans). That’s where the nice terrace comes in: you can just step outside for a little while, chill out in the little comfy sofas and then head back inside.
By 3am Roché got tired and wanted to go home. His argument “I have to get up to go to work at 7 again” was a pretty good one, so we all went back home.
-----
Ah, weekend again ^^ We had planned to go to the Saramaccastreet to buy ourselves some nice hammocks, but we hadn’t even reached the end of our street when it started raining. I really didn’t feel like walking around all soaking wet, so Marij and I decided to head back home while the rest continued on.
Of course we didn’t go home to do nothing. We kept ourselves occupied with all sorts of school work. Our lesson plans for next week are sorta ready, my second reflection is done, and we’ve also worked out the planning for the rest of our student teaching.
Around 5.30pm we got a phone call: What are our plans for dinner and if we didn’t have any, were we ok with coming to ‘t vat to get something to eat?
Of course we were and after a bike ride of over half an hour (with the occasional wrong turn) we finally got something to eat.
After dinner we all got on our bikes and head back home. Tineke’s foot is swollen and she really needed to let it rest.
-----
Today we went hammock shopping. Both Marij and I bought a very nice one! Ellen joinedus, cause she still needed to buy some stuff for school. The rest of the housemates went to Paramaribo Zoo for the day.
We both also bought a panji, which is a piece of cloth some of the inland people wear to show their adulthood. After that a quick stop in Steps, a shoe shop. Bought some very nice slippers! We also met Ellen there again, so off we went to ‘t Vat again for some lunch.
We then walked to Trips, an organisation that organizes trips (duh) to various places more further into the country.
When we got back home, our tummies were empty and complaining about it. So Tineke and I walked to a waroeng (a small place where you can buy some food like bami, nasi, rice, chicken, …) and brought home some yummy bami and nasi for all of us.
We didn’t do much else before going to bed.
-----
Last day of the weekend which means: sleeping in late! We didn’t do much today but work work and work for school. Since we start our student teaching next week, we really needed to get everything done.
I also got a phone call from Trips: our trip to Brownsberg, Berg en Dal and Stone Island was going to be a bit more expensive than we had first planned… Seemed that there was an entrance fee for Berg en Dal that hadn’t been taken into account yet. But we all really wanted to go, so we’d gladly pay an extra €35 for three days of adventure and fun.
After that, back to work! Never knew how unorganised teaching over here actually is…
Again our stomachs protested about not getting enough food, so we ordered some roti and Roché was so kind to go get it for us.
After that, yes, again schoolwork!
Around 10pm we were fed up with lesson preps and schedules and tests we called it a night and went downstairs. This is the first night that Marij and I have to sleep together, so we changed the sheets and crawled into bed (which actually is a bit too small for the two of us…). After a bit of reading we turned the lights off and went to bed. Our very first official teaching day tomorrow!
-----
Well, there goes the teaching… When we went to bed yesterday, it was raining. When we got up today, it was STILL raining! No, water was gushing down. Even the locals told us this was the worst they had ever had. Our entire street looked like a giant swimming pool. It almost reached up till our front door… So we called our principal, asking whether it was ok to stay home today, cause there was no way we were getting outside… Luckily he understood and didn’t make a problem of it.
It kept raining till far in the afternoon, so we were locked inside. Too bad it’s not clean water, we could’ve gone for a free swim otherwise!
We watched a movie while some of the others ventured into town, they still needed to go pay for our trip this weekend.
Around 3pm our curiosity won. The three of us put on shorts and went outside to see how deep the water was: it almost reached our knees!
We’ll have to go outside again later on, cause we need to send our reflection to the teachers in Belgium today. Let’s hope it’ll stay dry for a little while longer…
Monday, March 2, 2009
White Beach
Today was a pretty boring day. Yet another one of reading tests at school and doing nothing at home.
At around 7pm it was time for dinner. Tineke was already in the kitchen cooking the rice when I started on the chicken and curry. When you have limited access to herbs and spices, you just use what you have, so improvisation all the way for me!
Everyone liked it though and no one had any problems from the food, so I was happy.
-----
Last school day and yet again reading tests. Mr Paulus (the principal) had promised us a teacher meeting so we could introduce our project to all teachers. In the end, we didn’t get anything, so I hope we can talk to him about it on Monday, cause we really want to start with whatever we have planned to stay on schedule.
On our way home, we stopped at Kirpalani, a sort of supermarket with all sorts of stuff like kitchen, garden, office equipment and a lot of school stuff as well (which of course was the reason for us going there).
Today was leftover day (mixed with McDonalds day, since there weren’t enough leftovers for the six of us).
We also decided to watch a few movies tonight: during dinner we watched Snow White, afterwards was A Knight’s Tale’s turn and Enchanted to end the day. By that time it was 1am already, so really time for bed!
-----
God, today was a very filled day! We started with having a relaxed breakfast and decided to head into town for some shopping. Everyone needed something.
Again a visit to Kirpalani, because Ellen needed to buy a mosquito net. We also all bought a white T-shirt for Holi Pagwa, a Hindustan holiday (you’ll probably hear all about it after March 11, the day we’re all going out to celebrate). After this, came heaven: Vaco, the bookshop. Marij and I shopped till we dropped (we spent over 500 SRD on fun books for school, thank you sponsors)! With a few full bags and very empty pockets, we left to go home already, since it’s pretty impossible to have fun shopping when you’re carrying all those heavy bags.
Today was the day we would go out for dinner. So we called the other students to see if they wanted to go with us. They weren’t that hungry, so we went by ourselves. Apparently you don’t use cutlery to eat roti, you use your hands instead.
Afterwards, everyone was ready to leave again, but needed to wait for me, since I couldn’t find the little keys to the locks on my bike… Started to panic a bit, but I eventually found them in my very big purse.
“Mounted” our bikes again and rode back home. Pia, a girl from the other group, called us, to see if we were going to do something tonight. We all agreed to go to Havana Lounge, a club a bit further into town. in the end Tineke, Sharon and Evi decided they didn’t feel like it after all, so they stayed home, bought something to drink and had a party at home on their own while we got in the taxi.
We did have a good time. Pia and Joachim, Marij, Ellen and I went to Havana Lounge, but it turned out you needed a VIP pass to get in tonight… We crawled back in the cab and drove further into town. Drank a caipirinha and almost got knocked out by the amount of alcohol in it!
We felt like doing something a bit more active than just sit there and get drunk, so we headed to Starzz, a night club. The price you needed to pay to get in is 17,50 SRD and we all agreed that was a bit too much.
Our final stop: Zanzibar, a little cocktail bar. Very cheap and extremely delicious cocktails! Nicky and Vincent, the two other students of the other group, met us there and we had a little party of our own. At 3am we headed back into town to see if there was still somewhere we could go. Seems that bars and pubs close at 3, so we called a taxi and drove back home.
Everyone was still awake when we got there, our neighbours from across the street had also come around for a visit.
Ellen was exhausted and went to bed, so the rest of us took everything and head downstairs. Wesley had the brilliant idea to make a camp fire in the back yard and we all took a chair and sat around a cosy, warm “fire” (more smoke than fire, but it was warm and cosy!).
At 5am Wesley and Winston thought about a “fun” game, a bit of a combination of spin the bottle and truth or dare: you spin the bottle and give a task to the one the neck of the bottle points to.
Very fun and it was past 6.30 by the time we went to bed. We’re supposed to go to the plantage around 10am tomorrow, so we’re going to look like zombies! \o/
Some of the fun assignments:
- Drink a full glass of beer, hanging upside down.
- Make 10 turns around a bottle and run to the other side of the back yard as fast as you can without falling over.
- Run around the street in your underwear.
- Be a tree hugger and hug the palm tree.
- Give someone a lap dance.
- Strip.
My favourite task: give Bianca a 10 minute neck massage. (and no, it wasn’t me who gave the task! And it wasn’t me doing all those other assignments either! :p)
-----
I got up at about 10.30am. Pretty early if you consider I only got to bed at 6.30… Wesley came over and we convinced him to go buy us some sandwiches. Roché also came around to tell us that the trip to the plantage was cancelled, because the second car was at the garage and we didn’t have enough room in one car for all of us. This is the third time (?) the trip has been cancelled.
Luckily Winston called us a bit later to ask if we felt like going to Saramacca, a district a bit further into the country. Evi was out to some of her parent’s friends (her pqrents used to live here) and Ellen didn’t really feel like going, since she still had a lot of work to do.
On the way there we stopped along the road to buy some fish and some ramboetans. Us Bakras (which means white person in Sranantongo) jumped out of the car to take some pictures of the Saramacca River which we had passed just seconds before.
After about an hour drive we arrived at Winston’s aunt, who was going to cook for us. Winston left with her to the corner of the street to buy some saoto soup. When he got back the car missed the back window and had a big dent in the trunk. Apparently he had hit a light pole backing up from the parking space. We didn’t really mind, the air cooling was very welcome!
At 7pm we used a rope to keep the trunk closed and drove back home. Because we hadn’t slept a lot the other night I was exhausted, but the good music kept us all awake.
-----
On Sunday we had planned a trip to White Beach with the other students. At 8.45am we were supposed to be at their house to be picked up with a little minivan. Since it was pouring, we called them to see if they could come pick us up instead. They told us it could be arranged, but that they were going to be a bit late because people had broken into our driver’s house.
By 10am they finally arrived and we were on our way. After a 45min drive we got to White beach. This is a small area where they have dug up sand from the river and made a “beach” at the bank (usually, there is only mud, trees and bushes). The indication “White” is a bit misleading, because it’s actually grey sand. After a nice swim in the river (with fairly warm water, a fairly strong currant and fairly gross sand), some of us lay themselves on the beach for some sunbathing, while the others searched the shelter from our little rented beach cabin to play some games.
When it was time for lunch, Marij and I head over to the little pub-like place to buy ourselves something yummy: Nasie with chicken and some samosa, which are small pastries filled with potatoes, kousenband and a mild curry (very delicious).
After lunch Marij and I head back in the water to play some beach ball (a game with two wooden “rackets” and a small ball) to cool ourselves down again. The sunbathers joined us (all red and baked) and after that time for some more sunbathing. All the girls lay themselves down and took a nap, read a book or made some Sudoku’s (or did all three).
Around seven pm we packed everything up again and head back home. It was a very fun, exciting and active day!
At around 7pm it was time for dinner. Tineke was already in the kitchen cooking the rice when I started on the chicken and curry. When you have limited access to herbs and spices, you just use what you have, so improvisation all the way for me!
Everyone liked it though and no one had any problems from the food, so I was happy.
-----
Last school day and yet again reading tests. Mr Paulus (the principal) had promised us a teacher meeting so we could introduce our project to all teachers. In the end, we didn’t get anything, so I hope we can talk to him about it on Monday, cause we really want to start with whatever we have planned to stay on schedule.
On our way home, we stopped at Kirpalani, a sort of supermarket with all sorts of stuff like kitchen, garden, office equipment and a lot of school stuff as well (which of course was the reason for us going there).
Today was leftover day (mixed with McDonalds day, since there weren’t enough leftovers for the six of us).
We also decided to watch a few movies tonight: during dinner we watched Snow White, afterwards was A Knight’s Tale’s turn and Enchanted to end the day. By that time it was 1am already, so really time for bed!
-----
God, today was a very filled day! We started with having a relaxed breakfast and decided to head into town for some shopping. Everyone needed something.
Again a visit to Kirpalani, because Ellen needed to buy a mosquito net. We also all bought a white T-shirt for Holi Pagwa, a Hindustan holiday (you’ll probably hear all about it after March 11, the day we’re all going out to celebrate). After this, came heaven: Vaco, the bookshop. Marij and I shopped till we dropped (we spent over 500 SRD on fun books for school, thank you sponsors)! With a few full bags and very empty pockets, we left to go home already, since it’s pretty impossible to have fun shopping when you’re carrying all those heavy bags.
Today was the day we would go out for dinner. So we called the other students to see if they wanted to go with us. They weren’t that hungry, so we went by ourselves. Apparently you don’t use cutlery to eat roti, you use your hands instead.
Afterwards, everyone was ready to leave again, but needed to wait for me, since I couldn’t find the little keys to the locks on my bike… Started to panic a bit, but I eventually found them in my very big purse.
“Mounted” our bikes again and rode back home. Pia, a girl from the other group, called us, to see if we were going to do something tonight. We all agreed to go to Havana Lounge, a club a bit further into town. in the end Tineke, Sharon and Evi decided they didn’t feel like it after all, so they stayed home, bought something to drink and had a party at home on their own while we got in the taxi.
We did have a good time. Pia and Joachim, Marij, Ellen and I went to Havana Lounge, but it turned out you needed a VIP pass to get in tonight… We crawled back in the cab and drove further into town. Drank a caipirinha and almost got knocked out by the amount of alcohol in it!
We felt like doing something a bit more active than just sit there and get drunk, so we headed to Starzz, a night club. The price you needed to pay to get in is 17,50 SRD and we all agreed that was a bit too much.
Our final stop: Zanzibar, a little cocktail bar. Very cheap and extremely delicious cocktails! Nicky and Vincent, the two other students of the other group, met us there and we had a little party of our own. At 3am we headed back into town to see if there was still somewhere we could go. Seems that bars and pubs close at 3, so we called a taxi and drove back home.
Everyone was still awake when we got there, our neighbours from across the street had also come around for a visit.
Ellen was exhausted and went to bed, so the rest of us took everything and head downstairs. Wesley had the brilliant idea to make a camp fire in the back yard and we all took a chair and sat around a cosy, warm “fire” (more smoke than fire, but it was warm and cosy!).
At 5am Wesley and Winston thought about a “fun” game, a bit of a combination of spin the bottle and truth or dare: you spin the bottle and give a task to the one the neck of the bottle points to.
Very fun and it was past 6.30 by the time we went to bed. We’re supposed to go to the plantage around 10am tomorrow, so we’re going to look like zombies! \o/
Some of the fun assignments:
- Drink a full glass of beer, hanging upside down.
- Make 10 turns around a bottle and run to the other side of the back yard as fast as you can without falling over.
- Run around the street in your underwear.
- Be a tree hugger and hug the palm tree.
- Give someone a lap dance.
- Strip.
My favourite task: give Bianca a 10 minute neck massage. (and no, it wasn’t me who gave the task! And it wasn’t me doing all those other assignments either! :p)
-----
I got up at about 10.30am. Pretty early if you consider I only got to bed at 6.30… Wesley came over and we convinced him to go buy us some sandwiches. Roché also came around to tell us that the trip to the plantage was cancelled, because the second car was at the garage and we didn’t have enough room in one car for all of us. This is the third time (?) the trip has been cancelled.
Luckily Winston called us a bit later to ask if we felt like going to Saramacca, a district a bit further into the country. Evi was out to some of her parent’s friends (her pqrents used to live here) and Ellen didn’t really feel like going, since she still had a lot of work to do.
On the way there we stopped along the road to buy some fish and some ramboetans. Us Bakras (which means white person in Sranantongo) jumped out of the car to take some pictures of the Saramacca River which we had passed just seconds before.
After about an hour drive we arrived at Winston’s aunt, who was going to cook for us. Winston left with her to the corner of the street to buy some saoto soup. When he got back the car missed the back window and had a big dent in the trunk. Apparently he had hit a light pole backing up from the parking space. We didn’t really mind, the air cooling was very welcome!
At 7pm we used a rope to keep the trunk closed and drove back home. Because we hadn’t slept a lot the other night I was exhausted, but the good music kept us all awake.
-----
On Sunday we had planned a trip to White Beach with the other students. At 8.45am we were supposed to be at their house to be picked up with a little minivan. Since it was pouring, we called them to see if they could come pick us up instead. They told us it could be arranged, but that they were going to be a bit late because people had broken into our driver’s house.
By 10am they finally arrived and we were on our way. After a 45min drive we got to White beach. This is a small area where they have dug up sand from the river and made a “beach” at the bank (usually, there is only mud, trees and bushes). The indication “White” is a bit misleading, because it’s actually grey sand. After a nice swim in the river (with fairly warm water, a fairly strong currant and fairly gross sand), some of us lay themselves on the beach for some sunbathing, while the others searched the shelter from our little rented beach cabin to play some games.
When it was time for lunch, Marij and I head over to the little pub-like place to buy ourselves something yummy: Nasie with chicken and some samosa, which are small pastries filled with potatoes, kousenband and a mild curry (very delicious).
After lunch Marij and I head back in the water to play some beach ball (a game with two wooden “rackets” and a small ball) to cool ourselves down again. The sunbathers joined us (all red and baked) and after that time for some more sunbathing. All the girls lay themselves down and took a nap, read a book or made some Sudoku’s (or did all three).
Around seven pm we packed everything up again and head back home. It was a very fun, exciting and active day!
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