Jumping Spiders and Bus Rides

I have been in Suriname for ten days. This past week seemed like the longest week of my life. The days were not long, but the week seemed to drag.

I am settling into a routine. I wake up about 6:30 and go to breakfast at 7:00. Language classes start at eight o'clock and I am there until noon. We have a break for lunch from 12-2, and then we have some sort of cultural session (nutrition, village life, etc.) until about 4. From 4:30 until 6, we have more team building activities and such. When sessions are finished for the day, I eat dinner and do my homework and journal. I try to shower and be in bed by ten o'clock (sometimes earlier).

The center where we are staying only feeds us breakfast now, so we are on our own for lunch and dinner. Sometimes we go into town to eat fried chicken or roti, but I try to stay in most nights and eat a sandwich and some fruit. Our language groups are allowed to use the kitchen one day a week to cook. Tuesday my group made pasta with a garlic butter sauce, and we put green beans and pumpkin in it. I was totally satisfied after lunch that day. It was so good.

My language classes move quickly. Learning a completely foreign language, and knowing that I will have to be pretty proficient in it within a couple of weeks, is a stressful task. I am still so excited about it though.

I had a diet coke (coke light) the other night with my dinner. It tasted like pepsi. Needless to say, it was my last diet coke in Suriname.

Wednesday night we had a guest speaker. He was a Biologist from Suriname, and he came to talk to us about “Creepies and Crawlies.” I have always heard about dangerous bugs and snakes and such in science classes, but never really paid that much attention. That all changed last night. Oh, and FYI, the most poisonous spider in the world lives in Suriname. And it will jump at you. Awesome. I almost threw up when the man said that. Somewhere within me lies the courage and strength to handle all of these creepy crawly creatures. So for the next couple of months I will prepare my life, even more, to move into the jungle and live among them.  

I have not been homesick, but there are some things I miss. By far, the hardest part of this adventure is experiencing it without my family and friends. I want everyone I love to be here to experience and learn all that I am learning and doing. I know that there are, and will be, things that I just cannot explain to someone that has never seen them, and that is really hard.

I washed clothes again yesterday. It is such a tiring, hot and sweaty task. I am convinced that I will never feel as dirty as when I have clean clothes for the next couple of years. I was soaked when I finished. I choose to believe it's because I'm that good at it. The fact that I can wash clothes in a bucket and manage to wash the ones on my body, come on, that's talent right?

Today we went to the capital, Paramaribo! We went with our language teachers and they showed us lots of places we will have to utilize in the future to buy really useful things, like machetes and rubber boots. We are going back to Paramaribo tomorrow to meet some current PCVs, and they are going to show us a lot of the tourist spots. I will try to post pictures after the excursion, but the internet is slow and it takes a really long time. We are sharing a few computers at the moment, so I only have about 45 minutes on the computer every few days.

Riding a bus back from Paramaribo, I could not help but stare at my reflection in the windows of the cars passing by. There are moments in which I still cannot believe I am here, but there I was, riding a bus in Suriname.

That's all I have for now. Love each other and appreciate your washing machine's spin cycle.

Sometimes, I catch myself allowing the water to run, like eventually it is going to heat up.

I miss my electric toothbrush. I can count to ten in 5 languages.