Training

The last few days have been very interesting. Though the summer camp feel has mostly continued (and started to get to some folks), we are now getting into more technical training regarding what and how we will actually be doing. I still don't know my exact site or projects or anything like that, but we've moved the discussion away from pure reflection. We've started to look at the role of the Peace Corps and the Peace Corps Volunteer in development - generally and here in Suriname. From there, we've evolved into projects, techniques, and practices that have been successful previously and will likely model our experiences over the next 2 years.

For example, we started to look at the type of projects Peace Corps does in Suriname. We have a Community Economic Development program here and a Community Health Education program, but the country and the volunteer pool is so small that everyone ends up doing a bit of everything - it's much more about what naturally evolves with your community. So that's means I'll probably run an HIV awareness campaign even though I'm not a Health volunteer.

I'm all up for that, but I'm particularly excited for the overlap between health and business as it applies to water and energy - two increasing initiatives in Suirname that involve Peace Corps. We work closely with UNICEF to help get clean water to villages and that is often the number one concern for communities. Another top concern - with benefits to health and business - is more (and more reliable) electricity. It's pretty likely I'll be working in my community to help set up small business/non profits to address those issues. What exactly that means, I don't know yet, but I'm excited to find out. I would love to get some experience working with water issues and renewable energy/second market energy solutions.

On the lighter side, I know for sure that be doing Youth Development. That means after school programs - so soccer leagues, maybe some TKD, maybe supplementary Math or English, etc. Very exciting!

Today was a different kind of training, which was also very cool - we went to a small farm a ways outside the city called Ecosystem. They are a sustainable farm based on dense jungle farming, primarily for personal use to produce a varied diet throughout the year with some surplus for sale. So they overlap different complementary plants and trees in a completely organic and natural way. In a couple of acres they squeeze in squash, beans, tomatoes, greens, bananas, cocao, ginger, yams, etc, etc, etc - with tasty results. They made us lunch!

Indigenous populations here are pretty good at farming "crops," but are not traditionally as interested in eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. So modelling a kitchen garden and healthy nutritional practices is an important, underlying part of what Peace Corps does here. The farm was meant to be hands on education about how to plant various things in this climate, but the climate kiiinda defeated us today. It's been raining hard the last few days. Very hard. For hours at a time. So...not a great time for planting. They had a bunch of prepared activities for us that we were simply unable to do, which was a bit disappointing.

But, instead, it just became an engaging conversation about the theory and philosophy behind the farm. The couple that owns and operates it is very interesting and did manage to pass on some practical knowledge despite our rained-out status. For example,I now know a lot more about composting and the value of my urine than I did a few hours ago. Apparently urine, when diluted 1 to 10 with water, is magic fertilizer. We also had a very good discussion about the best ways to produce high quality organize fertilizer/compost without any technology or artificial inputs.

The conversation definitely made me think about the whole idea of eating organic and watching your balance with the land. I'm all for it, though it's never been super high on my priorities, but the day definitely tipped me towards it more. Not going to matter for a while, but I'll definitely think about more actively buying organic/local when I get back to the states (assuming I end up with a job that lets me afford it).

Anyway, it was a good day and now we have the weekend off. Kinda. Lots of language to study and I'm giving a presentation on Youth Leadership Development on Monday to the rest of the group. Language is going well and I'm really not as worried about it now as I was. I've always said I'm bad at learning languages, but I also haven't actually tried to learn a language (as in to actually speak it) ever before. This is a new experience and I'm better at it than I thought, which is a pleasant surprise.

The presentation is a bit different. My class of trainees was broken up into small groups and asked to present a topic that they have competency in based on their experience before Peace Corps. So there have been presentations on Conflict Resolution, HIV/AIDS, etc. Mine is on Youth Leadership and is with 2 of my fellow trainees. I'm certainly not an expert there, but I've taken my share of formal leadership classes and have a lot of experience teaching and developing youth and leadership - so it's not tough from that perspective and I know I have things to say that will be useful to my fellow trainees.

However, it is also part of our evaluation process. I'm not technically a Peace Corps Volunteer just yet - I'm a trainee who is being evaluated and may be allowed to swear in as a Volunteer in a bigdeal ceremony with the US Ambassador and many Surinamese officials in early July. So I want to do a good job, but I'm (hopefully for the best) forcing myself to define a good job a bit more broadly than I would have in the past.

Success in the States was dependent on outcomes. Certainly taking a longer view and focusing on my or other group members' learning and development was also important, but it wasn't what paid the bills or got you a good grade. Here, I feel like that needs to be my primary goal. I'm here to be a Facilitative Leader - someone who helps others do a great job of improving themselves - not to produce great works on and of my own.

The people in my group have a lot of good things to contribute so I'm not too worried, but it's just interesting to realize that I would be taking a noticeably different approach to this project in the States. Hopefully that means I'm learning and, double hopefully, this approach will lead to an even better outcome.

Foto Op

So rest assured, I am taking pictures. In fact we started a group photo album so, eventually, I’ll be able to show you many many pictures – but for now we are desperately restrained by the crazy slow upload speeds around here. But, in fact, that is not what I’m talking about. Foto (see I can spell!) means "city" in Sranan Tongo and there is only one city in Suriname. Paramaribo, the capitol.

It was our first time outside of the little town our training center is in and there was a lot of hand holding. The whole gang got on a bus together and headed into the city. It was a public bus, but buses here are sketchy affairs. There are relatively set routes and fares, but not schedules – they leave when they fill up and they stop wherever they see more passengers. Fortunately, our group of Peace Corps Trainees and our escort of our local language instructors made for a full bus. No waiting!

The tallest building in Paramaribo is probably about 15 stories, so it’s a low, hot, dusty city. Muddy too, as you might guess happens to dust when it rains. It’s relatively spread out, but the densest area is around Saramaccan Street - the main shopping district and where we spent the morning on Saturday.

We started in a giant open air warehouse (about the same size as my forming Aurora stomping ground) which was a huge market. About half of it was fish. Did I mention it is a fragrant city? At least in that spot it is – elsewhere is fine. After that it was other meat and then assorted fruits and vegetables. It was awesome and not pushy in the way you associate with Caribbean craft markets. It was a market for actual people, just huge. Apparently there is an upstairs (I saw a 30 foot ceiling so not sure what that means) that sells furniture, fabric, and appliances but we didn’t see that part.

After that we toured various useful places – banks, specific stores, a few restaurants, etc. The department stores here are pretty huge and the buying experience, in general, feels more Asian than Caribbean to me. The Chinese influence is very strong, as you might have read in that recent New York Times article. We also went to a store that sells “I love Suriname” gear – ala the New York t-shirts. They are a new craze in Suriname apparently sparked by a pop song.
Reads like easy souvenirs to me.

That was a relatively short trip and it was just the warm up round. The following day we went in un-escorted to meet up with a bunch of current volunteers. Look at me figuring out public transportation! Now I just have to learn my way around the city…But anyway this was a more cultural tour. It started off with snacks at a decent sized outdoor Chinese market and then a tour of top stores, restaurants, and bars from a volunteer perspective. We also saw the presidential palace and various statues.

After that we got lunch at the waterfront and ended up stuck there, in the good way. Hanging out, drinking Parbo (the local beer) and getting to know the current volunteers and some friendly locals that decided they wanted to buy us a round. Peace Corps has been getting a lot of positive press in Suriname lately (unlikely the last 15 years in country and unlike in the rest of world currently). It was a good relaxed time and a nice introduction to the city.

Now, it’s back to a week of language training and various other explorations. Next weekend we are working on a farm, but no details on what that actually means at this point. After next week, most of our classroom language learning is done and we move in with host families for a week. That's when this whole thing shifts away from summer camp and into the job and the experience it actually is.

You definitely see some people that want this to be summer camp and other of us that treat it more like a job. I think you need a balance given the nature of the work, but it's important to take it seriously. Language is tough and it takes a lot of focus since we are doing 4 hours of class on language every day (and then other unrelated stuff in the afternoon). Still, people are doing a nice job for the most part. I'm excited for that host stay, though, to kick this into gear.

Getting Started

Happy Mothers Day! I’ve been in the Peace Corps now for almost a week and we are starting to get past the most basic orientation stuff. We’ve got cell phones, language teams, and have done our first loads of laundry! So the last few days have been action packed.

I’ll be learning Saramaccan – I believe it’s a Spanish-ish based language with some African and other roots, primarly spoken in Maroon communities. That’s means I likely won’t be too far upriver (upriver is South confusingly enough), but that is all relative (we are talking 1-8 hours of boats and cars) and I still don’t know where my site is.

Still, it’s good to have at least some direction and I’m glad that we will actually start learning some new skills soon. Up until now it has been medical stuff and security stuff and reflection/team building stuff, but that is all relatively similar/common sense as you would expect. The reflection has been interesting and the Peace Corps Staff is doing a great job of making us think deeply about what we are here to do and what it will take to succeed. It is clearly an organization that inspires people – volunteers and staff – to do a good job.

One of the things we did was take a simple personality test called True Colors. I was Green Blue Orange Green, which kinda would be Analytical/Competitive, Sensitive/Collaborative, Spontaneous/Liberal, Organized/Conservative – in decreasing order of impact on your personality. It is a far from perfect system but it at least provides a paradigm for discussion. Green and Blue were the largest groups, interestingly enough.

We’d already discovered the Type A’s, to use a different paradigm, and there are 2 or 3 dominant ones – but it is really cool how everyone I’ve met is a cool mix of laid back and go-getter. A lot of different backgrounds, maturity levels, styles – but everyone is all about getting it done and making sure everyone is included and happy.

This really came out when we did some of the campy team building exercises yesterday. We did a ‘group juggle’ where you throw a balls back and forth around the group while standing in a circle. You always catch from and throw to the same person. As we went through several times it was interesting how much effort the group was willing to expend to make sure everyone was included, clear on the rules, and happy with the variations we came up with as a group (let’s try this on silently, or what should we do when someone drops a ball?).

It was also our first time in the hard sun which was killer (I successfully wore enough sunscreen though!) We did relatively hardcore trust falls, which is always fun, and then also a Gauntlet. The group stands in two columns facing each other with arms interlaced like the teeth of a zipper and then one person sprints at them and they unzip just before the person hits them. It’s a combination of Red Rover and trust falls that is surprisingly intense – especially as you add variations.

After that, we did our first laundry! Earlier in the week, several current volunteers came by and helped us buy the supplies we need – soap, a bucket, clothes pins, etc. Yesterday, after some demos from staff and volunteers, we all did our laundry by hand. It was not too bad, but it is definitely a forearm workout! A couple of us got all of our laundry done, but it then began a hard and sustained rain. It was really pretty and it had been so hot that it turned into a group rain party. It was a warm, drenching rain that was awesome to splash around in with friends.

Sorry no pictures yet - I promise I am taking them, but the upload speed here is terrible so hopefully we'll get a better connection soon!

Tomorrow begins language training - something I am definitely looking forward too!

First Day

The first day of training in Suriname was interesting. It is hot. So hot and sticky. And it's the small rainy season so the heat occasionally breaks and just rains like hell for 20 minutes or so. So basically picture a dynamic summer day in Ithaca.

The heat/humidity isn't that bad in shorts and flipflops, but they are keeping us in business casual for most of the events of today. That was deadly. I've been drinking water constantly and so it's fine, but I'm so sticky! Really the only really tough thing is dress shoes.

It was a long day, but a good day. I've got a feel for my schedule over the next month (we are actually sticking together as a group in the training center, though breaking up into language groups quickly) and I should know more about where I will be after training in the next week or so. Basic medical and security information happened today too, though more of that will happen. First meals in suriname were good. Light breakfast, really good lunch - that's the main meal around here, I guess.

In the midafternoon, the current volunteers came back and lead an open discussion panel of what to expect which eventually broke up into more basic hangouts and an informal volleyball game. Then there was roti for dinner (Finally had roti! Something I missed out on during a recent trip to St. Lucia) and a reception.

The reception was awesome! A lot more good food (including Chicken Satay, oddly enough) and a really good local dance group. I'm not actually really sure what exact cultural group from Suriname they were from (there are too many), but I'm betting they were Maroons - the descendants of escaped slaves. The dances and songs were traditional, but entailed a really cool combination of African rhythm (and very low to the flo dance moves), belly dancing, and Surinamese traditions. They were pretty cool.

Not up to saying much more than that about it all after all the commotion of the last few days. I'm excited and nervous and there are a lot of challenges that are becoming more real. Bugs. Heat and sweat. Remembering that you aren't here to show people how to be American or developed. It seems like a stupid thing to say, but I fell into already in the airport incident yesteray (not that it was inapprorpiate then, but I totally pulled my business/american traveller face).

We are here to help people improve themselves, often in their own way - which can be related to doing things the American way, but definitely should not be pushed by an American. That's a tough challenge in itself. We aren't just here to help, we are here to help them help themselves. Facilitate, not necessarily lead. Thoughts worth thinking about more.

Bedtime.

Launch!

Day 1 of the Peace Corps began at 3:45AM and my parents taking me to the airport to fly to Miami. It was another tough goodbye, but expected and encouraging in an odd way. I love my parents and their support has been, always, an irreplacable part of my life. No problems getting to Miami, meeting up with other volunteers, and then going through staging. I was very pleasantly suprised by how well the group of people melded and also how well Peace Corps ran the staging event. It was a good balance of serious information ("This is your job and your conduct reflects on the United States"), a lot of fun, pump up activities, as well as somber but inspiring reflections tasks.

The day ended with a giant college-freshmen-like herd of us all trying to find dinner. It turned out really well as groups naturally broke up into manageable sizes (some people insisted on IHOP, while me and 8 others insisted on a nice steak) and really, it was a very good day.
One of the interesting things is that you travel to your country on your own - no one from Peace Corps travels with you. They have the group come up with a 4 leaders and then the Peace Corps staff gives them some fairly idiot proof checklists to follow, but still - it's surprising that they just stand there and wave as you head towards the airport from the hotel. In a way, it's also surprising that it's surprising.

Being a group leader is nothing much - just makes it so someone is doing headcounts and taking responsibility for pointing the group in the right direction at a couple of basic checkpoints - but it got a little interesting in Curacao (our 5 hour layover on the way to Suriname. It's a country! I didn't know :-P). Turns out Suriname Airways had changed policies right around the time we bought our tickets and thus wanted to charge us for bags in an unanticipated way.
At this point it was hard not to feel like I was either on vacation or a normal business trip. I ended up in a discussion with the supervisor, then the manager, and eventually got the fee knocked down from $50 per 2nd bag to $30. Maybe. It wasn't really clear what "I" did but I know we ended up only paying $360 (in cash) instead over $600. Sometimes just standing and shuffling official looking papers/making friends with the Supervisor pays off.

After that, it was smooth sailing to Suriname. We got to our training site (just outside the capitol of Paramaribo) at about 2AM where almost all of the current volunteers greeted us with cheers, pangees (cotton cloth wraps that double as towels, sweat rags, shirts, and skirts), and bananas. It was a long day with a few bumps and a lot of sweat, but we made it. Tomorrow at 9am, training begins.

Departure

It's the night before the journey begins. My bags are packed (10 lbs under the weight limit) and I'm ready to go.

In some ways, it's harder to leave than I expected. You start to think about all of the actuals and possibilities you are going to miss. And parting with Ariel was much harder than I expected, but we said "See you soon" and meant it - so I hope we look back on it some day as sweet sorrow only.

But, for the most part, I truly am excited for this next adventure. At college for four years and then work nearly the same, I learned so much about myself and how to be an effective, positive force in a given situation. I'm joining the Peace Corps because I want to apply that somewhere out there where the stakes are a little higher. It is selfish in a way, because there are so many worthy tasks closer to hand - but this is the way that feels right for me. I want to make a positive impact in people's lives and in their ability to improve themselves. To focus on that work and to see what I can do, I felt like I needed to take a long step away from where I am comfortable.

I don't have many specifics about the situation or the work just yet. Tomorrow is Staging - a brief orientation event - in Miami and then the following day we fly to Parimaribo, Suriname by way of the Port of Spain in Trinidad. Then it's a couple weeks of training before I start to narrow into my actual project, location, etc.

So I don't know much about my path over the next two years, just yet. I know I was on a pretty good path before I decided to join the Peace Corps and right now my plan is to come back to a version of it when I finish. I took the GMAT this past week and I will write business school applications for the Fall of 2013 (a month after I get back) while I am in South America. That's the plan, such as it is, right now.

But, for the next while, I'm going to try to steer clear of some of those larger plans where I'm still not quite sure what the underlying goal is. Instead, I'm going to focus on doing something worth doing well.