So hello there! It's been a good couple of days out here! I just got back from a week of CAMP BOYS CAMP. Hey Jude I am exhausted. Seriously. Peace Corps is a 24x7 job, so they say, but summer camp is realllly twenty four hours a day every day. I was kind of one of the head camp counselors, I was in charge of the lesson segment on leadership, I led the morning workout, and MOST OF ALL, I was one of the House Brothers which meant I was sleeping in a house with 5 13ish year old boys. Upside - I learned some new words. Downside - did not get much sleep.
Still, the camp was pretty seriously all around awesome. I have to say, I think the girls got a little more out of the girls camp than these boys did, but that isn't to downplay the value. The boys got a lot - the way they were engaging, the look in their eyes, the information they wouldn't have otherwise, was a clear and positive change. I say the girls got a little more simply because of the relative distance they have to traverse. Men, and even boys, here are simply exposed to more and given more messages of empowerment. So while it was a big positive push for the boys, it was a paradigm shift for some of the girls. Either way, I'm excited to continue working the camps with both genders and I'll be the Director of one coming up in May - boys.
It's interesting how much at home I feel here now. Wandering around the river and the jungle is kind of normal now and is about the same level of comfort as popping into LaGuardia for a quick look at NYC. Scheduling is hard but it doesn't matter - if you have to sit and wait a bit, it's just life. Time is fluid and it's so hot your flexibility can't help but improve. There is still a lot of the language I don't understand, but my ability to get by is solidly present. I can do a presentation in Saramaccan off an English outline and I'm sure I'm a bit off, but people get me.
Two of my friends - the girls from the two nearest villages that came over before actually - slept over again just after the boys camp and it worked out about perfectly. Made me actually sit down and rest after the Boy's Camp, something I needed to do. Nagging health issues came back hard when they caught me that over-extended by constant over-enthusiasm, minimal sleep, and other generally stressful conditions. So we hung out a bit, they bought some things at the museum (the reason for the trip), and watched Finding Nemo and had an early night.
In the morning, I walked them back to Gran Tatai (Anaconda! That's what the village names translate to. Or Big Rope. Context.) and it was all beautiful on the path and jungley. The path itself isn't quite as nice as the one I generally run - more streams to cross with rougher fords/bridges - but the scenery is actually more beautiful.
I'm really looking forward to people visiting so that you can see - my poor pictures, and the even fewer I manage to post, simply don't do it justice. Ariel is coming in less than 3 weeks and that is consuming my brain in a positive but exciting way! I can't wait to see her. It's all I want to think about and it makes my world brighter to know that I get to see her soon.
At the same time, I'm trying to make sure I have some work done to show her, my other visitors, and everybody (namely myself, the village, and other Suriname-stakeholders). So I'm finally starting to actually do project work.
Right now I have three primary things on my plate, though unfortunately I have to start with the least interesting. After that there are three back burner things - back burner because they are smaller and/or a ways off yet. We'll just go through them quickly and then I'll call this post finished! Sort of rambling and written over several days with many mood changes in between, so sorry if it's a bit disjointed!
Primaries:
1. Lampesi's - Community Wide
This project will benefit the entire village by improving access to the river. Saramaccans go the river at step-landings called lampesi's which are made from stone, wood, or mud. Wood lasts for about 5 years if you are lucky and mud is just plain dangerous, so cement is the far and away preferred choice. There are currently 3 cement landings that people use to get to the river, but one half of the village is a ways from any of them. Also the busiest landing happens to be mud - it's a testament to how convenient and important the location is given that it is so dangerous and muddy but everybody still uses it. Our goal is to make 5 cement lampesis - starting with that busiest spot, then going into the underserved part of the village.
It's my first stab at actual project work and I'm both excited and disillusioned, daunted and optimistic. Life! We've taken some pictures and I've started trying to contact potential funders, but we've also just started the actual budgeting and planning process. It's disillusioning only because of how excited people are until they start to understand how much work they are going to have to do to help me with the project proposal - and then to actually build the lampesis assuming we get the money for the supplies. It's daunting because this will probably costs $15k+ if we actually go for all 5. I may try to talk the village into going for 2 now, but we'll see how the costs look once we get that far. Anyway, exciting to actually put pen to paper and sandals to ground! Baby steps yet, but the ball is vaguely rolling! Yay!
2. Woodcarving Workshop
The guys behind the museum have built an open air structure to be a central workshop for their group. It's on the path to the museum they want it to be a combination work room, show room, and class room. Tourists will pass it and see them at work, buy the finished products, and adults and children can sign up for classes - they have already started talking with neighboring schools to do segments with 3rd and 5th graders.
In short, it's brilliant. It will improve an indigenous business, help preserve traditional cultural practices, and pass on traditional skills and the importance of the conserving the jungle (and the rare woods they need to make their stuff). Shouldn't be hard to find the money for this and I'm excited, though it will be a pretty involved planning and budgeting process.
The structure is already up, but it is just an overblown shed right now. Our goal is to get it floored, furnished, plumbed(!), wired, and otherwise set up work work and learning. I'm super excited about this and I think I can get funding organizations excited too. Again, it's a matter of getting the details nailed down so we know what we need to ask for.
3. Entreprenurial Training
I have officially founded the Pikin Slee Business Group (no formal discussion about the name as of yet) and the members have decided that the first thing we should do is seek training on how to start a business, particularly as it applies to working with banks and other potential funding organizations. Since most people don't even have bank accounts, this can be a real problem. Many organizations offer this kind of training, at least in abstract - I don't know specifics yet - so I'm excited to begin building capacity in this group so we can make this a strong vector to help the village move forward.
Simmering Away:
1. World AIDS Day (Belated)
We are starting to plan an event for World AIDS Day in the village - I am working with a neighboring volunteer who has already been here a year and we already have the funding. We just need to nail down exactly what we are doing with it. General plan is lessons in the school, presentations for adults, and a culmination party featuring a dance group that, literally, does an HIV education interpretative dance. More or less. It actually uses the traditional story telling forms of dancing and singing to teach a lesson about how you can catch HIV and what you can do about it.
I've seen it twice now - we book them for all the camps - and they are great. It goes well, teaches great stuff, and is just awesome.
2. Blue Balls
These blue balls are tough - so tough that lions can chew on them, trucks can squish them, and - hopefully - kids in 3rd world environments can play soccer and other games with them without busting.
Video of a lion playing with the ball! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9su83Pxrmc&noredirect=1
Peace Corps is currently trying to raise money to buy a slew of these to use in a business education program that focuses on teaching soft work/life skills through sports-inspired games. Every Peace Corps Volunteer in Suriname has gone through the initial stages of training in the curriculum and we are excited to roll it out with the youth groups, schools, etc that Volunteers work with all over the country. So, for the first time in the history of blog, I will formally ask for money!
Check it out here! This is a project will benefit almost every village in Suriname with a Volunteer and I can tell you that my village is already set up and ready to go - I've already started a youth group and we are chugging along well, though supplies really help!
And actually, it isn't there directly but there's another super cool way to support this work - if you buy a ball from them directly, one gets donated to the project of your choice! So if you happen to be looking for a multipurpose soccer-like ball, buy one here! Or if you know someone that might be - tell them about it! Unfortunately, you can't yet send them to Peace Corps Suriname, but you can still send a ball to a variety of useful organizations. Peace Corps is using the Agnar Caribbean curriculum, so that would be my choice to pick as your partner just because I know they are doing good work in the region.
So check out the soccer ball website if you are interested in learning more about that and their general junk.
3. Boy's Camp
Finally, as I've been saying, I'm going to be in charge of a Boy's Camp sometime in May. Gotta start planning that with the 2 other Volunteers I am working with at some point! I'm also considering coming home sometime over the summer - because of the camp it's looking like it probably won't be for TKD Semi-Formal, but I may try to catch Ariel's graduation or something like that. No firm plans yet, or even soft, but I'd like to come how somewhere around the year mark.
So that's what's spinning around here, as they say (Sarammacans do, anyway). How are you?
