My Parents Come to Suriname

And so, indeed, they did!  A shorter visit than Ariel's and a bit less action packed - or at least fewer destinations and events crammed in - but very welcome nonetheless.  My parents are always a welcome and positive presence in my life and their love and support means the world to me.  More than that, I'm lucky to even be friends with them in a way that makes hanging out on in a thatch roof hut in the middle of the jungle a fun visit as much as a welcome reunion.  I guess I'll refrain from any comparisons to condiments, in this case.

In any case, everything went quite smoothly.  My mom managed to make friends, unsurprisingly, with approximately half of Air Suriname and so they flew through customs. They had a much easier time than Ariel, with all the visas and whatnot. Funny how 1. Being in America and 2. Calling ahead can really help smooth things outsometimes. Of course, calling ahead often is made much easier by being in America, but good on them in any case! It made it nice and easy, though they made it out way faster than I expected!

So I basically left my parents playing scrabble in the airport for 45 minutes waiting for me to pick them up at midnight...whoops! Sorry! Fortunately, they didn't seem to mind too much. They do love scrabble, as do I!

So it was a nice midnight drive back to my friend Jose's house - he was gracious enough to let us all stay there, which was really awesome. To thank him, and because they are just generally friendly people, my parents brought Jose several gifts from America. They also brought stuff for me. And for John - another volunteer whose mom is now friends with my mom because of the ways of the world, which is cool! So....they actually brought way more stuff for others than for themselves. Look at the Delahanty family making the W shine!

Annnyway, Jose got a hummingbird feeder and some cheap American wine that he missed from his boyhood, John got some winter clothes (hiking trip in southern South America), and I got all sorts of wonderful loot! Ariel was the only present I needed for Christmas, but all the stuff my parents brought sure didn't hurt and was awesome! We didn't part all those gifts until later, we actually just kinda went to bed!

In the morning, we did the walk around Paramaribo. We didn't really do the hardcore touristy stuff - just the Saramaccan touristy stuff and the main arts and crafts store. They got to see the market and the main Saramaccan street, we bought lots of kosus and other good cultural stuff, and they had a good time hanging out at the Peace Corps office and meeting the gang.

And that was only the first day!

I don't really remember what we did the second day...but I know we prepared to go out onto....THE RIVER!  I managed to secure us a decent wagi and my mom the front seat, so off we went towards the Jungle, come Monday.  Instantly, of course, my Mom was best friends with the driver.  Turns out he speaks pretty good English - why didn't I know that?

The boat ride also went well.  The river was high and the weather decent, so we saw a few rapids and maybe a bit of rain but really no issues at all.  And so we arrived.  Nothing can truly prepare you for Saramacca, at least I don't think so, but my parents have now experienced it and shared it with me.  It's a really cool feeling to be welcomed home into some place so foreign to people that have helped you make a place home for most of your life.

We had a good time sharing the daily life of a Peace Corps Volunteer, though as they can attest - it's kind of difficult to share the daily life of a Peace Corps Volunteer!  I have methods, madnesses, and any number of other systems that I have evolved through 8 months of living and contemplation (and a life time of being full of odd ideas and BS)...and it turns out those don't always work for other people.  It's no different than any bachelor pad, perhaps - idiosyncracies in sync with my own.  Some rough edges are smoothed over, some are only smoothed over to my eye and maybe not someone elses, and some I've never bothered with because they don't bother me.  But they might bother you!

I admit those kind of things make it easy to step on each others toes - hard not to do in a house as small as mine actually!  And that is of course where it is different.  My systems aren't just bachelor pad - they are JUNGLE bachelor pad.  I do my baking on my front porch bench because it keeps ants down.  I'm weird about keeping food covered because my roof poops.  Do I have as good a reason for...any number of other things...nope!  And even if I did it might not be obvious for you to figure out the reason or the rule after only a day!

Because of how used yout get - and have to get really - to solitude and the routines it takes to handle that and all the normal tasks of life in the jungle - it can make one somewhat crochety.  Yes, I said it.  I am one step closer to my ULTIMATE GOAL.  I hope to be a crotchety, dirty old man as soon as possible.  Nothing creepy or mean, mind you.  But hopefully I will attain the wise valued status of someone who is looked to by many to dispense wise statements in eye-roll inducing terms.  Is that too much to ask, I ask?

Anyway, it makes it good to get out of your routines and travel around, have visitors etc.  Everytime I do, I learn something about myself or about how to make a little improvement to the way I live.  For example, I realized I am needless wary of having to wash an extra dish.  It literally takes 10 seconds and I have to walk to the river anyway.

I have perhaps wandered far afield, but that's what happens when you take so long to put up posts.  Still, I was glad to be able to show my parents a good time - and a part of the world, and their son in it, that they would never experience otherwise.  And having your parents around is humbling in a way that is just plain good for an crotchety young man like myself!

Peace Corps, and maybe the lifestyle of the jungle in general, lends itself to time to think and good conversations when people are there to have them.  We had many of those and that is the true core of any visit.  At the same time, it is also very exciting to show people things they have never seen.

Walking the village with my parents was so much fun. Tiring as hell, repetitive, and hot - but still so much fun.  It's a place where I am still learning how to act and react and seeing them do the same is fun for all of us and offers new experiences that are also fun for everyone.  Though sometimes just tiring.

Beyond all that, though, I really liked how my parents got to really share the Peace Corps experience.  Ariel had this too, in some ways - seeing a traditional ceremony, cooking with locals, assisting with my English class and my Youth Group - and I'm glad my parents were able to get it as well.

First, was one of the first nights in the village.  The money I helped get for my Adult Education Program finally transformed into actual school supplies in the village.  By luck, my parents were there on the day that we distributed them to the students.  It was a really cool night.  Speeches, singing, pictures - and just an overwhelming amount of gratitude and, more importantly, motivation to continue pushing development in the village.  Not just for me, but for the students. 

I was doubtful about the decision to spend the bulk of the money on school uniforms right up until I saw the way the Adult students received them.  It really does mean something to them - something real and inspiring, for them and me.  It's a testament, really, to the Peace Corps model.  I never would have chosen to spend money that way, but I listened and I facilitated and I helped sell it so we could buy them.  And it was the right thing to do.

I am really glad my parents got to share in that event, to see the fruits of a small, but somewhat formal project and how the system is supposed to work and, everyonce in a while, actually does come together for some magic.

They also got to experience the other goals of Peace Corps.  One evening, my Dad and I decided to go wash in the river while my mom stayed back at the hut.  Dad and I ended up spending 30 minutes or more working out with the kids, doing ourselves proud as Chun Ma TKD instructors, lemme tell ya.  It's so cool how some things translate across everything.  One of those are how a positive adult male role model can motivate and teach something to boys.  With a few pushups, situps, and whatever else, we impacted a group of kids.  Was it a big impact?  No.  Did we spread peace and friendship and move a few lives for the better, in no matter how small a way?  Absolutely.  That's what this is about and it was so cool to share that with my Dad.

At the same time, my Mom managed the same thing completely on her own on the porch.  We came back to a chorus of young children singing and dancing the Itsy-Bitsy Spider with my mom.  It's the same thing again - an adult doesn't have to have anything, language or otherwise, to be a positive influence on the children, and maybe I should just say the people, around them.  You just need your own positivity.

That's getting pretty mushy, but what can I say - I am sort of a Peace Corps Volunteer and I don't hug trees so...However you say it, it was really cool to see my parents fitting into that.  They are role models and positive influences in my life, and it's really cool to see how quickly that can translate into being a positive impact for others - no matter how foreign the situation.

It's something worth digesting further, I think.  I was really glad to be able to share that with them.

Anyway, there was other fun stuff.  The Butterfly Farm (live butterflies, paintings, pin ups, live snakes and turtles, and so much more!), the museum, the "this is my son" stance my mother learned from an old Saramaccan lady, but I'm going to go ahead and end the post there. 

Thanks for reading.