Earlier.....

It’s Monday

Alright, so everyones been asking for more details:
I just finished an HIV/AIDS Awareness campagin on the upper suriname river where i live. We had 25 speakers come from the city to educate kids about HIV. I just recently finished a brochure for the tourist camp in my village. I give 2 english, 1 guitar, and 2 computer lessons a week, and i'm working on getting a grant to build a house for a local womens organization. So thats what i'm doing for projects.
For fun i'm fishing almost every day, caught a 6lb pirahna last week. Thing just about drug me straight in. I take dugout canoe trips up the river. Uh lets see what else?..thats about it for village life. In the city I eat, a lot. Buy food, supplies, then usually go out with other volunteers in town.  It's a pretty simple life overall, but rewarding and fun..

I'm sure there's a lot i'm forgetting, but if you know me i'm rather imaptient and i'm sick of sitting at the computer, so i'll talk to you all later! Happy Holidays!!!

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5 minute blog

I've got 5 minutes so this will be short and sweet.

 I'm finally getting to the point where i feel like this is home. Life is a rollercoaster, but thats kind of what i wanted.

6:28 AM - 4 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

perspectives

When you are taken out of your element and introduced to a completely new way of life, your perspective is constantly changing.

I've learned to question every one of my opinions, thoughts, judgements, and actions. being in this place makes me think, a lot, which is good...

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It’s been A while.

How is everyone? Sorry I have'nt been able to blog lately. I've had a lot going on these past few weeks. So an update:

I am working on an Aid awareness day in my village. along with that i'm finishing up the last volunteers project with a gift shop for the villagers to sell goods to tourists. My days are pretty full now, which is a really good thing. I was getting nervous about being bored out of my mind. a usual day in my villiage goes about like this:

get up at about 4am and go "cuti fisi" before dawn. ( the fish sleep at the edge of the river and you take a spotlight and a machete and.. you can guess the rest)

Go back home and sleep for a couple hours

go to the river and wash my dishes clothes and clean fish

go back home and start cooking

eat, then go to the village and talk to people and or work on projects.

come back to my house and read for a while

eat the same thing i made for lunch

go up to the tourist camp and see if there are any generous tourist that are buying beers.

go to bed.

I know it sounds so exciting huh? well i am growing to like it more and more every day. I just hope i will be able to live the fast paced american lifestyle again after doing this for two years.

As for any crazy stories or i only got one:

I was out with a local guy at about 1am fishing "with a machete" and we got a stingray about the size of a dinner table. Well i guess technically he got it and i stood there and looked in total bewilderment as he started hacking away at it, it took about 10 good whacks before the thing would stop swimming away, he was about 10 feet out in the river by the time he killed it.

ok i gotta go to a training now, but i'll try to write another blog before i leave the city.

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Kasiri and Bushmasters

My visit to the Amerindian village was very interesting.

late one evening me and another guy from the non-profit i work with were sitting out on the "lawn" and drinking kasiri (it's like a beer/wine like drink the amerindians make out of cassava)  the other guy gets up to go to the bathroom and flies backwards like a maniac and starts running for the nearest stick, then proceeds to beat the living hell out of a bushmaster (the most poisonus and dangerous snake in Suriname) that has crawled up not more than a meter from out chairs. good times. he's gonna make a bag out of the skin.

so i'm heading back to site tomorrow morning, this will be the last internet for about 1 1/2 months, so i wish you all well and i'll try to have something interesting to tell you about when i come back to the city.

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My new appreciation for eggs.

I got some eggs yesterday, i fried them and put them on "toasted" bread with mayo and i thought i had died and gone to heaven. I always liked eggs but after being at site for a few weeks i had eaten very little other than rice, oats, peanut butter, tuna, and the occasional veggie and chicken. which isn't that bad, but anyweay, i really appreciated those eggs.

So i am flying to an amerindian villiage in about an hour to work on my side project, it should be interesting.

Overall things are really good, a bit lonely at times, but worth it. I spend quite a lot of time fishing, and the rest of my  days is spent working on projects (and soon teaching english and computer lessons), cooking, washing and all the ordinary everyday stuff. I'm livin the simple life, and it's good.

I hope everyone is well, i've noticed that emails and comments have trailed off lately.. I guess that's because i have'nt been on here for quite a while.

Let me know whats happenin back home! I miss everyone and i'll write again in a week or so

4:19 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

It’s official

So i made it, i'm now a PCV.

Home

after spending almost a month in the city i'm finding myself feeling extremely out of place. I've been away from site so long i feel like it's no longer home. But neither is the city. My situation is a bit different from most travelers, but i can still see the loneliness and lack of grounding things in your life that make it difficult. I want to be able to go HOME. But where is that? I really don't know. 

Even the states seem foreign. It's been so long since i've been there. I completely dissasembled my life when i left, which leaves me with nothing to come back to. Yes, I have the mate bar, but thats my mothers gig now. I may still be part owner, but i don't feel like it. which is what i wanted, I think.

Ah well, i got what i wanted...right? That's the thing, i didn't. I got something better. I got a challenge that i would never have put upon myself willingly. I got something that has taught me (and teaches me) more about mysdelf, the world, and life than i could imagine.

Please excuse my english, it has really gone downhill since my being here. I now sometimes think and dream in Sarramaccan.

My village, the people in my village, are very good people. Some of the best i've ever known. But i find myself not wanting to engage them like most other volunteers. I find myself wanting to withdraw. i like to work, i like to be productive. In everything i do, i like a result, something i can walk away with. Well my companions up river don't seem to have that same outlook. which makes it difficult. I have an extremely hard time talking about the weather and what i cooked today. But i am learning more patience. I'm learning the benefits of enjoying doing very little. i'm afraid to tell you (especially those of you that are forced to be in my company) when i come home i may ask you what you will cook and if you think it will rain...I apologize in advance.

OH, i guess i should talk about the superbowl. I spent the day at one of the touristy hotel pools with some other volunteers.(one of them has a membership), then at about 5pm we headed over to one of the U.S. embassy staff parties. The game started at eight here, so we were up quite late already when we decided to head out to the bar. I played some pool and caught a cab back "home". good day all in all. I'm glad the Giants upset the Pats, I can't help rooting for the underdog.

I think this is the longest blog i've ever written!

Alrighty,

 I will see you all in a year and 6 months!

Dummundu,

Nate

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.

I've been in the city for about 3 weeks now. it's nice.(i get per diem).  It always sucks going back when you've been gone for a while. The jungle moves in pretty quick and I left some dirty dishes that all of my "housemates" are probably feasting on. But i am really looking forward to going back to the village life.

The Black Fever is getting better. I have about a week left in the city. Myspace deleted the pics i took of my wounds but if you are really interested i can email them to you.

I have had a lot of time to think lately. What i've thought of most is about being here, so far away from home. The group of volunteers before me are all leaving soon which means they are looking for jobs and moving on with their lives. It makes me want to do the same. But i still have a long time here. It's not that i want to leave because i don;t like it here. It's because i always want to leave. Everywhere i have ever been for more than 6 months, i want to leave. I get bored easily and want a change. I think a lot of people are scared of change. I find myself being afraid of stagnatory situations. But this is just one more lesson Suriname is teaching me...

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Black Fever?!!?!

Well i've caught my first really nasty jungle sickness.

So I will be online a lot for the next few weeks. I'll be able to respond a lot quicker right now so email me! if you don't have my other email, it's nates_yerba@hotmail.com

Also if you haven't yet, check out this documentary done on Suriname. It's got my village in it. about 8 minutes after it starts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeeSi2mu9vc

Life is pretty good overall here. I'm working on several projects that are slowly getting somewhere. The holidays were interesting. I spent both Christmas and New Years in my village. Lots of really cool cultural experiences. For new years, I was awaken by 15 guys outside my door yelling: yai yai yai yoo!! then I gave them rum (traditional gift to someone that gives you a new years blessing.) They invited me along to do the same to the rest of the village. o i spent the morning walking around yelling and drinking rum. Not quite what i was expecting, but interesting nonetheless.

I really have a hard time thinking of things to write about. If anyone has any questions just let me know...