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Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Happy Birthday Elly!

I stayed up with Elly until midnight in order to celebrate her birthday.  In the morning we had to prepare and cook a LOT of food.  I made peanut butter cookies for her and she really liked them.  After the cookies were done, I was able to help her make some traditional dishes.  They were delicious.  Then slowly but surely her relatives started to come over.  There were so many people!! Luckily, one of her nieces spoke VERY good English, so I taught her how to play a czech card game and we made some decorations for the party.  Their mother tongue is Aukaans.  The language originated in the jungle in the interior of the country.  It was a fun family party that was filled with lots of friendly people and delicious food.  Happy Birthday Elly!!

Suriname (birthday girl!!)

Javanese noodles 

starting to make cook up rice

bbq

view from the house

street view

house im staying at

Suriname 

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

yummy mix of traditional food

Suriname  7090

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname 

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname

Suriname 

Suriname 7100

happy birthday elly~!

Paramaibo,Suriname

I got picked up at 4am for the transfer from Georgetown, Guyana to Paramaibo, Suriname. The transfer cost 6000 Guyanese dollars ($30).  I thought I was going to be able to sleep on the van, but I was mistaken.  It took about 3 hours to get to the border.  Then we had to buy our ferry tickets to cross the river to get to Suriname.  The thing about the border is that you can not get the visa at the border, you must get it at a Suriname embassy.  It costs $25 and you can get it the same day, you just need to make sure that you arrive to the embassy before noon.  I bought a roundtrip ferry ticket and it is valid for 3 weeks.  It costs 4,180 Guyanese dollars (which is about $20).  We had to wait a LONGGGGG time until we could get on the ferry.  The ferry runs only twice a day.  At 11am and at 1pm.  The ferry ride was only 20 minutes and in that time I filled out my immigration paper and had to help a Chinese woman (who spoke NO English) fill out her form.  It was quite entertaining and luckily the woman across from me spoke dutch and was able to communicate with the Chinese lady.  After I filled out the form, the Chinese lady gave me an energy drink as a thanks.  I wanted her to wear my glasses, but I didnt know how to communicate it with her and I was too tired to try. Once off the ferry was when the mini headache started.   The line at immigration was CRAZY!!!!!! People were cutting in line like CRAZY!!!!  I have never seen anything like it before.  Luckily I have really improved on my patience and wasn't too bothered by it and actually found it entertaining.  Then a lady was really YELLING at one of the guys who worked there.  I'm surprised that she was even allowed to get into Suriname with the kind of attitude she had.  I got a bit worried that my transfer might not be there, but since there is NOTHING around the border, ALL the taxis had to wait and make sure that everyone had a ride to the city.  After everything was settled and we were good to go a lady in the van started to yell at the driver.  He didn't respond, so I thought that he actually couldn't speak English, but then 5 minutes later he yelled back at her and threatened to drop her off in the middle of no where.  It was very green and lush from the border of Suriname.  Then I finally got to my friend's house safe and sound, but it was a LONG day of travel.    The next day, my friend took me into the city and we walked around the markets to get some food.  Then I went on my own and walked around the city.  It was nice to walk around and see some of the sights.

inside the ferry......brown waters

everyone starting to get ready to get off

yay, Suriname!

traffic

inside the vegetable market

getting some meat

weird kind of fish

outside part of the market

not that full

peppers that are HOTTTTTT

view from the market

Suriname 

Suriname

Suriname

boats that will take you across the river

architecture in the city

I Love Suriname

some ruins

outside of the president palace

Belgium

Belgium   7080

Belgium 

cathedral 

mosque

Saturday, January 2, 2016

walk around Georgetown

We started the day walking around Promenade Gardens.  It was nicely arranged and it was peaceful to walk through.  Then we went next to the waterfront to relax.  Today has been the coolest day since I have arrived.  After that I was able to get some souvenirs and walk through the biggest market in town.  It was a nice and relaxing day.

i wanted to get my glasses on gandhi but he already had a pair

Israel

Australia 7070

promenade garden

tarzan

walking around

fountain 

Guyana (he's holding GOLD)

a wolf with blue eyes

Guyana

we wore each other's glasses

Guyana

USA

a mongoose 

intimidating boat

trying to pull it in

St. George's Cathedral-one of the tallest wooden cathedrals in the WORLD

Guyana  7075

city hall....up close it looked like it was in really bad condition 

obama owns a fish shop in georgetown apparently

stabroek market

you can buy plantain chips, cassava chips and CONDOMS!!

prison on durban street!! (i lived in durban, south africa, haha)