A smile, a tear

Smiles
• Bandit the raccoon that lives at Karanambo Lodge. He sneaks into the guests rooms on a quest to find their toothpaste. He will not hesitate to eat this delicacy until the tube is empty.
• Fishing Rupununi style for the first time. No rods, just lines, cruising with the boat over the river. The big ones didn’t want to bite but I caught 4 pirai (piranha’s) and 1 foxfish (called like that due to their enormous teeth). Although the Amerindians call those fishes bate I was still proud of myself. I even went one step further and made finger puppets out of them for the photo (see below).
• Overcoming my fears for snakes. How? By touching one. Ok let’s be honest a rather small one, a house labaria (obviously called like that because they like to be unpaying renters in anybody’s house, this one decided to hide in the toilet, and I was wondering all the time why it stopped flushing. Yes it was there when I was using it, luckily it didn’t decide to reveal it’s presence then otherwise I would still be in shock therapy. Since that day every toilet first has to undergo a thorough investigation before I use it as you can imagine.) One of the boys caught it and tried to convince me to hold it (they are not poisonous), that was a bridge too far, but after looking at it for a while and observing that the boy was not being bitten I decided to conquer my fears and touch it. So I did. With my heart beating out of my chest.
• Drinking fresh coconut water on my birthday. On my birthday I was in one of the most remote villages of the North Rupununi, it takes about 7 hours by boat to get there. It was there were they treated me on a fresh coconut water. Cheers to my 28 years!
• Party in the dark. Since the limited amount of electricity around here one has to be inventive when it comes to disco lights during parties. One remedy is to drink so much kari (made out of cassava), fly (made out of sweet potato) or rice wine (obviously made out of rice) that you won’t notice anymore, just party in the dark or wait until that one person shows up with a bicycle light (Hema-style) that has a flickering function.
• Take off of my project. The time has come. My project has started! The last couple of days we have been crossing the Rupununi from east to west and from north to south by vehicle or boat to tell the people about us, the ‘specialists’ and our project.
• Mastering my motorbike. Now that I am getting the hang of my new best friend Jialing (is it a coincidence that they gave me a Chinese bike? Well, when it won’t listen to me we tend to communicate better in Chinese) and the terrain that comes with it, mud, gravel and puddles a whole new world of opportunities has opened up to me. The amount of places to go now has increased tremendously, it is still a bit overwhelming to me.
• Nu.nl – weather report. Everyday I take a little peak at a Dutch news website to keep up to date on the headlines in my little country (‘Nel Veerkamp begraven in panterprint kist’ – although I do think I don’t really miss much) and especially at the weather report. It makes me smile, a little mean smile, the colder it gets there the bigger my smile is. Another day of Havaianas and flowery summer dress for me.
• Euroshopper speculaasbrokken. One of my fellow Dutchies received a package from Holland. She kept a pack of Euroshopper speculaasbrokken for me and gave it to me on my birthday. The red packaging with the black and white logo with a shopping cart on it makes me smile already let alone the moment when I will open the package and take my first bite.
• Hammock sessions. Why hammocks never really got through in the west is a mystery to me. Maybe because they tend to sell those weird ones with sticks on it, preventing you from being able to sink away in it, which happens to be the best thing. My hammock and I, it was love at first sight. And now, now we stay together until death do us part. Regular hammock sessions tend to open the mind, in my hammock I come up with the greatest ideas.
• Jackson from Brazil. A Saturday evening in Lethem, not just a Saturday evening, no it was the 20th of November. On the dance floor Marieke with Jackson. Jackson with more hair than Marieke, a tighter pants than Marieke and being more ladylike than Marieke. Jackson not even reaching Mariekes shoulders. Teaching her to dance the Foha. Basic steps, check; the next set of steps, check; after that, lost.
• Yoghurt drink. Crossing the border with Brazil. A short visit to Bon Fim, entering the first super market. A little dance in the shop. Activia drink!

Tears
• House. After being in the country now for more than 3 months my house is still not finished. In fact nothing much is happening. It is frustrating because it is out of my control. All I can do is wait and express my disappointment to VSO. To be honest I sometimes shed a little tear because of this.
• No phone, no voices from home. I find it hard that there is no cell phone signal here. I didn’t realize up front how nice it is to sometimes hear the voice of a loved one. It is so much easier to explain your feelings over the phone instead of the digital highway.
• Birthday. On a special day like that you tend to think more about home. Don’t get me wrong I had a wonderful day here. Unfortunately having it both is not an option.

As you can see the amount of smiles in much larger than the tears. I am blessed to be here, but also I have my difficult moments sometimes. I live and I learn.