Road trip - Montana

106 – number of dear we saw on our way to our campsite

5 – number of times we had to turn around because we couldn’t find our camp ground for the life of us (at 9pm in the pitch black of back country Montana

1 – number of incorrect camp sites we stayed at because we were sick of looking for our real camp site

197 – number of cows we counted driving away from our campsite before we decided there were way too many cows to count.

Montana was pretty great, and I hope to spend more time there in the future. The only thing we really had time for was to find the camp site at Cooney State Park after we got off the freeway. We headed in the wrong direction, then the wrong direction 4 more times before stopping to find a camp site that was not actually ours. Hahaha…failure of planning well on my part. But, to give myself some credit, the website was super confusing and then the lady on the phone with the reservation place wasn’t much help either.

On our way to North Dakota the next day we stopped to freshen up, as there weren’t any bathrooms at the campsite. Where we stopped was gas station/casino/McDonalds…preeeety intense. To fully experience the awesomeness of this place I got a hashbrown and OJ and McDs, played $1 of slots in the casino and then asked for directions in the gas station. Classy way to start my morning.

We also stopped by the Crow Fair, one of the biggest powwows in the US. Although the fair had not started when we got there, a lot of the teepees were already set up. We stopped for some fresh fry-bread with honey and took a quick look at the Little Bighorn Battlefield.

I’ve always been really intrigued by the Native American people and culture. Maybe someday I’ll be a nurse practitioner to one of the Indian Nations…you never know J

Road Trip - Idaho

Right when we got over the border of Idaho, we ate at the famous little roadside diner, Capone’s.  We then drove around Lake Coeur d’Alene looking for our campsite. The lake was way bigger and more beautiful than I had expected to see. Once finding our campsite (which was a stone’s throw from I90) we settled in for the night and started a fire.  Due to the dry spell the country has seen this year, we knew this would be the only option for a camp fire during our trip.

In the morning we went on a 3 mile run, not too bad for a couple of campers.

That’s about it for Idaho.  We didn’t spend much time there, but it definitely made me want to return in the future.  A vacation on Lake Coeur d’Alene would be pretty awesome…if I found a campsite further from the freeway J

Road trip - Washington

The trek across Washington was pretty basic. I’ve lived most my life here, so there weren’t any big surprises. After stopping in Ellensburg to say hello/goodbye to a good friend, we made our way to Vantage to visit the Puget Sound Energy wind farm.  A close friend of mine works there, and I wanted to take a look around, and say goodbye to her, before heading out across the country.

The wind farm was really interesting and beautiful.  The views weren’t as epic as they usually are, due to the fires in Cle Elum, but it was still pretty breathtaking. Andrea gives a great tour and I would suggest anyone stop by for a visit.

In George we stopped at a little Hispanic market for water and snacks. I saw the following sign advertising Aquafina…it was preeeetty fuuunny.

Suzie Kay’s birthday celebration!

Suzie Kay had such a great birthday (at least as far as I could tell). The evening before her birthday I baked many tiny little chocolate cakes in her toaster oven.  We enjoyed one little cake each, chocolate truffles sent from an Aunt of hers and some Shiraz while chit chatting like the good friends we are. She also decided to open a few gifts on her birthday’s eve.

On the morning of her birthday, she opened the rest of her gifts and we munched on breakfast sandwiches and French Roast coffee.

In the early afternoon we caught a Lanti-boat (government subsidized transport) to the village that she spent her first 8 months as a PCV.  When we arrived it was evident how much the people of the village love her.  They were so very excited to see her again, and to meet the friend that came to visit her from the US. After walking around a bit and giving Odi (daily greetings), we settled in at the house we would stay for a couple days.

Once in the house we set our stuff down in the little room we would be sleeping in and wrapped ourselves in the garments that women wear around the villages to keep the shape of their legs from being seen (called Pangi). We immediately headed out to the porch, where the family spends the majority of their time at home chatting. The two youngest of the family, Bordi and Suti, readily climbed into Suzie Kay’s lap to be hugged and cuddled while the older girls, Drewsella and Nani played with her hair and gave her large corn rows.

After spending some much needed quality time with her close friends and the kids she loves so much, we stole away to the kitchen where I got the opportunity to teach Drewsella how to bake a birthday cake! (There will be a separate blog post about Suriname cooking adventures.)

A few of Suzie Kay’s good friends disappeared for several hours, and at about 9pm we found out why.  They were planning an impromptu birthday party for her!  One friend brought in their nice stereo to play some dance music and 4 others cooked for hours to prepare enough Bami (a local delicious noodle dish that reminds me of chow mein) for all of us to eat.

Suzie Kay’s surrogate mother of Suriname, Mina, gave her a gorgeous and colorful hand painted Pangi as a birthday gift.

I had brought some colorful crape paper from the US for decorations, so we made the porch look nice and festive.  Once the decorations were up, the music started and we danced our little hearts out with the women and children.  The local dance craze is called Loketo.  The best I can describe it is like belly dancing, but with you hips as the main point of focus.

After a while of dancing, the food and soda appeared, along with the friends who had been missing from the party. We enjoyed tons of food, drink and birthday cake (both chocolate and vanilla). When we brought the birthday cake out Drew was beaming with pride, it was so cute! The candles melted down almost all the way because we sang 3 or 4 songs that are part of the Surinamese tradition.

The number of gifts that were sent to her and the party that was thrown for her in the village is a testament to how much Suzie Kay is loved and adored by those in her life.  It’s so great that she was able to celebrate!

A man and his bird

*photos to come*

 

Many of the men in Suriname have a funny little hobby. While in the rain forest they make an effort to catch little song birds. The smaller the song bird, the more machismo a man can claim.

It’s funny to see big burly men carting around a little bird with them on their bicycles, public buses and boats.  Many men take the birds around with them while they visit friends and do errands.  

There was a rasta man with  in our waggy from the city.  He had a small bird that he held on his lap for the whole of the 3.5 hour journey.  The bird even had a little bathtub in the cage, separate from the bird’s drinking water.

Two people that I've met here have seen children catch these birds in the jungle. One kid caught a bird by having one already in a cage hanging from a tree in the forest.  There was a stick covered with some sticky substance coming out from the cage.  When a song bird comes by to hit on the one in captivity they get caught and could not fly away.Another person has seen a kid hit a song bird with a slingshot, stunning the bird long enough to snatch it.

I must admit, when I first heard of this hobby I had pictured grown men in the forest trying to catch birds with their hands…I hope that happens because it would be funnier than the other ways I've heard confirmed.

Someone that I’ve met here has been to a weekly competition that is held for men to have their song birds compete.  Apparently the birds are put side by side and the number of chirps they make in an allotted amount of time are counted. The man with the bird who chirps the most number of times wins the competition.

The man across from Suzie Kay's apartment has 5 bird cages with little friends singing his manliness.  He stands in front of them with a proud look on his face, his shirt pulled up to expose his middle age belly.  His shirt is tucked up and over to make a cute little statement, much like I did when I was in second grade on the playground.

Arrival in Suriname

I stepped off of the plane in Suriname and instantaneously felt like I was slapped in the face with a wet blanket.  The average temperature in the country throughout the year (including in the black of night) is 86 degrees Fahrenheit with an average humidity of 86%. Whew!  What a difference from the temperate (aka COLD) spring of Seattle. 

Once I found the sign of the shuttle company with my ‘name’ – Liane Fernihon (they were pretty close, I have to give them that!) I was escorted to the bus to wait for the other arrivals.  The shuttle worker told me that it would be ‘just a few minutes’. 45 minutes and 2 miscommunications later I was on the road to the hotel where I would meet my dear friend Suzie Kay!

Upon arrival to the hotel at 1:30am I was happy to see the smile of my great college friend. The cute little establishment that the Peace Corps volunteers stay at in the city is a quasi-hostel. There are individual rooms with individually controlled air conditioning, a welcome surprise! The refrigerator and bathrooms are shared, with unheated showers. 

The Sunday after my arrival we stayed in the city (which was completely deserted…imagine, people actually take a day of rest here, weird!) and went to the Peace Corps office for Suzie Kay to complete some work.  The common room for the volunteers has comfortable couches, and it was fun to meet Suzie’s new Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) family. 

After getting quite a bit done at the office, we were picked up by a waggy. Waggy is the word for vehicle in the local language. You can call a waggy driver who you know or just catch a on a passing waggy. Many people have this as their main income, transporting people and goods from city to town to village.

The waggy driver who took us to the town that Suzie Kay is currently living in is a driver that she uses quite frequently. He is trusted by the PCVs and takes his time getting places, not risking accident or injury. The drive to Suzie Kay’s current site is 2.5 or 3 hours depending on the day and how many stops are made during the trip.  It’s very common for the drivers to stop multiple times during the short trip for random errands of the passengers, 6 or 7 stops would not be out of the ordinary. The road between the city and the town is also under construction, so the ride feels a lot like the ‘Indiana Jones’ ride at Disneyland. During our little journey-ett we stopped 4 times and got 2 flat tires and so were slightly delayed.

Day 3 - Agra, India

Wow, the Taj Mahal was a great experience!*

It's difficult to post about seeing the Taj Mahal without being completely sappy and hokey.  The whole complex was amazing with a large entry gate at each side of the main courtyard.  After entering the courtyard there was a large red entry gate. If you peaked through you could see the grand Taj Mahal  beyond the many reflecting pools, fountains, gardens and  platforms. The massive marble structure was so pure white that it almost glowed. It's amazing to think that a man had it built in honor of his favorite wife who had passed away.  I hope he was as good to her in life as he was in death.

After taking a good 30 minutes to wander through the gardens and gawk at the building from afar we decided to make our way inside.  There were stations for the locals to leave their shoes before going inside, but the visitors usually put covers over their shoes instead.  It seemed to me that part of the experience was feeling the cold marble on your feet, so I left my tennies at the shoe station (hoping they would still be there when I returned).

Once inside we met up with a guide who spoke in run-on paragraphs, never taking a breath.** He told us that all of the flowers and decorations of the structure were actually precious jewels inlaid in the marble, not paint as you would expect.  The detailing and size of everything was absolutely amazing.  After our whirwind time inside the building our guide whisked us away to a different part of the complex. After walking through the whole complex with the guide he tried to convince us that the tour was not over until we visited the souvenir shop that he knew of.  We finally shook him, convincing him that we would meet him outside the gate. When he finally left the four of us; Gene, Omar, Varonique and myself were able to look around slowly and snap pictures. We wandered around thinking about history and life.

Once we were done we headed out of the complex and sure enough the guide was waiting there for us, ready to take us to the souvenir shop.  In the shop they sat us down in white plastic chairs and continued to tell us that we needed all of the things they were shoving under our noses. We put up with it for about 5 minutes and then made our ways back out onto the busy street where one nice gentleman leaned into Varonique and kindly asked, 'Would you like to buy my goat!?!?!' (hahaha, that was a fun moment).

For lunch we sat in a cafe just outside the walls of the Taj Mahal complex and enjoyed a delicious meal of fried rice and mixings.  Omar (like any decent Mexican) had tequila with him.  We decided to make the meal a trully multi-cultural experience with tequila and Indian food.  However, we were having so much fun that we completely forgot about the tequila in the end and just enjoyed the day in our silly sober state. From the restaurant I enjoyed looking down at the busy street of Agra, with rickshaws and motos zooming this way and that. 

After lunch we made our way to the Agra Red Fort where I fed a chipmunk from my hand and almost got attacked my a monkey who had strong feeling that I should not go to the Water Closet. During our time at the fort the four of us also decided that currency should be measured by the number of sweets it can buy rather than how many US Dollars it can be changed into. (1 South African Rand can buy 5 sweets).

We also saw where the king kept his harem...nice!

It was so much fun to spend the day with my new friends chatting about our travels and common interests. Somehow this one day get-away felt like a 2 week vacation! It was super duper fantastic and freeing.  I came away with it having a new outlook on life and remembering that life is meant to be light and fun sometimes, not always so heavy and serious. I have no idea how it accomplished it, but it was one of my favorite days in a very long time.

*Except for the people constantly bugging you to hire a tour guide or photographer...that got on my nerves

**the guide got on my nerves because he spoke so quickly and he kept TAKING my camera and snapping pictures. I like my pictures to be what I took...not some random guy. So I deleted most of the photos that he took..annoying