Hello,
Sorry it has been so long since we last posted. It was Becca's fault.
Actually we've been having some skype interviews and trying to get in all the things that we haven't done yet, so we've been kinda busy. And speaking of skype interviews, Cody cut off his beard to look more professional. It was probably a good thing, though, because he had a sort of heat rash- living in a tropical environment with a beard fit for a lumberjack does that to you. In fact, the people native to this area have very little hair, and that's probably why.
So Cody has been going regularly to Papaichton to work, leaving Becca to fend for herself by throwing our ferocious kitty at any potential threats, aka Tucker attacks all the roaches when Cody isn't there to deliver a swift death blow that not even a nuclear bomb could accomplish. Cody definitely likes it, stays at different people's houses, and eats a lot of fruits and nuts that he gathers with the local kids. Plus, the mode of transportation is a dug out canoe- who else can say that he/she goes to work in a modified log?
We have done a few things that we have been wanting to do since we got here, and thats what we mean by "fitting in the good times." We actually spent Easter in Amerindian country, which means a place where people have parrots and monkeys for pets, don't have toilets, and the school uniform consists of a loin cloth. It was really calm and a really nice change from the craziness that the Bushinenge people seem to thrive in.
We also, yesterday, went to visit the "fromager" of Maripasoula. It is basically a really really big tree that the traditional religiuos beliefs hold as holy. To get there was a real aventure, where we had to hack through forest with a machette, mark our path by little notches in the trees that we passed, and battle for our lives with giant robot tarantulas. K that last part is a lie.
But speaking of tarantulas, we have seen some. We've also seen a number of awesome frogs (pink, red, organge), the passion fruit flowers came back into bloom. the pomme rosas, ramboutans, maripas, fruits a pain, and the bombins (don't know their names in English, but they are all really good) seasons have come and gone. We have seen cars being brought up the river on more modified logs, a student flip out and throw rocks into the classroom, and a large group of 12y/o students doing backflips after school. Also, we got our Christmas package from Rebecca's mom which only took five months, and Becca got her hair braided which only took five hours.
By forcing down the food, let us explain. Basically, a few weeks ago we bought all of the food that we thought we were going to need for the rest of our stay. We did it in two minutes flat, spending about $100, because where we go food shopping is across the river at stores owned by Chinese people. Well, we learned recently that at any time of the day, there is a danger of being caught in a gun fight between these same sweet Chinese people and the illegal Brasilian gold miners who come to rob them. Apparently this happens quite often, in fact so often that nobody thought it an important enough event to talk about it whenever it happened. We only leaned when one of our good friends here had to flee in a modified log to get away from it. Are you also getting how much life revolves around these logs? Well, long story short, we shouldn't have bought all of the food because between all of the food that Cody gets daily off the ground or from the trees around us, and the food that the people around us have straight up given us (including canned beans, chicken wings, quack, etc), we are struggling to finish our food.
And that word, "finish," is coming up a lot. Becca is finished with all of her classes but next Monday and Tuesday's. We have finished doing laundry by hand and with are finished with rationing our yogurt.
Basically we have done most all of what we wanted to do here. We are happy with all of the experiences that we have had, experiences that most people will never have, and experiences that we will most likely never have the opportunity to have again. We are really excited to go home, see our families, and start our next jobs (most likely in Virginia Beach, working at a camp ground- wanna visit?).
We're leaving Maripasoula this week, and will be hanging out in Paramaribo, Suriname until our flight on April 30th. Let us know where you'll be in May and we'll try to make plans to meet up!
Peace,
CODYandBECCA
