Paramaribo

 After a few nights in ICU Layne is pretty much back to normal and she has been moved to a general ward where care is dreadful, classic third world indifference, six women to a room, no air conditioning and nursing staff that are more like prison wardens than care givers. It has become ugly.

I got a letter in Dutch from the hospital which I think is an angry demand for money to pay for ICU which gives me the impression people don’t pay their hospital bills as it’s all bold face and one sentence I translated said something to the effect there will be consequences. Pretty nasty stuff for a first request and there is no amount mentioned. Just weird. That’s on my plate today so I took my maximum $1,000 out of the ATM yesterday (500 on each of our debit cards) in this ridiculous credit card free society. 

As far as Layne goes her care is reduced to zero pretty much. My first move on the ward was to go to the nurses station when I arrived at four pm for visiting hours  and asked politely if anyone spoke English. The butch chief nurse looked away and said something to the others which I clearly, and to their horror, understood to be a remark to the effect that I was in a Dutch speaking country and better get with the program. To which I replied that nursing in other countries was an honored profession full of compassion but clearly wasn’t getting it here. Then the head bitch said in fluent English  I needed to take the letter to the administration offices downstairs tomorrow. No shit I had figured that much out  for myself. I was figuring it was time to go as this department was not for us. Laynes vital signs are such she is no longer attached to a machine measuring them.

It got worse. I prepared a sentence in Google translate saying lathe had had a bowel movement and went back to the nurses station to break up the party.  They read my phone and I went back to her bedside. Nothing happened. 

Five minutes passed and I went to protest and the line was that three nurses had forty patients and she’d have to wait. So I said let me ease your burden I  want to take her home where I can give her better care than you can  with your indifference. There had been five nurses sitting round the table talking and I know what harried overworked nurses look like. This lot did not look like that as I remembered from  my own time in the hospital, an experience which gave me the greatest respect for the toughest job in health care. Trust me these were nowhere close to nurses working at the limit of their capacities. 

Finally one showed up after they told me I couldn’t discharge her and said snarkily “Will you help?” The other patients in the ward were astonished to see me help clean Layne and by the end of visiting hours I had won them over and they promised to keep an eye out on her. I left her very reluctantly  but she had a fan from the van and they allow cell phones in this ward so I can communicate with her now. 

My plan is to pay the bill and take her home today so we will see what happens. My plans to fly to Europe are off obviously which as much as I hate flying is very upsetting but inevitable. Our next move is to get Layne rested and we have the apartment till the end of the month when our immigration permits expire so we have time. By the way photos aren’t allowed in the hospital so pictures today relate to the title as I drive around town hither and yon. Paramaribo (“para-marry-beau”) known locally as “Parbo” is a very spread out suburban kind of city, no high rises or clusters of office buildings as you can see.  Drive on the left and most drivers are pretty relaxed. 

The funny thing about the apartment is I had to move us out Monday because there was another renter. When Layne wasn’t feeling well in Guyana we left early and asked if we could add on ten days to our rental and the landlord said fine  but it was already rented  out Monday night so Layne found another pet friendly room for last night. Thus I wasn’t keen to get her out of the hospital on Monday but today we return to the apartment and Layne can settle in for as long as she needs.

Obviously I haven’t been to the mall in town but the most popular fast food place I’ve seen is this one all around Paramaribo. So as a change from hospitals I present “how to eat lunch with your fingers even if you don’t know how to order.”

Parking oddly hasn’t been much of a problem around Paramaribo and I stopped here to try the food. I had no idea how to order but I got help from the  guy at the back of the line when I asked my usual first question and luckily he wasn’t a nurse at the hospital  and he said yes, he spoke English, so I asked him to order for me as I had no clue. He was game and I bought his lunch which he ordered to go and I washed my hands at the sink in the dining room before I opened my break from a difficult day.

It cost about five bucks I think and looked like airline food with a packet of lethal hot sauce. There is no cutlery and you eat with your fingers. When in Rome…

I could not figure out how to eat the gravy without a spoon but there it is. Lamb was off my interpreter told me so I had chicken and it was good. The green beans and potatoes was my favorite part as I tore off pieces of naan and scooped stuff up. I had to change my shirt (and wash my hands again) after lunch. I looked around and saw other people using their left hands so I figured I was okay if I did too.  

Muslims use their left hands to wipe their backsides and recoil in horror when left handers like me forget their manners and pick up food with their left hands. This was not a one handed meal. I also noticed a sink when I went to buy Layne a mango smoothie on my way back to her cell. They are a common dining room accessory apparently.  

I did notice the city cemetery on my drives and I took a picture as I passed. Frankly it looks like an uninteresting jumbled mess. Perhaps that judgement is a reflection of my mood.

May you live in interesting times.

Malaria

 Let me start out by saying we bought malaria pills in Houston, packed them carefully away and completely forgot about them. Let me also say that two hundred years ago malaria was a serious risk but in 2025 there are medications to treat this parasite borne disease. You get it by being bitten by an infected black and white striped mosquito and a few days or months later you get sick. Symptoms vary but include the usual fever weakness diarrhea vomiting and so forth.  If you don’t get treatment the parasite might very well kill you.

Layne is getting excellent treatment at the public hospital, the Academy Hospital, a shabby building soon to be replaced with a new building but filled with really caring staff. She was admitted with very low blood pressure but they have put that right and they have identified the particular parasite and have a course of treatment to kill it. She is possibly going to be moved out of the ICU today or tomorrow and may be out of the hospital later this week.

The funny thing here is that Suriname was declared malaria free, a huge accomplishment, declared by the World Health Organisation last June.  Funny in a manner of speaking because Layne has put that hard won recognition at risk. The public health department is planning to run a campaign across the country to have people stay alert to the symptoms. Team Lost at work and we apologize.

“Giving blood is an act of love” says Google Translate. Layne’s journey into the ICU at the public hospital which follows the official language, Dutch, but whose slogan is in English.

This duality reflects society as a whole in Suriname a fascinating country, the smallest in South America with just 600,000 people, a colony that got independence from the Netherlands in 1975, that is a mixture of cultures that is head spinning in its complexity. Yet is a very pleasant place to visit at least superficially which is all I have managed so far. There is no doubt we did well to escape the chaos that is neighboring Guyana. No one here disagrees with that statement.

There will be those who will argue that Malaria is what you deserve for visiting the tropics  but for us it’s just another experience. You imagine breaking down in the middle of nowhere as the ultimate disaster. We’ve done that already and we solved that without drama. Now we have malaria to deal with and we are handling that too and it is a tremendous nuisance. The question isn’t centered on us, but on the observer who says “it isn’t worth it” and I would agree certainly if it isn’t worth it to you that is a perfectly respectable choice; don’t travel as we do and avoid the possibility of infectious disease. For me these setbacks are the path to growth, avoiding hassles leads to boredom for me. Bear in mind I am a terrible  organizer and sitting at home managing a business would kill me faster than malaria.  It all depends on how you prefer to die I suppose, and how you like to live. If we die on the road there will be no regrets and this is a timely reminder. Plus we have made provision to get Rusty rescued if that does happen. I don’t want my last thought to be worrying about him being abandoned in the streets of South America. He alone among us didn’t mind Georgetown, but firmly attached to me:

My job through all this has been to buy stuff. The weird thing about the public hospital is the family has to supply everything. That meant on my second day in Paramaribo I had to learn everything about this new country. Normally it’s fun to learn a new culture but this was jumping in at the deep end. 

We first went to St Vincent Clinic as recommended by the landlord of our air bnb. We spent a couple hours there and paid $100 for admission, $45 for lab work and $360 more dollars for time spent in a room and an ambulance ride to the public hospital called the Academy, Suriname’s trauma center, main ICU and the main hospital for this country of 600,000 people. The private clinic did nothing. They said maybe she had dengue but their lab work was useless and confirmed nothing and then they said they had no room and shuffled Layne rapidly into an ambulance for a transfer. Something was very fishy. 

Sure enough the very patient kind  and thorough young doctor in the ER ordered a bunch of tests at the Academy lab and said he thought Layne had symptoms consistent with malaria not dengue. He was incensed the private clinic lab had not done a test for dengue with Layne’s blood. I thought to myself they wanted nothing to do  with a suspected malaria case ( they knew it wasn’t dengue I’m certain)  and  palmed her off on the public hospital.

It was good for us they did. I paid $9 to have her admitted and then I learned the hospital supplies nothing for the patient. I had to go out and figure out where to buy every single thing, diapers, a comb, shampoo, deodorant, bottled water (NONE available in the hospital), plus I had to bring food and every single thing Layne needed. Visiting hours at 11:30 am for one hour and four pm for 90 minutes daily. No cellphones allowed (because they have cameras and no photos allowed for patient privacy). 

Suriname does not use credit cards and if you think the US should go back to the gold standard and no credit should be extended ever let me tell you a cash economy is a total pain in the ass. I have to haunt the ATMs like the hunchback of Notre Dame, and every time I get ahead I find myself counting out 500 Suriname dollar bills paying for something, gas, groceries, supplies for Layne and so forth. (40SRD to One USD) Thank God our landlord at the air BnB uses Zelle or I’d have to accumulate even more. It’s a nice apartment in a nice complex. 

Indeed Suriname is a very pleasant country, it is developing oil resources, there are gold mines and extensive agriculture. Honestly I don’t see much in the way of tourist attractions, crappy beaches, no mountains just farmland backed by impenetrable jungle. The few people I have talked to are astonished to discover we are pure tourists with no connections at all to this country. No one comes here unless it’s to visit family or some such reason. 

Suriname is also an astonishingly diverse country. The supermarkets are all owned by Chinese merchants. Indian businesses are everywhere. Indonesians (another former Dutch colony) have restaurants all over the city. Dutch is the official language but most educated Surinamese speak English but not everyone. Others speak Mandarin, Tagalog or Urdu. It’s crazy. The country is peppered with Muslim masjids and Hindu temples alongside churches. At a time when the US is rejecting multiculturalism Suriname is living it full bore. And I don’t find it easy as I don’t know who speaks what, so I wander around  prefacing everything I say with “do you speak English?”

It’s like getting malaria: Suriname forces you to think and to stretch your thinking and to figure out where you fit in this astonishing mixture. Layne told me everyone in the hospital knows who we are…the American tourists traveling in a van. We are unique and I find that a pity. 

I don’t think Suriname for all that it’s neat and tidy and suburban is exciting enough to hold my interest. It’s a wonderful refuge in time of illness and a great place to get medical care but when we are rested, France is two hours drive and a ferry ride south of us. All I know about French Guyana is that it is eye wateringly expensive. Better to get sick in Suriname and we at least have lots of different foods to explore for there’s our stay when Layne leaves the hospital. And she is very grateful for your good wishes. And yes, we will take our malaria pills…now. Duh. 

 

Driving Suriname

I knew not what to expect when we landed in Suriname but I enjoyed driving a smooth road through neatly tilled farmland. 

Suriname is the smallest country in South America with a population of 500,000. It got independence from The Netherlands in 1975 and Dutch is the official language. However it is one of the most diverse countries you’ll find with a population of Chinese, Indians, Indonesians, Muslims, Afro-Caribbean’s you name it. Indonesian food is popular and supermarkets are mostly owned by ethnic Chinese. It’s an extraordinary place and rather like it as it’s clean and orderly like Holland in the tropics.

Very neat European road signs:

Loading a truck with harvested rice. Suriname exports oil, gold and agricultural products and has a relatively high standard of living. 

Nowhere is perfect these cobbles are not my favorite road surface. 

As annoying as cobbles are there was a mile long stretch of dirt road which came as a surprise. 

At first I thought “Drempel” was the name of a village but after a while I came to the conclusion it meant “speed bump.”

Even the poorest homes were tidy with swept yards and flowers in pots or pruned shrubs for ornamentation. 

Chinese owned food store:

Just a little shower. 

I was surprised to see what looked like a rattlesnake crossing the road. I stopped for it. 

A flood control gate. 

Bridge fishing just like in the Keys:

We arrived in the capital after dark found the apartment and collapsed in bed. A long couple of days. Friday Layne was admitted to the ICU. At first they thought dengue then they figured malaria. Fucking brilliant.