We had a follow up meeting at Suriname’s malaria prevention clinic called BOG where we met the director himself.
As usual Suriname kills diversity with the director, whose name we never learned, who volunteered he’s Indian, speaks Hindi at home, studied in the Netherlands and speaks better German than English. But we communicated through this wildly mixed up culture.
Layne tested malaria free officially after she donated a finger tip of blood and we waited 15 minutes. The director’s assistant, also anonymous, filled us in on dining possibilities when Layne is fully back on her feet.
Surinamese are intensely proud of their culture and they always encourage you to try eateries. Here I learned Indonesian restaurants are “warangs” and Layne is planning to taste some Javanese dishes she’s been reading about. She is weak but getting better obviously.
We wrapped up the medical notes and also bought some malaria prevention pills to take after we leave Suriname, still officially malaria free, and cross French Guyana and northern Brazil where malarial mosquitoes roam.
Suriname is building a modern new public health building next door but this is where the country waged a successful campaign to eradicate malaria.
I find it interesting how seriously they take these diseases to protect their population using the latest medications, no argument about the efficacy of corporate drugs. When you live this close to deadly epidemics you don’t reject vaccine technology in these offices.
The funny thing was when we walked through the doors and told the staff who Layne was they were waiting for her. I didn’t know this but I’d the right mosquitoes take blood from a person with malaria they can spread the parasite so Layne checking as malaria free is a relief to the authorities too. It was an interesting morning.
We stopped at Roopram, the chain outlet closest to our home and had a fast food Indian lunch to go from this popular chain.
Layne had a duck roti lunch while I ordered a lamb roti plate, ordered spicy.
Doks is duck. I can’t remember how to spell lamb but happily I didn’t have to point as I was expecting. It isn’t cheap by the way, about US $15 each. And we ate at home so we used cutlery which is socially unacceptable with roti in public…
And so home to a happily sleeping dog. It rained, the temperature dropped and Rusty enjoyed his brief walk after dark. He doesn’t do long walks anymore so we wander a little in the street and I just enjoy his company as he gets older.
I have two weeks to wait before I fly to Scotland to my sister’s wedding, thanks to Dale coming to baby sit Layne while I’m gone. Hopefully we’ll get to explore Paramaribo a bit soon when Layne gets her strength back. Meanwhile here we are!
