Peter Troon in Suriname in March 2001

... And 15 years later?

On the 1st of March 2001 I returned to Suriname after 15.5 years. I was born in Suriname in 1974. I moved to the Netherlands in 1985 and I didn't go back until 2001. In 1999 I realised that I spent the greater part of my life at that moment in the Netherlands and that I never went back to Suriname. At that moment it was impossible for me to visit my native country, but I started to make plans to return to Suriname. I decided that a good moment to make the journey would be after I graduated. I started to save some money to buy a ticket.

It is a 9 hours flight from Amsterdam (The Netherlands) to Paramaribo. When the airplane reached the Surinamese area it was nice to see the woods. Of course you also could see rivers, bridges and roads from time to time. Shortly after entering the Surinamese area the plane landed on the Johan Adolf Pengel Airport also known as Zanderij. A funny thing is that Surinamese people have a habit of applauding after a successful touchdown. Well… in a way it is a miracle that the plane landed safely and one should be grateful for that.

The time was about 18.15 when I got out of the plane. The hot air outside welcomes you and you realise that you are in a tropical climate. Walking down the stairs from the plane the moment is there to touch the Surinamese ground after 15.5 years. It felt good to be in Suriname. The airport has a balcony on which people can welcome the airplane passengers. Many persons who came to pick up one or more passengers make use of the balcony, so it's very busy on that balcony.

Some relatives of mine came to pick me up at the airport and I went to their home, sat down and relaxed.. Spending the first evening in Paramaribo, I realise that it's so quiet. You actually can see the stars in the sky. It is late in the evening and the temperature outside is so nice.

Dutch people who never have been to Suriname will experience that it's rather strange that they speak Dutch in a country so far away from the Netherlands and where the climate is tropical. The Dutch influence can also be noticed in the naming of the streets, like for instance the "Gravenstraat".

Paramaribo

I spent the next day in Paramaribo. I noticed that many things were changed, but that many other things still were the same. I easily could find my way in the city, because I still remembered the streets. Two of the first places I went to were the Onafhankelijkheidsplein (Square of Independence) and the Waterkant (Waterside).

Many different cultures and religions live together in Suriname. One remarkable example is that a Jewish Synagogue and a Muslim Mosque are so close together. They are almost neighbours and everything goes well. If you want to see this for yourself you have to go to the "Keizerstraat" near the crossing with the "Steenbakkerijstraat". I also made a picture of this situation. It's picture number 5 on my Suriname Pictures Site.

I went to visit many relatives and friends during the first days. The people are very nice and hospitable. Everybody offers you a plate with food and time flies, because you are having a good time.

Paranam and Suralco

I got the chance to get a tour in Paranam / Suralco. This company has bauxite mines and processes the bauxite so that it can be exported to make aluminum out of it. Everybody thinks that Suralco already has passed away, but I learned that the company still has many activities. At this moment Suralco has two mines where bauxite is gained: one near Lelydorp and the other one is in the neigbourhood of Moengo (Mungo). Both mines deliver bauxite with a different quality. The bauxite of both mines is processed by Suralco in Paranam. After processing it is transported with ships to export it to foreign countries. This can be done easily since Paranam is near the Suriname river.

Nickerie

The weekend of the 9th and 10th of March was Holy Phagwa. Holy Phagwa is a festivity to celebrate the beginning of spring. This sounds rather odd, because Suriname hasn't got any winters, but even in Suriname a new weather seasons starts at the beginning of March. We spent the weekend with a nice family. The father in that house is a civil engineer and told us about the active and the planned projects in Suriname.

Holy Phagwa is rather nice to celebrate. Although the festivity orginally belongs to the Hindustan tradition and only was celebrated by the Surinamese people with Indian ancestors, it nowadays is celebrated by almost everybody in Suriname. People put and throw parfum, powder, oil and more stuff at each other while saying "Sub Holy" to each other. The "Sub Holy" is a wish of goodluck. At the end of the afternoon almost everybody in Nieuw Nickerie goes to a place called the Zeedijk at the Corantijn river.

The Sunday of that weekend I went to the Surinamese - Guyanese border and I also spent some time with relatives in Nieuw Nickerie. After that we took a bus and went back to Paramaribo.

Albina and Galibi

Albina is the capital of the district of Marowijne. Marowijne is in the East of Suriname. The Marowijne river is the border river between Suriname and French Guiana. Albina used to be a nice little village where people from Paramaribo spent many of their weekends as small holidays.

Albina can be reached by bus. The distance between Paramaribo and Albina is about 150 kilometres. That is almost 100 miles. Because of the war in the second half of the 1980's a great part of the area including the road to Albina is destroyed. It hurts to see what happened to that area if you remember driving through the area when you were a little child and how beautiful it was.

In Albina we went into a small boat (korjaal) that took us to Galibi. The journey across the water lasted about 1.5 hrs. We left Paramaribo early in the morning and around 14.00 hrs we were in Galibi. The beach reminds of a small paradise as only can be found in the famous Bounty commercial. We walked through the area and met the local people who are American Indians. There even was a small tourist shop. And ofcourse the food was nice too.

The main reason we went to Galibi is to see the turtles. In order to see the turtles we had to wait until 22.00 hrs. We took the boat and went to the mouth of the Marowijne river. The Marowijne river flows into the Atlantic Ocean. I thought I'd see small turtles, but I was quite amazed that the turtles turned to be rather big. I saw turtles with a diameter of approximately 80 centimetres and the guide told us that around August turtles with a diameter of 2 metres come to Suriname.

The turtles come from all over the world to lay their eggs in Suriname. From places like Costa Rica but also from Australia. The turtles travel years to reach their goal. It's quite amazing how nature works. Apparently these animals remember that they were born in Suriname and they return to lay their eggs in the same area as where they were born.

Unfortunately the eggs are not safe, because poachers hunt for the eggs to sell them on the market. Many people like turtle eggs. A turtle lays approximately 200 eggs at once, so the nature knows that not all of the eggs will survive, but people still should not touch the eggs.

Brownsberg

This nice mountain is in the district of Brokopondo. It is not to far from Afobaka where electricity is generated. From this mountain you can enjoy the view across the Van Blommenstein storage lake. My Brownsberg pictures give an impression of this mountain. Click here for an overview of the pictures I made while I was in Suriname.

Lelydorp / Kofi-Djompo

Lelydorp is the capital of the district Wanica. This small village is used to be called Kofi-Djompo, but was renamed after the well-known Dutch engineer Cornelis Lely. This man was responsible for the so called "Zuiderzeewerken" in the Netherlands. A very turbulent lake was enclosed by a barrage to protect a great part of the Netherlands from the sea. Later on a great part of that lake was reclaimed. The whole plan to do this was made by Ir. Cornelis Lely. From 1903 to 1905 Mr. Lely was the governor of Suriname.

I don't know where the name Kofi-Djompo was derived from, but it is nice to know that the slaves used to name their children depending on the day. This habit was inherited from their African ancesters. For instance: If a boy was born on a friday, his name would be Kofi (Think of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan) and if a boy was born on a wednesday, he was called Kwakoe (Kwaku). For more information about this subject I refer to my page about the names the Surinamese slaves used to give to their children.

In Paramaribo you can find a statue of a slave called Kwakoe. Many people think that the slave represented on that statue is a particular person, but that is not true. The statue expresses any slave. The fictive person on the statue was called Kwakoe, because the 1st of July 1863 was a wednesday and that the tradition of slaves was to give their boys if they were born on a wednesday the name Kwakoe. On July 1st 1863 a new era was born, because on that day the slavery was abolished.

Lelydorp is about 20 kilometres south of Paramaribo. The road from Paramaribo to the Johan Adolf Pengel Airport at Zanderij goes through Lelydorp. It is a nice place to stop by, because many people sell nice food over there. The road from Paramaribo to Lelydorp used to be called "Pad van Wanica", which is path of Wanica. In 1984 it was renamed after Indira Gandhi to Indira Gandhi weg.

The Indira Gandhi weg has many side-ways. One of them is called the Java weg and leeds to a place called Santo Boma. Another one is called the Van Hattem weg. When I was a little boy I used to go there very often. I went back to meet the people after so many years. At first it was a little bit odd, but afterwards I was really glad that I visited that place.

Nieuw Amsterdam

Nieuw Amsterdam is a small village in the district of Commewijne. This town is known, because the open-air museum of Suriname is located there. Many items of the Colonial era still are kept in this museum. This museum can give an impression of the early days of Suriname and because of that reason it is worth a visit.

This page: Copyright © 2001 Peter A. J. Troon

Note: This page is part of the Peter Troon Site.