not going to lie, it’s not been an ideal
week her in La Guyane Francaise. Character building, challenging and a patience-practicing
are words that spring to mind. So the bike broke, my foot was looking rather
manky, and then, after posting the last blog, I returned chez moi to discover
that our fridge and freezer had been robbed. This is NOT IDEAL in a tropical
country, where things like ice cubes and cold water are a necessary part of
daily life. Oh and you know, non-mouldy food. The delightful man who stole said
appliance, does not seem to understand a common concept that, when you move out
of a house, you change the name on the bills. As such, he has been paying the
electricity bill for our house for the past year, without living there. Funnily
enough, many people have come and gone over the year, and some have neglected
to pay the man for a bill we know nothing about as it in his name. Long story
short- no one has paid him, he robbed fridge. My housemate tried to explain
that this is not how reasonable people deal with this situation- but sadly to
no avail. She also asked which day he would be going to change the name on the
bill (so we could go together and arrange a straight swap)... he was very
aloof. Turns out, this was so he could wait, and cut off the electricity on a Friday,
when he knew we would be stuck the whole weekend waiting for the office to open
without electricity. What a douche. His name is Teddy. What a douchy name. Not
going to lie, Friday morning was a low point. Housemate had decided she would
be leaving me alone in the Maroni while she went back to Suriname to hang out
with some guy. This was not so bad, and after a slight panic, I decided that I
would catch up on some writing, join the library, go swimming, nothing
groundbreaking but still. After returning from the library (unsuccessfully-
seems like you need an FBI background check, 15 signatures of recommendation,
fingerprints and eye scan, and muchas photocopies before they will consider
letting you be a member of the one room library, discovering the electricity
had been turned off was not what I wanted to here.
After a frantic search for a taxi
to Cayenne for asap, using FAR too much of my phone credit, it’s like 1 euro a
minute or something tres ridiculoso, I found one willing to pick me up chez moi
at 2pm. This gave me an hour to pull myself together and throw some stuff in a
bag. No time for lunch, doesn’t matter anyway because lunch is difficult on the
equator without a fridge. Anyway, I was on my way, I have never been so happy
to see the cemetery which signals you are leaving St. Laurent. Thankfully,
Laure and Sam, living in the really nice apartment with beaucoup de space,
agreed to let me stay for the weekend. The Friday night was chilled, bit of
sangria, Chinese takeaway and a sleep in an actually comfy bed with a FAN! Did I
mention ours broke last week? Not quite sure what happened Saturday, but after
a little cheeky bit of shopping and a baguette, the drinking started and soon
we were on the beach drinking wine out of the bottle wearing shorts and
flip-flops. That is definitely the first time I have been able to say that
about the 1st December! At some point there was a Mcflurry drive-through, more
takeaway food, more wine, back to the beach for a casual night-time rocket
launch, and then on to a club to dance away the stresses of the week. Bear in mind, that throughout all these
activities we were going around with 4 of us in a 2-seater car, me and laure
hid under a blanket in the boot bit in case anyone came for a look.
It’s so strange here how the
nightlife can vary so much from Cayenne to St. Laurent, given that it is only a
three hour drive. Well, I suppose its not that strange. Cayenne is on the
eastern side of Guyane, closer to Brazil, and thus populated heavily with Brazilians
who want Brazilian music. St. Laurent on the other hand, is much more African
in terms of population and therefore we get the reggae and the Caribbean beats
as opposed to the latin stuff. I think, I prefer the Caribbean stuff, but after
a couple of hours, both styles leave you begging for some Rihanna. Honestly,
even Gangham style will do which is the only worldwide song that they seem to
like over here. Got in around half 4, and slept well again in a comfy bed, and Sunday
was a bit of a write off. To be fair, you don’t even feel like you should be
doing something because there is nothing to do on a Sunday. Buying bread and
milk, good luck!
Got back to St. Laurent late Sunday
night, to find the electricity ON --- I have heard rumours of illegal cutting of
wires, etc... don’t wanna get involved.
Monday was another great day. Spent
5 hours at the hospital waiting to get my foot seen as the stuff that
the other doctor gave me didn’t seem to have much effect. That was fun. But
besides all this, I have decided today (although it will probably change
tomorrow) that one must be positive and try to love life, even when life is a
little bit boring and hot a gives you mushrooms on your feet (first it was
fleas and now fungus is the diagnoisis. Not sure which is worse. Plus, we are
learning the local language, Nenge Tongo, and had our first class today. It was
the first time I have had to actually use my brain in far too long, it actually
hurt. But apparently after 10 hours of intensive courses we will be able to
understand all the people in the street and will be able to talk back! Ha! We shall
see. Apparently it is 45% based on English so maybe we have a little head start
whoop whoop. As for the rest of the week- its not looking too busy. At the
weekend we are hoping to rent a car and go for a look around the surrounding
area but who knows. I feel like Christmas is just going to come and go this
year without me even noticing it. At this rate I won’t even have any English telly
left to keep me going as I have watched most of it :S
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