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| The streets of Nieuw Nickerie on a Saturday afternoon |
A few years ago
I lived and worked in the country of Suriname on the northeast corner of South
America. Suriname used to be called
Dutch Guyana. I was in the capitol of
Paramaribo but I was always curious about its second largest city Nieuw
Nickerie on its western border with Guyana (formerly called British
Guyana). Suriname’s eastern border is still called
French Guyana.
I suspected
there was something unusual about Nieuw Nickerie. Most Surinamese friends of mine did not want
to go to Nieuw Nickerie. They said there
was nothing to do there. I wondered why
and set out on my first trip, alone.
Friday
About 240 km
from Paramaribo, my adventure started at the Nickerie-bound mini-bus depot at
Dr. Sophie Redmondstraat. It was almost
9 a.m. and after paying the 13.10 Suriname Dollar (SRD) one-way fare, the bus
began its journey through Kwattaweg in an almost direct westerly route towards
Guyana.
Once we passed
Paramaribo’s outerskirts, we entered a tropical forest, hopping over wide
rivers including the impressive Coppename River - broad, picturesque and thick
with red-green mangroves along its banks.
It took us quite a while to cross the river. At the other side we stopped for snacks at
the very Dutch town of Totness. A slice
of a heavy cassava cake called Bojo satisfied my hunger after being on the
mini-bus for two hours. Soon the
tropical jungle cleared and we were surrounded by rice fields. By then I knew we were in the district of
Nickerie. It will be another two hours
later when we would finally reached Nieuw Nickerie’s city center.
Nickerie comes
from a local Indian word for the oily awara nut. Nieuw, new in Dutch, is in reference to the
fact that Nickerie has been running away from the sea. Its first two locations were claimed by the
Atlantic Ocean. An 8 kilometer sea wall since
the 1940s have protected the “newest” location.
Hardly a city in
appearance, and more like a town, the tallest structures never go higher than
the Royal Palm trees lining its main boulevard.
Unlike Paramaribo, Nickerie is divided into square blocks and neat –
which makes walking less stressful.
The bus let me
off at a local hostel. As I sauntered in
the yard, I heard the voice of Mafrau Fraser on the phone, who informed me the night before of room
available for 35 SRD a night. My room
was pleasantly cool with wooden floors and a window overlooking a creek and
star apple trees. Right there and then I
knew I would enjoy staying in the quiet, clean and simple hostel.
With my legs
itching to walk for discovery, off I went the minute I set my bags on the floor
and finished the usual payment pleasantries.
The Brasaplein
town park was crowded and filled with stalls.
The locals were celebrating the 30th Year of Suriname’s
Independence. At the stage in front of
the Commissariaat, Javanese women in their sixties were wiggling their waists,
Hindustanis chanting and singing, and Chinese teens mimicking the movement of a
bird.
Later there were some impromptu
breakdancing by young men who were “drunke, drunke” according to Wilma Gadun, a
Creole and a local nurse kind enough to translate the proceedings from Dutch to
English. The program showcased
Suriname’s multicultural society.
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| Nurse Wilma Gadun |
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| Drunke Drunke or just Rap Dancin? |
At dusk, I
lolled around Nieuw Nickerie’s dramatic West and Oost Kanaalstraats divided by
a 15 feet-wide lily canal lined with tall Royal Palm trees. At one end was the park and market. At the other end were more bazaars and shops
including a number of Roti restaurants and Javanese warungs. Soon I headed home to avoid the district’s
famed mosquito and sandfly population.
Saturday
It was market
day.
At the parking lot, I had a superb
Hindustani meal - roti kip (chicken and Indian flat bread) at 4 SRD. Vendors were selling meat and fish items I
have not seen in Paramaribo’s much larger Centraal market. Mafrau Fraser advised that I buy some fresh
snapper for lunch. She braised the fish
and it was wonderful.
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| My Hostel Room |
The midday sun
was just too hot and my cool room was very inviting for an afternoon nap. Mafrau Fraser asked whether I would like to
bike with her later that day. Of course.
At 4 pm, it
looked like it was going to rain but as we biked outside the gates, we saw the
sun peeking out. It was breezy as well
and there were few cars on the road. We
passed the market, now empty, the silent rice mills, and just right before
entering the dike road walled in by the ten feet high green hill, we saw a
lovely garden with a tall blossoming plant called Bonanza Rose.
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| Bonanza Rose |
The dike road
was hard dry mud and flat. On one side
was the grassy green slope and on the other was the much smaller Nickerie river
profused with ferns and islets of
trees. It was very lovely and
serene, the perfect place to bike at leisure and talk about life, silly and
serious.
At some point,
Mafrau Fraser stopped and asked whether I would like to go up the steps of the
dyke. In her dignified operatic voice,
“Would you like to take a look?”
I climbed up the
20 steps or so and landed on the top – a pathway stretching the whole eight
kilometers. I was stufipied by the vista
before me – the grand and magnificent Corantyn River. The mouth of the Corantyn River was so
wide, about 20 kilometers.
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| Mafrau Fraser and Me with a belly - Guyana across |
What was grassy
earth clay on the road side of the dike turned out to be a bed of rocks on the
river side. A flock of goats were
grazing on top of the dike giving the whole scene a pastoral ambience.
Across the distance, 13 kilometers away was
Guyana. The panorama made me giddy with
delight.
We walked
further down, bought some sodas, sat and enjoyed the spell of a dramatic
sunset.
Sunday
Buses leave for
the capital throughout the morning. I
was sad to leave Nieuw Nickerie. Back in
Paramaribo, I felt like arriving in New York City after spending a week in the
Florida Keys. And I wondered again why
my Surinamese friends were not interested in a weekend in Nieuw Nickerie. I will be going back.
