The statue at the entrance to the city

A while back, I posted a photo of the entrance to the city and showed how it was next to a McDonald’s. Yesterday I got a closer look at the statue and found that it was really honoring not the Amerindian heritage of the city (which is basically gone), but rather the three founding populations of the French Guiana colony: European, African, and Amerindian (the large Asian population came later, in the mid-nineteenth century during the gold rush).

Watch your step!

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve almost fallen on my face walking around this city. Part of it is just the basic disruption of pavement or cobblestone that occurs everywhere, but oftentimes it’s a gap that’s there on purpose, as in this flood sewer on the side of Place des Palmistes, in the bottom photo.

Low-key day

Today I spent the morning in the Departmental Archives of French Guiana, where they have all sorts of documents on the history and culture of region. The selection on Guianese French Creole is limited, but I did come across a new resource, an ABC’s of the language. Written by two educators, its main function is to help elementary school teachers expose Creole-speaking children to the alphabet as they learn to read, using Creole words to exemplify each letter. While there were not many words per page, there were a total of 50 words without entries or with different spellings in the previously published dictionaries that I had with me. After a brief stop at the market to pick up a drink and fruits that I had never had (plus a giant but disappointingly bland avocado), as well as some time with the Colombian family Jorge introduced me to, I went home and spent my time putting the new words into my dictionary program. Over the course of the next few days, I’ll try the new fruits and report back.

Today's adventure

Today I went to meet the Haitian priest early this morning. Except he wasn’t there. So I took advantage of a free morning and went exploring, walking along the highway (in the bike lane or on the sidewalk), and catching the following sites, before finally landing at Super U, a REAL supermarket.

They had everything I needed including cheap(-ish) sunscreen as well as a good selection of food at reasonable prices. I didn’t buy much since I’d just gone food shopping, but as I left, I was stopped because my digital recorder (still in the plastic packaging to protect it from the rain) set off alarms as I left. Once they saw that they did not in fact carry the item, I was allowed to leave. I went back to the priest’s office, and again, he wasn’t there. I went back one more time an hour later and he was finally there and but not able to converse for very long. We set an appointment for Thursday afternoon as well as dinner that night. Then I ran into Jorge and I made him a small dinner because he had blood drawn today but hadn’t eaten anything. In a little while I’ve got an appointment with my tentative interviewer, to discuss what he would have to do and whether he has enough contacts to do several interviews.

Brazil wins! well, they won this round

Brazil won its elimination round, and as soon as it was official, the substantial Brazilian population as well as anyone else who enjoys rooting for the front-runner took to the streets in droves. There were fireworks, cars honking, flags flying, and people cheering. I have to say, it’s a bit annoying. But hopefully some other team will win and I’ll be able to sleep the night of the World Cup finals.





P.S. I originally composed this blog post offline over an hour ago, took the picutres two hours ago, and the Brazilians are still partying in the streets. I guess all those stereotypes about the reserved, taciturn Brazilians just aren't true.

Satellite dishes

Walking around Cayenne, there are tons of satellite dishes on the apartments and bars. This apparently represents the reluctance or inability of the French to put in the necessary infrastructure for cable television. This is apparently what happens in rural America as well, only there, the government subsidizes the cost of the satellite dishes so that the Americans who live there get basic, network television for free, whereas without it, they would not receive a strong enough signal.

Collège Auxence Contout

Coming back from the doctor’s office with Jorge, we passed Collège Auxence Contout. Contout was probably the leading French Guianese expert on the local creole language, publishing a grammar and dictionary, as well as other important works in and on the language. Having a school named after a philologist (he wasn’t really a linguist, as I recall) warmed my heart.

Food shopping

Today I went food shopping for the first time in a big supermarket. Well, not big by U.S. standards, but at least it was bigger than a 7-11 for a change. I bought some cheap food so I can finally stop eating out for a change. I shopped at Leader Price, which has locations all over France, and I bought a ton of canned foods and some frozen veggies as well.

I spent the rest of the day going on a long walk to the doctor with Jorge, passing some of these rather modern and/or pretty sites. So I guess Cayenne isn't all bad; just most of downtown.

Ceviche

Today Jorge came by early so we could make ceviche and then go to the beach. I prepared all the non-fish ingredients, while Jorge went around the corner to a Colombian friend’s apartment to prepare the fish and cook the yucca.






He came over a short time later and invited me to the apartment where we would have more space.



So we went over together to finish the ceviche, using additional fish and lemon from the friend’s apartment to make a lunch not only for the two of us, but for the other four adults, who also pitched in to help us prepare the food, including a great potato salad. I was especially impressed when Jorge, deciding the lemons were not quite ripe enough to juice, bounced the lemons hard against the floor to soften them up. Ingenious. In the end, it was a delicious, filling meal, and I am definitely going to start cooking yucca when I get back to the U.S.



By the time we were done preparing everything, there was no time left to go to the beach before it was time for the Mexico-Argentina game, so we pushed the beach trip back to another day, and the family we ate with and watched the game with will come with us. I have to say that they were all very friendly, especially a small child who spoke Spanish and who knew I spoke Spanish but would only speak to me in French. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Multilingualism

One thing that’s really impressed me during my stay here in Cayenne is the multilingualism of the residents. It’s one thing to know several languages, but it’s quite another to use several. Here, it seems that, beyond French —taught in schools and thus spoken by all non-immigrants— everyone seems to use a couple different languages in their daily lives. While for many, there is the home language — Guianese French Creole for the Creole (read: descended from slaves) population, Haitian Creole for Haitian immigrants, Mandarin for the large Chinese population, etc.— they also go beyond that to use the languages of other immigrant populations. For example, the other day I was in a photo shop making copies of my passport so I no longer had to carry it around, and the Vietnamese men working the counter spoke to me in French, to each other in Vietnamese, and to the Brazilian customer they served after me in Portuguese (not perfect, but better than mine). I haven’t seen many people speaking Southeast Asian languages who were not themselves from the area, but I did see one man speaking Chinese to the owner of the corner market. (The Chinese seemingly have the corner market market cornered.) I’ve never really been in a place with a population so broadly multilingual. Even in Paris, where dozens of languages are spoken, I never really noticed any everyday multilingualism beyond people talking to tourists. It’s nice.

However, I spend most of my time here with Spanish-speaking immigrants thanks to Jorge’s vast social network (and the fact that I know very few others here). I’ve noticed that if they don’t speak French, they find life a lot more difficult, even though they can survive and make a living speaking comfortably with other Spanish-speakers as well as Brazilians. Those that do speak French seem to not be as frustrated by life in Cayenne.

To market, To market

This morning was my second trip to the market. It's huge and dwarfs the Bloomington market, which is no small market considering the size of the city. Since my only means of heating food is a microwave, Jorge decided that he was going to make us ceviche. We first went to the fish market, a bit farther from the main one. I kept Jorge from accidentally buying shark (top left of first photo) instead of acoupa (on the right), which seems to be the local generic fish.

Then we went all around the outdoor market looking for ceviche ingredients at a good price (Jorge bargains very well). There were a bunch of things there that looked really good or really strange. Next week I'll splurge on some strange fruits and report back. There's this potato-like thing that I saw unlabelled at a couple of stands (first photo); if you know what it is, please share your knowledge in a comment. In the next picture is taro and oranges. The third picture has a bunch of starches, including purple potatoes; in the front right corner you can see some giant avocados (sorry Matt, I can't bring you any).

There's also a lot inside, including meals made on the spot (which I'm still wary of trying), lots of liquor (not pictured), and some great crafts.








Abrupt end.

Place des Amandiers

A nice spot to relax, despite the bugs.

Best day yet!

Wow! Today was awesome!

I started with a good breakfast of cereal; a banana, a piece of French bread with locally made banana rum jam, and half a shaddock (similar to a grapefruit, seen in this photo which is not mine):



I met Jorge in the morning and he took me to a church officiated by a Haitian priest. This was perhaps the biggest leap forward in my research yet. First of all, the priest liked me a lot because he was from Cape Haitian, the very city in which the research I've been collaborating on for the last two years was carried out, so I was able to bond with him by speaking the way that Cape Haitians speak. So I started off well. He told me that not many Haitians speak the local creole, which made me briefly panic, since I'm here to study them. However, he happened to know someone who had to stop by who was one of these rare people. So he called the guy who came over a short time later.

And together they told me all sorts of stuff about how Haitians try to pass as being local by speaking the local language, how their kids don't speak Haitian but only understand it, and what local words get thrown into Haitian speech. Of course, these are all claims that need to be substantiated, but they are a great starting point! And the priest liked me so much, he asked me to be his English tutor, and we have a tentative agreement in place: I tutor him in English once a week and he gives me the use of a quiet room in his office space for my two interviews, which might be led by the man who speaks both creoles. He also introduced me to a man who speaks only the local creole and French, and he might be my consultant for the local creole. And all this happened before 12:30!

After that, I accompanied Jorge on a very long walk to the doctor, who wanted him to bring an interpreter to be able to explain the results of his ultrasound (he's pretty sure he's not pregnant though). Unfortunately after the long walk on roads with scenery like a tropical county/state road, we arrived at the doctor's office but he was nowhere to be found, so we'll have to return Monday. We hitched a ride back into town and got dropped off at the botanical gardens, one of the nicest spots I've seen yet (and finally I have pictures of me here).









After that, we had a relaxing day: ate some fruit and left over pizza (with smoked chicken as a topping--fantastic!), watched World Cup soccer in a Brazilian bar (I was rooting for Chile, but alas...), and then we just wandered around the city before finally splitting some Haitian take-out, which was artery-clogging goodness.

Tomorrow I go to the market for fruit and maybe some local libations. Weekends are days off for me, except for the preparation of Monday's English lesson for Father Jean-Pierre. And that's it for tonight! More pictures to come in the following days!