Women (et al.)

People might have noticed that I don’t talk much about women in this blog, and there’s a good reason for that— I don’t really know any down here (hmm, maybe that’s not a good reason, but it’s a reason). That’s about to change thanks to a gender-neutral post I put on Blada yesterday. I put up an ad looking for people to converse with in Guianese French Creole (the local creole), offering to either buy them a drink or do an even exchange, half an hour in creole and half an hour in English (OK, I admit it: I gave into the French tendency to call it ‘American’). At around 8 a.m. this morning, I received a phone call that roused me from my sleep. I had hoped that it was for an apartment, but alas, it was a woman looking to meet this weekend for an English conversation. A few hours later and after my first time running on the streets in an attempt to exercise, I received a second call. This call was even better, because the woman asked me what I was doing here, and I told her I’m here to study how Haitian Creole changes when Haitians have started to interact with people speaking the local creole. And she was very happy to hear this, because she is in fact of Haitian descent. She says she speaks Haitian and Guianese Creoles and also Guadeloupean Creole, the native language of her baby-daddy (her words, not mine).
The rest of the day was fairly low-key. I made some phone calls to find an apartment, with most telling me that the apartments have been rented already. I saw one today which was really nice; it had everything (except, curiously, a place to keep my clothes). If I take it, I’ll put up pictures of it. It’s on the pricey side, but it’s less expensive than the tiny room I had and is twice the side. The neighborhood, like most of Cayenne, isn’t pretty, but at least it’s safe and fairly easy to get to from the bus. It’s also right near the Montabo hill, which in an earlier blog post I called the first really pretty spot I’d found in Cayenne. The biggest problem is that it’s only available for a month, though there’s a small possibility that the person who wants in April might be willing to put it off for a month. If I don’t like the place I’m visiting tomorrow, I’ll sign up for one month and continue to look for a place starting in April. At least I’ll have a three-week start, and with any luck, I’ll find one that’s a bit cheaper and have it even out.
I also bought an umbrella after getting soaked from head to toe on the way to the apartment. It cost 6 euros, and broke the first time I opened it when the button that you press to open it popped off. I then spent another 8 euros on an umbrella that I’d seen a bunch of other people carrying around. It seems to work well.
Oh and I still haven’t received any requests for postcards. I promise, the postcards make French Guiana look really pretty, and it’s nice for me to have people to write to.

Still searching…

Another day, another night stuck in the hotel. After hitting something of a dead end with ideas for finding a place, I decided to de-stress a little. First, on my way to the market, I decided to pick up a newspaper to look in the classifieds (which were barren), but when buying the paper, I mentioned my plight (yes, apartment hunting can be called a ‘plight’) to the owner/cashier. He actually rents out a room, but it was currently occupied. He took my name and number and told me he’d call me if he stumbled upon anything. At the market, I bought for bananas for lunch/stress-eating. I also found these, called ‘ramboutans’ (pronounced kind of like ‘rom bhutan’), but I haven’t worked up the courage to actually eat them.



After that I went to the cybercafé. Once there, in a burst of ingenuity (or at least in a quick fizzle of it) I decided to check the Interwebs. Lo and/or behold, I was able to find a bunch of listings on blade.com, French Guiana’s answer to Craigslist without the creepy personal ads. I sent off five or six e-mails to people, so hopefully I’ll receive answers soon: All the ads I responded to were posted in the last week, so there’s a good chance that something’s available and in my price range.
I made a quick stop at a couple of bookstores to pick up a couple of books to help with the dictionary project, which occupies my downtime. I even picked up a copy of The Little Prince, recently translated into Guianese French Creole. For the rest of the day, I hung out either in my hotel or in the house of Jorge’s friend (where I had a homemade fish dinner), working on the dictionary for most of the time.
Let me know in comments if you liked the previous video entry. They’re quite quick and easy to make, and I think they provide a nice change of pace. But let me know what you think.

Video blog 1

Preparing for Carnaval

Below are some pictures of how Cayenne has begun preparing for Carnaval (similar to New Orelans' Mardi Gras).







A kid with an object for the parade.

Getting settled

I decided to sleep in this morning to recover from an exhausting day. By “sleeping in” I mean I went to bed at midnight (10 pm in my US time zone) and got up at 10 a.m. (8 a.m. my home time zone). I immediately went to recharge my phone so I could begin to make my phone calls to get things rolling. Well, when I bought the card to get my minutes, I noticed there was a problem: It was not accepting the code. I went to the store where I bought it and they told me the customer service number. I called them, they said to have the store sell me a new SIM card because I hadn’t used the phone since July. I went to the store, they didn’t believe me. They told me to call customer service again, where employee number 2 told me that they’d reset it so that I could use it again. I’d just have to wait an hour. After waiting an hour (which I spent writing the earlier blog entries), I tried again. Still no use. So one more time, I called customer service. Employee number 3 tried a lot of different things to reactivate my SIM card, but she finally said that despite her best efforts, it had been more than 211 days since I’d used my phone (I can’t imagine who came up with 211 as a good cut-off number), I’d have to buy a new SIM card for 10€. But of course, by this time, siesta— that plague on efficiency— had already begun, so I had to wait around. I went back there, they gave me a new card, and I had almost escaped when the manager looked over and said, no, you can’t just give him a new card, he needs a new number. So now, after paying an additional 10€, I have a new number (which immediate family should receive via e-mail tonight).

Then I called Jorge, and we met up, spent the evening with his friend Samuel (who bought us dinner at a Haitian place, though I felt obliged to chip in), who Jorge said would help me find a place, thought it seemed that Samuel was unaware of this plan and now I have to get up early tomorrow and keep looking. Wish me luck!

Postcards!

I almost forgot: Anyone who would like a postcard can have one. Just send me your mailing address and your postcard preference (landscape, creole language, animals, plants, people, no preference) and at some point during the next two months you'll receive a postcard. Chances are if you have this blog address, you know my e-mail addresses, my Facebook name, my Skype, or my MSN/Yahoo address, or you know someone who does, so just get it to me through any of those means. Oh and if you're related to me, do not assume that I have your address handy.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Sunday was one of those rare times where inattention to detail pays off. I had bought a ticket to French Guiana from Indy in order avoid the debacle of the last trip where the domestic flights were with one airline and the international trips were with another, and one leg was cancelled (you can read more about it in a post just a few posts ago). What I didn't notice about the first leg of the trip was that it had me arriving in Miami almost 24 hours before my next flight. So that meant I got to spend the day with my aunt, uncle, and cousin who I hadn't seen in about 5 years.

It was a fun, low-key day. We caught up on the last few years, had a civil conversation about politics (how often does THAT happen nowadays?), watched "The Fighter" (excellent movie) then the Oscars (I haven't seen an awards show that boring since Bryant Gumbel hosted the Emmys). It was just really nice to be able to spend time together.

My uncle took me to the airport early Monday morning, and from there, I had a boring, uneventful trip. I arrived too late to take the shuttle to downtown, so a very friendly taxi driver took me downtown to a hotel that's extremely barebones but is safe and near a supermarket. He also told me that Cayenne is going to celebrate Carnaval this coming Sunday. Already, I've seen kids (and their parents) walking around with Carnaval costumes. I'll take lots of pictures, and I'll also have my camcorders with me to post videos. I'll post again tonight, but now I have to go fix my phone. (Intrigued? Wait for tonight's post.)