Old Year’s Night in Suriname

We ventured out of Kwakwani to celebrate New Year’s Eve (called Old Year’s Night here) in the neighboring country of Suriname.  On December 31^st, after over 13 hours of travel on several different busses, we met up with a group of about 12 other Peace Corps volunteers near the country border and took a 25-minute ferry to Suriname.  After my experience on Christmas, I decided to go into this trip with absolutely no expectations- which definitely proved to be the right move, because the night was nothing like any New Year’s Eve I had ever before experienced.

The group had been told that tons of people would be celebrating Old Year’s all over on the streets of downtown Paramaribo (The capital of Suriname).  Much to our surprise, by the time we made it to Paramaribo around 8:30 p.m., it seemed as though the festivities had already ended.  All of the shops were closed and the only people on the streets were the people cleaning up the evidence (tons of beer bottles and confetti) of a huge party that had occurred on the streets before our arrival.

We later found out that the way Old Year’s actually works in Suriname is that people celebrate all day, go home around 8pm to get ready to go to Church at midnight, and then go out again to celebrate around 1 a.m.  We kept ourselves entertained at the hotel for a few hours and ended up hanging out at the roof top swimming pool just before midnight.  Unlike in the states, there are no laws in Suriname regulating fireworks, so it was pretty cool watching the fireworks being set off all over the city.  In fact, we got to watch the coolest fireworks show I have ever seen from the roof of the hotel.  This particular firework show lasted probably 20 minutes and the fireworks were being launched in the parking lot immediately next to the hotel, so we were literally eye-level with the colorful bursts.  I don’t know how safe it was for us to be so close to fireworks, but it was an absolutely incredible experience! 

We spent New Year’s Day in Suriname as well, though the only place open was a McDonalds across the street from the hotel. Going into this restaurant with a group of Peace Corps volunteers who haven’t eaten American fast food since beginning their service in Guyana was hilarious.  I’ve never seen anyone get so excited about the prospect of eating a Big Mac and French fries.   Other than McDonalds, we walked around the downtown area and tried to see what we could of the city.  While we really didn’t get to do much exploring because the city was shut down, it was fun to spend time with the other volunteers.  Overall, I really enjoyed the trip to Suriname because it gave me an opportunity to get to know the people with whom David is spending two years in Guyana.

On the ferry to Suriname