One Day Trip to French Guiana

Happy Birthday Mom, I hope you get my letter.

Here's me and Elder Freeman, and our house.  We've got this tiny place in comparison to the other house.  We live in the same house with an old lady, but in an extension. this is against the rules, so we will be moving on the 24th.  The new place is absolutely gorgeous. I hope to remain in this area for a long time. Elder Freeman and I are having a great time together. This morning he was singing some non-missionary song, so I started singing Sweet Hour of Prayer really loud.  He starting playing air guitar and pretending to sing along, we were doing this massive lip-sync concert in our kitchen on the way out the door.  It was completely hilarious.


I didn't get to go grocery shopping last week, so I haven't had any food at all this week. The interesting part is that I haven't been all that hungry anyway. I made rice for breakfast this morning. Apparently if you get "par-boiled" rice it is horrible.  It's not sticky at all. I attempted to make Nasi, but it just didn't work.  I will gladly take a trip to the store in a few hours.  I think I've got some extra SRD saved from last week too, so it'll be just great.



I don't know if the rest of you have been reading the Jansen's blog, or if they will post this story on there, but here is what happened Friday:
Because I didn't get the extended stay "MKV" I have to exit the country every three months to renew my normal visa.  That trip took place on Friday.  Elders Guinn, Tullis, and I slept at the Zone Leader's house Thursday night, had a good time, and the Jansens came at about 8 in the morning to take us to French Guiana for the day.  We were instructed to not eat any breakfast before they got there, so that we could stop on the way.  We started driving, crossed the Suriname bridge for my first time, and stopped for some Broodje's. (This emailing place is playing the worst of 70's love ballads.)  After the breakfast break, we got down to the 100km trip.  This road is nuts.  It's by far, absolutely no comparison, the bumpiest road in existence.  We had to strap ourselves down in our seatbelts to keep from flying through the roof of the truck.  Elder and Zuster Jansen sat in the front, Zuster Jansen driving, and the three Elders in the back.  The entire trip, Zuster Jansen was laughing her head off, because all three of our heads would bounce up at the same time, and it was apparently really funny.  We told stories, in the smooth parts, learned lots of Dutch and saw lots of the beautiful KonKondre trees.  Then, we got to the river that separates Suriname from French Guiana.

When there, we talked to this guy who agreed to take us via boat across the river onto the French side.  The boats they have there are about 30 feet long, and super thin, with a little fishing motor on the back, it was sweet. They took lots of photos, but I left my camera, so I'll try to get some if you can't see them.  Once on the French side, we got some stamps for our passports and went to this Chinese restaurant that sold all sorts of food. I figured I'd get an omelet, since I was in the best place I could think of to get french style food.  Ordering was hard. Between me and the 2 the Chinese people and our 3 languages, we couldn't communicate at all.  Got the food, and it was good, apparently Cervettes means shrimp.  Shrimp omelet.  Then we hopped back on the little boat, and went to Suriname again, got some more stamps and am now clear to stay for another 3 months.

Computer translations are so funny!

I absolutely love the Jansens. Upon our arrival in Paramaribo, it was 8pm, none of the missionaries were home, and none of us had keys to get into any of our houses, so we went to the Jansens.  We looked at pictures, and ate grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream.  I was snacking on the whipped cream, just squirting it on my finger and eating it.  Zuster Jansen came up to me yelling "Jongen! Je bent verkeert.  Doen zo," She then threw her head back and opened her mouth, implying that I should immitate, so I did and she filled my mouth with whipped cream.  Not just put some in there, but filled it, heaping over the tops of my lips with whipped cream.  It was great, everyone started laughing.  Best vacation I've had for a while, even though my back was so so so sore on Saturday, I couldn't believe it.
Things are good here, I love you bunches everyone, I'm glad to hear from you.  
-Elder Hulme