Suriname: Nature and Culture. Accounts of a personal experience

Abstract

The article is an account of a personal work experience when I spent 10 months in the neighbouring Republic of Suriname in 2001. Originally from Rio de Janeiro, where I returned for a period of two weeks, I stayed in the country 6 or 7 weeks at a time. My way back to Suriname was via the Rio de Janeiro area to Belém/PA, where I stayed overnight, and from there another air connection to the neighbouring country, where I took my job in Paramaribo or Grönigen. These entries and exits from the country, besides the visits I made to Belém, enriched my experience because each time I returned to Suriname, during that year, I reflected on my relations with the country, collaborators and suppliers and also acclimated to the North of Brazil and the population of Belém. In the article, I describe cultural, geographic, historical and social characteristics of Suriname which, although close to Brazil, has totally different elements, despite similarities in its colonial past.