The touring party at the Ministry of Education with the Permanent Secretary and Deputy Permanent Secretary, centre, with tie.

Form Six students of the Diego Martin Central Secondary School (formerly Diego Martin Government Secondary, and popularly known as Diego Sec) paid a visit to the Republic of Suriname last month. School Dean Michael Adamson said: “The purpose of this visit was to expose the students to a range of experiences and information that had the potential to help them in a major way in their preparation for the Cape examinations in the subjects Caribbean Studies, Communication Studies, History and Sociology this year.”

Suriname is a multi-ethnic society, much more so than T&T. The population comprises people of Indian, African, Chinese, Amerindian and Javanese descent, as well as the descendants of runaway slaves known as Maroons. Each ethnic group speaks its own language, and everyone speaks Sranang, the lingua franca. The official language is Dutch. In fact, there are officially ten languages spoken there. It is into this culturally diverse and delightful environment that 30 Upper and Lower Sixth Form students, eight teachers, nine parents and three siblings descended with great expectations.

Said Adamson: “And our experience exceeded our expectations by far. We were given an Amerindian welcome in the VIP lounge at the airport on the Sunday evening. Then our week of activities started off with a meeting hosted by the Ministry of Education, where we presented ministry officials with gifts, and where we were warmly welcomed by Ruben Soetosenojo, the Permanent Secretary, standing in for the minister who was overseas on official business at the time. In fact, the ministry was so impressed and pleased that a secondary school would come to Suriname specifically to learn about their culture that they hosted us at a dinner at the Chi Min Chinese Restaurant the following Tuesday, when we were presented with gifts on behalf of the ministry.

“Our trip also included visits to Sana Budaya, a Javanese cultural centre, where we were entertained with music and dance;  Santigron, a Maroon village several miles out of Paramaribo, the capital; the Department of Cultural Studies and the National Museum; the Nola Hatterman Art Institute; the Youth Dental Care facility, specifically dedicated to training and certifying nationals in youth dental care after completing a three-year course; and NAKS, a centre that promotes and educates on African culture. “One of our sponsors in Suriname, TeleSur, the longest-existing telecommunications company, also hosted a presentation and panel discussion on cell phone pornography and ways of dealing with it.

We learned that through the intervention of TeleSur in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the incidence of cell phone porn in Suriname had been lowered. This event also fostered student interaction in that two other schools were present. Later that day we visited the Youth Parliament of Suriname.  We learned that this is a bona fide body of youths elected by youths to bring any issue affecting them to the attention of the national government.”

The locals also engaged in recreational activities at TeleSur’s sport centre, with table tennis, volleyball and football being some of the activities that they participated in, with there Surinamese student counterparts. Adamson continued: “We cannot talk about this trip without making special mention of the food. We enjoyed Chinese, Javanese and Maroon cuisine, which included panda soep–a soup made with peanut butter. We even had roti from the popular Roopram Roti establishment the night before we returned.

“Indeed Suriname was an unforgettable experience for the Sixth Form classes of Diego Martin Central Secondary. We were featured on radio, a couple television stations, and the newspapers. We had the unique privilege of hearing, on different occasions, the National Anthem sung in at least three different languages. We had loads of fun. We learned quite a lot. And we ate a lot as well.” Adamson gushed with gratitude for the individuals, organisations and corporate entities that made the trip possible. He said: “We are very grateful for such an experience, especially as it seemed tailor-made for at least one question in the Caribbean Studies Paper II exam.

“We are thankful to individuals and companies like Algico, Phoenix Park Gas Processors, Kevin Yarna, T&TEC, Marcel Permaul, Deltex Art Shop and the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Organisations (CANTO) for their support. We also cannot at all forget the Immigration Department, which set aside a day especially to deal with all our travel document needs. And of course, the ever-supportive parents and guardians.”

Some members of staff (in green) with members of the Amerindian welcome the party in the VIP lounge at the airport. Teachers, left to right, Vaughn Stanford, Natasha Hislop, Michael Adamson (stooping) and Joanne Permaul.