( 4 degrees north of the equator) We had just walked for 45 minutes through the forest in the soaking rain. CVE volunteers were cautiously scraping wet dirt and leaves off tombstones, -cautiously, since earlier a long black snake had startled our group as it slithered back into the forest, still grappling with its freshly caught lunch; only the legs of the unfortunate frog were sticking out of its mouth. With no further incident, our cleaning efforts revealed elaborate and symbolic carvings of skulls and crossbones, trees felled by an ax, incense bottles, willow trees and inscriptions in Portuguese and Hebrew. These stones mark the graves of Sephardic Jews who had settled in this savanna area, 60 miles south of the ocean, in the Dutch colony in South America, and grew sugar cane 350 years ago.
Surinam is located at the top of South America, and shares a similar history of colonialization, sugar plantations, and slavery with the Caribbean. The country passed between Dutch and English flags , and in 1667 Surinam became a Dutch colony when at the Treaty of Breda, it was traded to the British for Manhattan. The Dutch allowed Jews freedom in this colony; and in 1690 their settlement in Joden Savanne numbered 10,000 (Jews and slaves). By the mid 1700's the price of sugar decreased, and by 1830 Joden Savanne was abandoned. The Jews moved to the capital, Paramaribo, and to other Caribbean islands. There are still two functioning synagogues in Paramaribo. (One of these is located right next to a mosque).
CVE's mission in Surinam was to help architect Rachel Frankel, with measured drawings of the synagogue: Bereche ve Shalom, a brick building of 94 by 43 feet, reported to be over 30 feet high, with a vaulted ceiling. Now only the lower walls remain, as well as two sets of impressive semi-circular brick stairs. Rachel's research reveals that this synagogue had similarities to the synagogue in Amsterdam, built only 10 years before the one at Joden Savanne.
Our Surinamese guides at the cemetery included Mr. Stuger, Cital, and Yimba. Mr. Stuger is an Amerindian school teacher of a near -by village. He was also kind enough to host some of our group in his village for the weekend. After taking the local bus-ride to his house, they ate fresh pineapple, braved the Surinam river, and slept in hammocks. Cital is a Surinamese of East Indian descent. The East Indians, along with the Indonesians and Chinese, were brought to Suriname as indentured servants 125 years ago. Yimba, a Bosnegro, handled most of the machete work, and had an amazing eye for locating exotic birds and monkeys in the tree tops. On the way home he took us to visit his wife and six children: one of his three families. The Bosnegros are descendants of slaves who, after much bloodshed, escaped plantation life and established a new tribal life in the rain forests. Conversations were multi-lingual; our guides spoke English with us, and also Dutch, the official language, and Taki-Taki- a local Creole dialect, as well as Hindi (East Indians) or a tribal language.
Yimba and Cital work for Stinasu, the Foundation for Nature Preservation in Surinam, a semi-governmental agency. The very enthusiastic and knowledgeable Stinasu director, Harold, Sijbling, drove us to the Joden Savanne synagogue the first day. He is hoping to clear the Joden Savanne synagogue and surrounding cemetery to maintain it as a historic site- important in the history of Surinam.
The CVE group stayed at the Guesthouse Flair in the center of the tourist district in Paramaribo- with the posh Hotel Torarica, across the street, and other small hotels and restaurants near -by. The hotel was clean, with small rooms, and one could sit on the front balcony and view the Surinam river, busy with long wood ferry boats, and an occasional ocean-going freighter (no cruise ships here). In the center of the river is a huge rusting hull- from a German freighter sunk in WWII. We were within easy walking distance of the very busy and colorful market, and Independence Square, where we attended a Hindu Festival, as well as the Sunday morning song bird contest. (Twa-Twas and Picolets are paired and timed to see who can sing the longest). Paramaribo is a wonderful river side city with tree lined streets, and white wooden buildings. And eating here was a global adventure- Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Caribbean Creole (and KFC!)
We survived our memorable week - snakes and all, and even though we came back with terrible cases of some sort of jungle poison ivy, we are already planning the next CVE trip to Surinam.