Elder Mason Garcia: Mason's First Letter

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Mason's First Letter

This is Mason's first letter from the MTC.

I'm officially Elder Garcia. It still takes me a few seconds to register it. But the MTC is awesome!.Espen lives 3 doors down from me. I'm ging to see him and hang out with him every single day. It is still surreal. I can't believe that I am finally here. That for the next two years of my life I will be in a foreign country. But the spirit here is so strong. I have never felt anything like it. It is amazing. So I'll give you a laydown of my first day. After you dropped me off I was sent into a room where I picked up my tag, and some other info that I needed. Then we went to our classroom AKA the room I'll be living in for the next 4 weeks!

Our teachers are awesome. Brother Christansen just got back from the Netherlands. And the other teacher, I can't remember his name, went to Suriname. I am so excited to speak dutch. There are 6 people in my class or district. 5 guys and 1 girl. My companion is Elder Sadler from Illinois . He is really a cool dude. So we are the only kids on the floor with only one roommate. Pretty lucky, eh? Our floor is crazy and I LOVE it!

After class we had a meeting, then lunch, and a teaching exercise. So we have 6 hours of class, 50 minutes of exercise. I know this is short, but I just wanted to let you know I'm alive, and I love you!

Love, Elder Mason Garcia

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Info on Suriname

Geography

Area: 163,820 square km. The smallest independent country in South America, Suriname occupies a small, tropical area along the Northern Atlantic Ocean coast between Guyana and French Guiana and north of Brazil. Most reside along coastal areas, preserving the rainforest of the interior. Rivers, lakes and rolling hills occupy the interior whereas swamps and plains are along the coast. Deforestation is the primary environmental issue. Border disputes continue over defining the boundary with Guyana.

Population: approx. 490,000

Peoples

Hindustani: 37%

Creole: 31%

Javanese: 15%

Maroons: 10%

Amerindian: 2%

Chinese: 2%

White: 1%

Other: 2%

Hindustani, Javanese and Chinese arrived as workers during the colonial period. Creole inherited a mixed ancestry from African slaves and whites.Maroons are descendents of black slaves who escaped into the interior.

Languages: Dutch is most widely spoken and the official language. Other widely spoken languages with over 50,000 speakers include Hindustani, Sranan, Javanese, and Guyanese Creole English. There are less than 10,000 speakers of Amerindian languages.

Literacy: 89.6%

History

The Spanish first explored Suriname in the 16^th century followed by British settlement in the 17^th century. Suriname became a Dutch colony in 1667 and did not achieve independence until 1975. Slavery occurred until 1863. Workers were subsequently relocated to the colony from India and Indonesia. In 1980, a military regime took over the government and established a socialist government which fell in the late 1980s. Political stability did not return until the early 1990s. A democratic government was instituted in 1991.

Culture

Suriname shares many cultural similarities with Caribbean nations with large Asian and black communities like Trinidad and Tobago. Due to the large number of Indians and Javanese, Hinduism and Islam have also shaped the culture and integrated cuisine from Asia into local foods. High ethnic diversity has not resulted in ethnic violence.

Faiths

Christian: 40.7%

Hindu: 20%

Muslim: 13.5%

Indigenous beliefs: 3.3%

Other or none: 22.5%

Christians

Denominations Members Congregations

Catholic 110,664

Seventh-Day Adventists 3,724 17

Jehovah’s Witnesses 2,317 45

Latter-Day Saints 1,057 7