Paramaribo, Suriname – May 13, 2013

I am back in Paramaribo for one of my regional visits. Even though I am supposed to be here every other month, I have not been here since last December. My trip this past February was canceled because I got sick. My visit last month was canceled because we had to return home for a funeral.
I was at the Ogle airport in Georgetown early this morning to wait for my 08:30 flight. The waiting area for the initial check-in is open-air. It is covered. So one is not bothered by the rain unless one considers the added humidity. One does not graduate to air-conditioned comfort until being cleared by Immigration.
While sitting in the waiting room, I saw a private Cessna Stationair pull up. Two passengers left the waiting area, got in the Cessna and were off in a flash.
There were only five of us for the Suriname flight. Once seated in the plane, the pilot turned around to us to ask that we put on the seat-belts. He continued, saying the trip would be about one and one-half hours long. The caveat was that we would be traveling through a lot of rain. We were to fly along the coast at an altitude of 7,50 feet.
Sure enough, on two occasions, we flew through some extreme rains. We found ourselves in the clouds so we could see nothing outside. The rain was pelting hard as one looked forward through the windscreen. The rain streamed along the sides of the plane past the windows. During these instances, it was quite noisy in the cabin. Surprisingly the turbulence was not bad. They were considerably less than what Leslie and I encountered on our recent trip back to Georgetown.
The landing in the rain was without incident. We were met at the plane-side by attendants with umbrellas. Since I sat at the rear near the door, I was first off the plane. I breezed through Immigration and met the General Services Officer in the small airport.
The GSO and I drove to the new Embassy compound property. We drove around the land because it was raining so hard.
For lunch, we stopped at Burger King. It was wonderful! We spent quite a bit of time there discussing numerous job issues.

• Suriname