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Grey horses and a memorable overland travel experience to Suriname

May 31, 2014 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I refer to a letter of 15 May captioned, ‘A despicable travel experience to Suriname from Georgetown’, written by Ms. Teshanna Cox. I read Ms. Cox’s letter with keen interest as it resonated. I travelled overland to Suriname at Easter. My previous visit had been by air.
A lot of what Ms. Cox describes in her letter mirrors my own experience though, to some extent, my experience was probably more mixed. My problems started long before the actual crossing. As I was travelling on a British passport, it was necessary for me to obtain a visitor’s visa to be allowed entry into Suriname.
I consider myself well-travelled but the experience I had at the Surinamese embassy in Georgetown was unique. Visa applicants are made to stand on the embassy bridge and negotiate entry with the guards standing on the other side of the bridge, within the embassy compound. The experience was almost dehumanizing as I was forced to stand on the bridge talking through the thick metal bars of a heavily padlocked gate, explaining the purpose of my being there.
Not only did it rain, but at one point the small clutch of applicants was chased off the bridge to make way for an approaching embassy car. In near panic I was about to jump into the trench when I saw its condition.
At one stage I decided to protest our treatment and told the two female guards that we were not sheep or goats or beggars and should not be dealt with like prisoners behind bars or animals in a zoo. Eventually, I was allowed through the iron gate to explain my purpose.
Next, I was shown to a little holding cell with observation panelling separating me from the isolated consular officer. She was polite, helpful and charming and treated me like another homo sapiens. I got my visa the same day but needed a neat single malt by the time I got home.
The experience at Moleson Creek was exactly as Ms. Cox described in her letter. I was warned that the immigration experience at the Suriname end could, on occasion, be much worse than at the Guyana end. As I psyched myself for another round of bureaucratic nitpicking, a fellow traveller told me not to worry and that, when we land at South Drain in Suriname, I will find their immigration personnel more sympathetic and thoughtful where children and the elderly are concerned.
I was uncertain of my category until the fellow traveller assured me that with my grey hair I will sail through Surinamese immigration like a breeze.
As it turned out, the situation at South Drain immigration was fairly chaotic. The Surinamese immigration officer controlling the flow of travellers, loudly confirmed that priority would be given to children and elders. As parents tried to push forward a few tiny two, three and four-year olds, the officer suddenly announced that by children he meant babies in arms only.
As I stooped to his eye level on my way to the immigration window, I twisted my grey head to give him a good view of my hair colour. To my great surprise the officer then paid me a magnificent compliment when he stopped me dead in my tracks, looked me full in the eye and said, “Where you think you going? Not all grey horse is old horse.”
F. Hamley Case

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