Although it is recognized that it is YOUTH who can move the world, "older" pioneers and travel teachers from different countries were of great assistance too.

Here follows a report from Karlijn Habraken from the Netherlands, who is serving in Suriname from October 2001 to October 2002.

A Year of Service in Surinam!

 From October 2001 on I’m in Surinam for a Year of Service. My name is Karlijn Habraken. When I was in Holland I heard of the need for youth to come for service mainly in the interior. Two youth from the ‘Sparks of Peace’ project had served as travel teachers in the interior, they gave children classes and study circles in diverse villages. A follow-up was needed. I heard about Bofrokoele, a village with a Bahá'í primary school. I just finished my education to become a primary school teacher. I decided to write the National Assembly of Suriname asking if I could be of service to their country. I received a letter in which they warmly welcomed my offer and said they would be glad to use my capacities as a teacher for the primary school in Bofrokoele. Hooray!!

 …I got to know the interior step by step. First I joined a few bahá’ís on their short-visit to a village for a meeting. We stayed over for one night. My first night in a ‘amakka’ (hammock) and for the first time I washed myself in the river, in a ‘sula’ (wild water with stones/ rocks)!!

 My first visit to Bofrokoele was together with ms. Renata Renwick, she introduced me to the life in the interior. It had been a week of orientation, I visited all classes and got to know some teachers. My second visit had been a week as well, together with mrs. Karin Verwey-King.

 The journey from Paramaribo to Bofrokoele took two days during the period in which the water level was very low. We slept over in another village on our way. In Paramaribo we had to be at 7:00h. at the Saramaccastreet where a number of trucks waited for passengers. We had to be so early to find a good place and do some shopping like vegetables and fruits. The trucks leave around 8:30h. The way to Atjonie (harbour) takes about 4 hours, the way has many holes in it, your milk would turn out to be milkshakes, not to talk about your stomach…

In Atjonie we had to find a boat (a ‘korjaal’ which is a “tree-motorboat”) to take us all the way to Bofrokoele. During rain season it takes about 4 hours to reach Bofrokoele, a one-day-trip!

 During my second trip with ms. Karin we taught divers classes in the school due to absence of teachers. I made an inventory of the schoolbooks for one of the classes, to pass on the needs of materials to the SECON (Bahá’í Social and Economic Development), the organization for which I work this year.

The third time that I was in Bofrokoele, I went ‘by myself’ that is, without someone I knew. I stayed for two weeks! Hooray, I’m learning! These weeks were ‘real’. I started to train the teachers with materials of Ruhi book 3 and gave Dutch-lessons to mainly young mothers, something I will continue to do this year. In the mean time I’ve been to Bofrokoele during the fast. Three weeks! J From now on I’ll try to go to Bofrokoele when a nineteen day feast or a holy day will be celebrated, to foster the community life.

Some highlights which I took from my diary:

-         Boat-oneness: Boats at Atjonie leave when they found enough passengers. When the water is low, the boats have trouble crossing over a sula (a rapid, with many rocks). At each sula on our way we’d meet the other boats again. The boatmen helped each other by going into the river (male-passengers as well) to get the boat across the sula. Amazing! Sometimes the ladies could even stay in the boat while the men worked hard to get us across the sula. Sometimes we had to get out of the boat and walk along the coast on the rocks or through the forest to catch the boat beyond the sula. The teamwork was amazing. No boat would go ahead without being sure all boat got safely across the sula.

-         We walked through another village on our way to Djumu. A couple of women and children sat outside, chatting, making handicraft, the children were playing. A girl had just come into the world and didn’t have a name yet. We were asked to give her a name. Now there lives a girl in this village called ‘Luna’!

-         ‘Bakasee’: We went to ‘bakasee’ with Kemi on Thursday morning! It took about 20 minutes to get there, an amazing walk through the forest with the most beautiful big butterflies around us!! ‘Bakasee’ is where the women have their piece of land on which they have peanuts, rice, bananas, casava, awarra, pineapple etc. Kemi had to clean the ground so we helped, forcing every growing thing to get out of the ground… The next day reminded me I had muscles! I found a pineapple, Kemi took it and returned a little later, serving a piece of fresh fruit in the burning sun…our sweaty bodies had the time of their lives!

All the other weeks that I’m not in the interior, you can find me most of the time in the Bahá’í Center; organizing archives, preparing for activities, helping the secretariat and translating Ruhi materials. On the Saturdays we come together with the Unity Youth. In January we practiced the Oneness-dance (about the oneness of religions) together, to perform it on World Religion Day. It was great!

For short: The experience is invaluable, I learn to live in a different way and get to know our world a little more!

Encouraging Words

 ‘If the friends always waited until they were fully qualified to do any particular task, the work of the Cause would be almost at a standstill! But the very act of striving to serve, however unworthy one may feel, attracts the blessings of God and enables one to become more fitted for the task.

Today the need is so great on the part of humanity to hear the Divine Message, that the believers must plunge into the work, wherever and however they can, heedless of their own shortcomings, but ever heedful of the crying need of their fellowmen to hear of the teachings in their darkest hour of travail.’

-Unrestrained as the Wind, pg 95 -On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, letter dated 5/4/42 to individual believer, in The Individual and Teaching 24-25.

‘Teaching is the source of Divine Confirmation. It is not sufficient to pray diligently for guidance, but this prayer must be followed by meditation as to the best methods of action and then action itself. Even if the action should not immediately produce results, or perhaps not be entirely correct, that does not make so much difference, because prayers can only be answered through actions and if someone’s action is wrong, God can use that method of showing the pathway which is right.’

-Unrestrained as the Wind, pg 95 -On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, letter dated 8/22/57 to individual believer, in The Individual and Teaching 40.

‘The bahá’í teacher must be all confidence. Therein lie his strength and the secret of his success. Though single-handed, and no matter how great the apathy of the people around you may be, you should have faith that the hosts of the Kingdom are on your side, and that through their help you are bound to overcome the forces of darkness that are facing the Cause of God. Persevere, be happy and confident, therefore.’

-Unrestrained as the Wind, pg 95 -On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, letter dated 6/30/37 to individual believer, in The Individual and Teaching 23-24.