The meeting started in grand style on the Wednesday night with the Welcome Party, where a marching band & dancers brought traffic to a halt as they approached us.
On Thursday, while Steve impressed all the IRO’s & delegates with his tuc tuc adventure, we non-delegates relaxed at a sports complex c/w a salsa dance lesson. Nations Night was held in Paramaribo’s 16th century fort. Because there was only Steve & myself from RTBI, we kept it small & simple, but good quality. This paid off, as even the French said it was good and we were busy with repeat visits throughout.
On Friday morning we all piled into the buses for a 2-hour trek into the jungle, mainly on unmade roads. While some braved the piranhas by swimming, the rest of us visited a native village.
Steve managed to climb out bed Saturday morning in time for the EMA AGM while we non-delegates were guided around Paramaribo by a nationally famous historian before the Banner Lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The Gala (black tie) dinner took place alfresco c/w 30C heat, 90% humidity & no breeze. We might as well have gone swimming... Fortunately the smoked bang bang was tasty and the fantasy rice really did exist.
Over Sunday brunch everyone agreed that EMATM 2009 had been an unqualified success that next years hosts (Pisa) will find extremely difficult to top.
