From NZ

Am online in New Zealand-- it's funny how internet becomes so much less of a priorty in Myanmar that it's taken me this long! It's wonderful being home, even if everyone I meet thinks I'm from somewhere else. The food is fantastic, family is good, and the wedding looks like it'll be a huge hit! The setting is glorious and thankfully the weather seems to be good (even though it's quite cold for me!)

Coming back is so strange. Everything is so familiar and laid back. Everyone is relaxed and normal. No extra makeup, just ordinary people. The fashion is still weird and way out, with lots of funky hair dyes.

It's been a whirlwind trip. Stayed a night with Aunty Gay. Spent New Years Day calling to find a rental agency open with a reasonably cheap car. Found one for $35 from an Asian guy who looked like he hadn't cut his lawns in months! But it runs okay so am happy. U. John has bought a place at Cooper's Beach, and everyone was up there so didn't really see many. It's supposed to be good, with two flats on the property, but there was a leak in the water tank so no one could stay for very long! Spent the afternoon with Nadine and her cute (tiny) baby Ruby. She is very well and happy and quite domestic. She isn't working and spends all day as a mum. Felt a bit odd to see her and hear her comments on motherhood--it is such a different world than mine!

On Tuesday, I drove down to Hamilton and had lunch with Lisa, which was really great, but the kids were not there, of course. Had dinner with U. Garry and spent the night there. Shane was very interested in Myanmar and is buzzing with ideas of his impending trip to Asia.

Drove down to New Plymouth yesterday. Stopped at Waitomo Caves for a look... VERY touristy, but pleasant. Arrived for the hen's party, was given a netball outfit for the theme of schoolgirls and met all sorts of strangers of all ages. There were drinks (far too many) and games, and then the only stripper in the New Plymouth phonebook came to give Hayley a lap dance! It was all quintessentially kiwi, even the humility of the stripper (a very surreal experience, as he had his mum along as his "minder", and the bridesmade was worried that he'd be someone that she knew--I mean, New Plymouth is really not that big). She got a box of kinky goodies including a blow up doll. Hayley threw up all the way to town and it was a Wednesday night, so not much was open. The only place open was a strip joint, which of course is the only one in town so of course had the stag do. Stuart, the groom, was also throwing up everywhere.

Got up today and went to visit friend and baby #2, Sami. Huge contrast. Though only 6 months old, Rowan (from Korea, with Moroccan husband Zu)'s baby was 12 pounds and absolutely enormous in comparison! He was a very happy baby, however, and as we wandered about town we discovered all the faults with shopping malls that don't have pushchair access and properly designed baby change facilities (it was very obvious that no planner had ever actually had to USE any of the areas).

The wedding is tomorrow in some gardens down the road. NZ has been having a bit of a bad summer, but the weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days and hopefully that'll continue tomorrow. The reception is here at Hayley's mum's house (which is a dream), overlooking the Tasman Sea with Mt. Taranaki peaking above the rolling hills behind Oakura. On Saturday I'll be driving back up... what a quick trip!

Happy New Year to all!

Ngapali Beach

I just got back from 5 glorious days at the beach. I went by myself, which it seems is quite unusual, but when I can't find someone, I don't let that stop me going places!!

Because I was on my own at the beach, and it was for 5 days, I had to overpack (of course). There were the usual Ipod, notebook, etc, but this time I also took 1 book for each day, my sketchbook (which I must say has been untouched for 6 months!), my paints, my Burmese language notes, beading, and even snacks! All this varied entertainment, I must say I was thankful for because other than a very handsome young German guy I met on the first evening (taken, sadly), I spoke to no one save myself for the entire weekend. I used everything and even pined for the bikini I had left behind (what can I say--the 5 I did take weren't quite right for what I wanted).

For the second night I was sandwiched in the middle of a German family. On my right were 4 rambunctious teenage boys. On my left were their middle-aged parents who, how shall I say it, got very, ahem, busy that night. They were loudly sexually active in their moaning, so much so that I wondered if I had been put there as a buffer between them and the "innocents". Honestly, though, they were so loud for so long that there isn't any chance of no knowledge on the kids part. They are sure to be immune to it by now at this stage in their lives!

Other exciting elements to the trip: I had rustling mice and lizards on the rattaan roof above me, separate hot and cold water taps (boiling hot and cold, neither one particularly appealing--I honestly considered making tea with the hot one day, because the power was out so my electric boiler wouldn't work). I had to borrow a romance novel from the next hotel because the 5 ones I had also weren't what I was craving. Taking a side road on my rented bicycle and cursing the deep sand was another amusement. The bike would either veer sideways guaranteeing a spil or stock stock still in the depths. As a good antipodean of Ozone holes, I wore so much sun-block that I truly missed it when I left it in my room one day. 3 or 4 daily swims truly is wonderful, even if the wind was a bit chilly in the mornings and evenings. It was cold enough for a blanket and no fan, even, haha! I lazed a lot, slept till 9am (gasp!) one day and was miffed that they'd run out of papaya. Of course it was full moon and a holiday so the motorbike market trip was on the last morning. Almost a rush. Had some yummy fish tempura--yum--at Royal Beach Motel.

President Carter's book

Was interested to discover that President Carter has written a controversial book about the Middle East... seems there are many opinions about it. Can't decide if I want to read it or not. Most things on the M.E. are biased in some way!

New perspective on Myanmar

Here's a new book about Myanmar for those familiar with its politics. It's by U Thant's grandson (U Thant = Burmese former UN Sec-Gen), and it vastly criticizes The Lady and other pro-sanction perspectives. Am looking forward to reading it and adding it to my collection.

Itinerary for the next while

Today: Grades due, final concert, sigh of relief at last school task
Tomorrow: last full day of school, leg wax??
F 15th: Teacher vs. Girls Soccer team in The Dust Bowl, celebratory lunch, snack shopping, pack!
S 16th: to Ngapali beach (4 days)
F 22nd: parents arrive, glass factory, YIEC, Shwedagon Pagoda, dinner somewhere fancy?
S 23rd: Flight to Inle Lake
M 25th: Flight Inle to Mandalay
T 26th: Flight Mandalay to Bagan
Th 28th Bagan to Yangon
F 29th shopping, Bogjoke market, sunrise at Shwedagon? parents leave--onward Perth, Australia (Hello, Aunty Helen!!)
S 30th/Su 31st I fly to NZ
S 6th Hayley and Stu wedding
W 9th Back to work (2 days late... ooops)

Jan 30-Feb 2 Residential school in Australia. Brisbane, anyone?
Feb 7th My lectures for Uni start
Feb 29-Mar 2 Week Without Walls school trip
March 15ish Model UN trip to Singapore
April - our break--where shall I go, what shall I do??
Summer 07 --USA working for CTY JHU again? Visit Hayley Stu in Colombia? Lounge around and do nothing and make all the 9-5 people jealous?
This is insanely busy, but I love it. Life is short!

This makes news in NZ

Finding a human foot... what a lovely trip to the beach!! Had a house near here once.

December News

Have just updated my blog template--added a whole lot of name links, basically everyone who I have in my favorites (I also updated that today, but of course, lots are missing because most of the time I forget to add pages). Anyway, if your name's not on there, send it to me!!! Can't seem to figure out how to get the alignment right... silly curved corners.... ooops. I probably have to start from scratch.

I am officially enrolled at a local rate for my Uni course in Oz... I begin in February, and I'll be done in November, so next year if you don't hear from me that's why. Oh wait, you never hear from me anyway! Some people think I'm moving to Oz. I'm not (though the Uni paperwork people may believe otherwise-thanks Aunty Helen!!!). I'm doing it over the internet from here (I can hear you all laughing at my miserable mistake. What am I thinking to rely on INTERNET!!!???) Anyway, if you have good education books or links, please send them!

Did I mention I bought a bike? I biked to work today. It takes 35 minutes and is quite bumpy. We went canoeing in Dragon boats last week too--very nice at sunset. What's a dragon boat? Basically a narrow wooden boat that on special occasions they attach a little wooden dragon to the front and back.

To date, I have sold 156 calendars of the Myanmar Calendar I produced for charity... anyone want to buy? $5 or 7000 Kyat. It's exciting to be almost sold out (well, I have passed extras on to others!)

Am starting to think about the summer. What should I do? Should I work? Where? Should I visit friends? Should I visit family? Hmm.... Don't think I'll be doing the dig again, though that was heaps of fun. Central America is calling me, but don't know if that's a good idea considering this degree I'm doing.

Okay, it is now 11.35 and I still have TWO exams to write, so I'd better get on. I've had lots of fun procrastinating today though!

2 weeks and counting...

... till I am curled up on a deck chair reading under the cool breeze of the Indian Ocean and the warm "winter" sun above Myanmar, looking out over undulating waves of crisp, clear blue water! Only one actual weekend, as this one's now over, but in that time, things will be incredibly busy. Exams to write, then later mark and get the grades in. Ugh. Christmas parties and other birthdays, events, etc! It'll be fun, no doubt about it!

Ngapali beach for 4 days, then the parents arrive, sadly without the bro in tow. We're whirlwinding around Myanmar then I'm hopefully off to NZ for Hayley and Stu's wedding. It'll be on me before I know it! Just discovered I'm also going to be in Brisbane for the end of Jan for a uni school (just a week). Would love to catch up... who's there these days?

Spent around $80 on fabric on Sunday. It seems I've celebrated my decision to stay in Myanmar for another year (our decisions were due on Friday) but jumping right into the tailoring madness. Fun fun fun! 4 dresses already on order. Yay!

Had a yucky night last night--was sick with some unidentifyable Myanmar disorder and was up all night in the loo. It's strange how routine something like that becomes. All in our stride... take my charcoal tablets that a friend got me clued into from Singapore, and my rehydration salts (which, ironically, no pharmacy in America had ever heard of!) and I'm back up and running today (though considerably weaker). Had to miss rugby :( but so it goes.

Well, must go do some work actually writing exams. I have the excuse that my body was healing all day so I didn't do any work, but somehow that won't fly with the kids tomorrow asking exactly what's on the exam when I had the whole weekend. Oooops.

Anyway, happy holidays to all!

Taungoo

Had the most fantastic mid quarter break last weekend. We (8 women!) drove 7 hours north on the road to Mandalay to a little town called Taungoo (a former capital of Burma sometime after the Bagan Dynasty, but before the Mandalay kings). We stayed in the nicest little guesthouse that I've found in Myanmar-- majestic teak with peaceful varandahs overlooking the misty rice paddies--very rustic, but not in a way where you're sacrificing comfort or civilization. At night there was no light anywhere to be seen (powercuts' minor "bright" side), and the cicadas hissed and the stars were bright.

We awoke at an indelicate and uncivilized hour of the morning to one of the most enormous breakfasts I think I've ever had. There were literally 50 plates in front of us, each with a different dish. The fruit was sweet, locally produced stuff that we can't get a hold of in Yangon. The orchard was quite impressive. Let's see, just in the range of fruit, there was orange, banana, watermelon, papaya, passion fruit, avocado, pomelo and the exotic ones new, even to me: starfruit, mangostein and the delightfully humourously named testicle fruit (I am not kidding--this one must have been named by a woman, though this link thinks that they're avocados, when they're not!). We giggled to ourselves and made these poor German tourists blush. Heather said her husband Matthew would be glad he missed that particular conversation. Those who ate it were mysterious to those who hadn't, intriguing them to try it for themselves. We even passed one around just to say we'd had a bite of the body-part fruit! Aside from the fruit there was banana or coconut pancakes, samosas, fried sweets, french toast, pastries, and other delights.

The truck ride was a bit tedious--the planks of wood that pretended as seats may have had a foam mattress cover, but my bum is too small to fit, especially when every other moment is a hole in the road bounce. I rode a lot of it on the roof-top, which was glorious, but still not very stable. Chris and I had a good giggle to ourselves as we bounced into each others' (and the young Karen assistant boy's) laps. The physics of trucks also insists that you end up as close as is humanly possible after each series of bounces.

The first destination was a working elephant camp. There are lots of places in the world where tourists can ride elephants, but most are cosseted, trapped animals. While I don't necessarily approve of a lot of what happens, these camps at least treated their animals reasonably well (or as well as they can in the uneducated 3rd world!). They're released into the wild each night, and when we arrived, they rounded them up (though some cheeky ones fill their wooden bells with mud to stop the tinkle or stand stock still--the bell won't ring--so they won't be caught) and brought them down for a water bath. Each night they cover themselves with mud and dust to stop the flies, but if left on, causes a rash and rubbing. The mahouts went in for a bath too, rubbing and massaging each animal, even cleaning behind their floppy ears. The elephants lie down and take it with puffs (more like minor tidal waves) of breath out their trunks under water. After harnessing them, we followed them on a path through the forest where they felled a tree and cut it, axeing holes to loop chains through so the elephants could drag the enormous logs out of the forest. After these loping beasts of burden had completed their task, they resaddled them so that us tourists could take a ride. The mahouts told us they were afraid of us because we wore trousers, and only doctors with feared injections wear trousers (the men of course, all wear longyi skirts)! We loped down the hill, through the river, and around the road for a while, jolting awkwardly on unusual wooden side saddles. One poor elephant was afraid of crossing the bridge and stubbornly turned around on half the planks to go back and cross the creek instead (an interesting movement where he managed to stick his bum out like a circus performer). The mahouts were not happy, and prodded with a knife and a knock on the head, which upset us all. This was the only sign of mistreatment that we saw, though.

After a picnic lunch, we headed a couple more hours into the Bago Yoma (hilly area in between the rivers) to a Karen village. This was amazing! It was really remote, pretty much completely isolated in the rainy season. We arrived near dusk, and the whole village came out to watch us unpack and settle! They emptied the school house of its wooden benches, and set up foam mats and mosquito nets for us to sleep under. I felt like I was on a school camp, without the unnecessary giggling and silliness. I think this village was probably the most rustic place I have stayed, ever, and it was truly an experience. We were the first westerners/outsiders to ever stay in their village (though others had visited before). The campfire was made special by Chris dancing and Becka singing. Chan, our doctor guide, also brought out his guitar, and the school teacher coaxed them into singing and showing some traditional dances. Most in that village are devout Christians, so we sang a lot of carols together. Chris is amazing at getting people up and active and dancing, so we did some silly things like "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" for all the little children, not to mention the Chicken Dance and "Stick Your Left Foot In". The shy children loved it and then they showed us a Karen dance that we could master! The rice baked inside the bamboo into little rolls, and we enjoyed tea and a scrumptious meal by fire light (there is no electricity in the village, and our headlamps were a little too foreign, and seemed well out of place).

We fell asleep to the cooks and assistants singing softly to the guitar, while we cozed under our mosquitoe nets. This, of course, was after we'd found a nice bush to spit our toothpaste out under, and we'd trekked mud across the clearing to the little out house (where the bamboo door was not attached, so we lifted it sideways into place and looked out at the village watching over the top of the door!).

The next morning, Chan began his medical work. I am glad that I will probably never need to visit him as a doctor-- not because he wasn't good, but that each examination, regardless of what body part, was done on the wooden benches (that had been our breakfast table!) with the entire village and 8 foreign women watching in fascination. Women had the midwife rub them up and down, and men were stroked, tested for fever, given little bags of pills from his fisherman's toolkit pillbox, and all other ranges of diagnoses. The children cried when they even came close, and one poor boy has a wound on his head that when cleaned, sent blood everywhere over the doctor, the seats, his shirt, etc. It was too difficult to clean properly, but iodine was added, it was dressed (it finished the last of his gauze), and hopefully it will be alright by the next time Chan visits in 3 months time!

We were toured through the village to the weaver's house, to the rice pounding station, and other village operations. The women still grow the crop, spin the cotton, weave the fabric and sew every item of clothing they own--and single women sew seeds on by hand while married women are less decorative. We were told never to send western clothes to them as aid, because it would hurt these tradtions, although we will send some educational materials and medical supplies.

The midwife was sent around the village to ask women to sell their spare clothing to us tourists. I do not enjoy encouraging this artificial aspect of life. I do not like disrupting their village and lifestyle, but they sold it to us and no doubt the money will come in useful to them. Globalization at its worst!

All in all a fantastic weekend. We rode the truck back under the stars--light pollution is not a problem in Myanmar, especially in the mountain villages. I sat inside and became white as a sheet with the pale dust. Luggage lost its color, and our eyes stung. In Taungoo, we appreciated the shower and real bed! Tuesday, we drove back to Yangon, and felt as if we'd been away at least a week.

Pictures will come soon!!

Flickr pics

So instead of marking the stack of tests like I'm supposed to, I uploaded some random photos from all through this year in Yangon. Lots of friends. Almost all social occasions. Will try and get some pics of school, appartment, students, etc, later. Anyway, here's the link. Enjoy!

Nov 6: Okay... so the link was wrong before, but now it's right. If not, here it is again: www.flickr.com/photos/natalya_marquand