Beautiful friends!!! Hello to all you lovely people. 

Seasons Greetings!!! 

I hope you have having a wonderfully festive holiday season and that 2007 has gone well. Things with me are as hectic as ever... I do so love being busy! When I started writing this, I was about to take the soccer team that a friend and I coached to Chiang Mai, Thailand, for a tournament, and then a week later I also was preparing to take a group of students to Korea to see snow for the first time in their lives and go skiing. Now, of course, weeks have passed and all that has happened!!! If that isn't enough, this weekend, my brother and parents arrive for a two week sojourn here in Myanmar. We're going up north to the fabulous Bagan temples, the gorgously mystical Inle lake, and then have a beach relaxation session at Ngapali beach. 

The nights have gotten cooler--can you believe I actually need a blanket in the tropics? However, with the cooler season have also come power cuts--we're currently losing power for 6 hours every day. So I've had a lot of bucket showers, because of course, when we lose power, our electric water pump also stops working. But it's not the hot season yet... then I'll really feel the pain of it, but I suppose I'll be just like everyone else in Yangon, then. 

I truly love my peaceful, non-technology dominated, life in Yangon, and I live in a big house with a gorgeous garden full of beautiful birds calling out day and night, which I share with another teacher who works at the British Council here. However, despite all it's luxuries and wonders, I've decided that this will be my last year in Yangon, so will commence the exhausting search for jobs in January. Currently I'm thinking that somewhere in the former Yugoslavia, the Baltic, or Eastern Europe would be nice, but I'm not ruling out Yemen, Libya, Iran, Turkey or other places. Incidently, did you hear about the British Kindergarten teacher in Sudan who was sentenced to 40 lashes for calling her classroom teddy bear Mohamed? If you're thinking of visiting Myanmar (I know that won't include most of you!), you've only got 6 more months, but otherwise, you may want to consider my exciting new destination, whatever it is! 

Anyway, I must end here--apologies for being so short, but it's 2am and tomorrow I'm running errands around town, so need to be up early! Also sorry that it's a group email, but the internet here has made that task difficult enough. I just hope I didn't miss anyone out, though I'm sure I did. Still, if I don't send this now, it won't be sent at all! I will put a list of highlights for this year, though! I've been terrible about communicating this year... no doubt many of you are surprised to hear from me at all! 

Important and rewarding things I did this year: 
Spent New Year 2007 on a plane (again) on my way to New Zealand 
Witnessed monks protesting in Myanmar and experienced with the related wave of ramifications 
Backpacked through Colombia 
Completed my Graduate Diploma in Education from UNE in Australia --I'm now a certified teacher! Also spent a lovely week in Australia because of this!! :) 
Was bridesmaid for the first time ever - yay Amanda and Nick!! 
Joined facebook -- the best and most addictive site ever! (Do join and then you'll see all my photos, because of course, my other site, flickr, has been blocked here since the protests) 
Took 35 students to Beijing on Week Without Walls--more stress than rewards, but a great learning curve 
Spent a week with my parents in Dubai and Oman 
Taught another Model United Nations and Advanced Geography summer school for JHU CTY 
Attempted to start the AP Psychology course at my school, but have had to deal with no textbooks whatsoever (they only arrived last week!) 
Grew, changed, matured, aged, survived, lived, learned and all the rest! And I'm sure there's lots more, but really can't think of it! 
Best wishes for December and of course, 2008 as well! 
Hope you're healthy and happy. LOVE, LIGHT and LAUGHTER to your day!!! 
xxoo 
Natalya 

In Chiang Mai

Just a quick note from a little internet cafe in the middle of the Airport Mall in Chiang Mai--gosh it is exhausting following teenagers. It's the trust factor... are they leaving and going to a bar? I'm glad I'm not on night duty!! We just had a tragedy amongst the group, so we're also dealing with that as well! All sorts of complications!!

Chiang Mai is interesting... a wee dinky city. I think it's quite pleasant as it's not a boom town like Bangkok, but has all the amenities needed. We were discussing over lunch though, how Thailand isn't really living abroad... too much is too easy!! :) Will explore the city some more and the night market tomorrow and will report back!

News and events Oct/Nov 07

The other day, when I was looking everywhere to find Vaseline (which I didn't ever find), I watched a plastic bag scuttle across the street. Sure, plastic bags are everywhere, and they often crinkle in the wind. What amazed me was the speed and directness of this bag, until I realized that it was really a camouflaged rat! Then it rapidly descended into a pothole in the ground, and I had to smile!!

Such is life here as we return to normalcy, sans a few essentials, like my photo site flickr and of course, this blog. The internet is painfully slow, as usual, but life goes on. What have I been up to? Well, after I spent a week lazing around Bangkok with my dad (yay Chatachuk Market!!) I spent a weekend in Ngwe Saung beach on a special deal through a hotel here. Such a good weekend—a really good bunch of people from all sorts of walks of life in Yangon. We had a BBQ by the beach and I got sunburned because I rode too long on my motorbike!

Had my last assignment for this degree that I'm doing. Hopefully, my GradDipEd will be over and done with by Christmas. What a relief. I have time to read and do other things. Had better get along with the paperwork if I'm to use it for job searching for next year. Where do I want to go next? Former Yugoslavia? Yemen? Libya? The Baltic? Ethiopia? Eastern Europe? Iran?

A friend, Hayley, and I are coaching the girls' soccer team and that's in full swing… games every week. They're a great bunch of girls, and we head to Chiang Mai next week for a tournament as a culmination of the season. I've learned that it's a bad idea to be around them after 4 donuts at lunchtime!!

I'm also organizing a Week Without Walls trip for the first week of my Christmas vacation. I am overly ambitious of course, and decided to take them to learn how to ski in Korea. Things have been stop and start from the get go, and I'm still hoping things will smooth out, considering that it's in 3 weeks!   Anyway, it should be good… after which I get back to Yangon and my brother and parents arrive for some quality travelling time. It'll be January in no time.

Went to Kyaiktyo last weekend with some co-workers. It's the pilgrimage site of the Golden Rock. Yet another bizarre Buddhist monument in Myanmar, but it was a great weekend. Spent the first day up at the rock watching the hundreds of pilgrims who set up camp on top of the mountain. The second had, Paula, Tim and I hiked up to the rock—4 hours up! We went looking for the waterfall, which was a bit of an adventure and another 2 hour walk straight down then up again. Lots of steps, but was feeling very fit for not stopping all the time like I usually do! I was feeling poetic for the next bit, so excuse the fluty words.

We took a long lazy train trip back to Yangon. The sun filtered through the open windows and the breeze blew gently past our swiveling $4 dentist-chair seats. The haystacks glowed golden, the fields were green and fertile and ready to reap. We talked idly about whether water buffalo looked more similar to pigs or cows. The little muddy creeks we clicked past had tiny long boats loaded high with white sacks, pushing the sides almost under the water. When we came to a bridge, the train slowed to let us cross the cross-hatch iron structure, coincidentally allowing us maximum exposure to the cool river breezes. Little men's heads marched past, their bodies half hidden in fields of wheat, large loads of wood or branches piled high on their heads. Women in coned hats worked the soil or moved the animals near their simple wooden huts. Gleaming white and shining golden payas atop grassy mounds appeared in fields or simply as pointy tips above the tree-tops. Around noon, many lay napping under straw sheets. Horned Brahmins with sagging double chins flicked away flies and children ran joyfully through villages. The train's route was far pleasanter than the bus--going through the rural fields, and we were high up with an excellent view over the padis. We didn't go very fast, but the gentle lolling quickly put me to sleep.

                A romantic perspective this no doubt is, there were also clothes lines strung with shabby, holey, frequently-washed clothes, trash in random places along every path, and extreme poverty at every turn. Perhaps I idealize their happiness? Sure there are squalid ponds of mosquitoes and sewerage and a little family of mice appeared beneath our feet, zipping from the haven of one chair to another, scuttling under the blocks, almost too quick to see. The train doors flapped open and closed like a saloon, and the occasional faint whiff of toilet was putrid.

                The cool breeze combined with the wide open delta vistas provided for a very relaxing trip.

Anyway, am back in Yangon now, grinding away at our last few events of the semester. I just figured out that this email-to-blog thing works (Thanks, Sam!) so will try and post more often! Pictures are on facebook—if you're not a member, join now!!

 

Testing!!!

I just want to test my email-to-blog-function to see if its working because blogger is banned!!!

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---------------------------------------------
Natalya Marquand
Yangon International Educare Center
No. W-24 Mya Kan Thar Main Road
5th Quarter, Hlaing Township
Yangon, MYANMAR
Home phone: +95-1-562947

"Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder." (Thoreau)

From Bangkok

This time my strange blogger language is Thai. I wish they'd create an easy link for English, though I suppose this enriches my travel experience. I suppose that I should just be glad that it's not in Hebrew (very likely--the internet shop I'm in has more Hebrew than English or Thai) because then it would be backwards.

I'm in the middle of a great internet fix. Fast connections, nothing blocked (all those website links that were accumulating in my inbox are now cleared), and no time pressures to be anywhere else. In fact, I'm feeling a little bit dazed: square-eyes is the TV version. Basically, I can do the impossible: feel my eyeballs! So let's see, what have I been up to? I read Liz's absolutely wonderful story of her newborn baby, Erica. 50+ hours of labor and wonderful blog-letters to her new daughter. What a wonderful way to record it for the world. It was bizzare to see Laura's post on Liz's comments saying "Has anyone heard from Natalya?" What a strange place to look for me! I'm here, helloooooooo!!! If you want to read her lovely stories, look here.

Okay... it froze there for a while, and since I couldn't read the labels (silly Thai script), I posted it. But I wasn't done. So all you automatic downloading people (including facebook), will have to just get it twice!!!

I was also reading someone's informative travel history on Myanmar. It's made MSN-NBC, which is a miracle. See here. Also, a great article from Outside Magazine this month on the mystical city: here.

I have also been browsing facebook (as usual, and checking long lists of emails). Sadly, I can't make it to Andre and Olya's wedding in November. :( Hi to everyone. I really am thinking of you, but just can't get online often enough.

Next mission is to do my two assignments. Hopefully, I'll be bored enough here to move on to it quite quickly. I almost did today, but then I found the internet!! :)

Anyway, just wanted to post and update my life. I'll do a couple of other posts, but less personal!

Situation

Right now, things are different in Yangon. Tense. The internet has been banned for over a week, and there is still a curfew. There are multiple people still missing/arrested/detained/being mistreated. There are reports that those detained are not being fed, are all living in stadiums or race tracks or other non-detention facilities because normal facilities are full. Rumors abound. Fear is everywhere.

Right now I am on the outside, but once I'm back, that's it. No more communication with the outside world. Meanwhile the world debates briefly, then forgets about it. I didn't see it on the news once while in America, and while the immigration person knew what was going on, most were oblivious.

Where is this going?

Myanmar musings

It�s been a bit of a hectic week, or at least it feels like it! Last week was my B day week�the worst. I have my heavier day three times, and it sucks. Plus I had an assignment due on Friday, which I finished and submitted, only to discover it was actually due on Saturday, and didn�t have to stay up all Thursday night to finish it.

On Friday, there was a mega monsoon storm here. It was like that crazy one we had last April. At around 1pm, we all had a note delivered to our classrooms saying that students could leave when their rides came. A key to chaos, if you ask me: either dismiss them or not. So I tried to have half a lesson, but then let the students go in disgust. The elementary school had a foot of water. At least this time they had sandbags ready, but it still seeped in. The guards were catching fish on the soccer field!!!! I�ll upload some pictures soon. So we headed out, taking a long route home, thankfully in a big bus! Hayley had a birthday get together, but everything was flooded so many didn�t go. On Thein Byu Road, where the restaurant was, it was flooded. Taxi just barged through! The new American embassy had a little do to open it�s Marine Bar as well, so headed to that afterwards. A humongous tree fell down right in front of their property and knocked out the lights for the whole area. Isn�t it silly that an embassy built in the tropics doesn�t even have covered walkways to get around it? And of course we had to check our umbrella at the gate!! Driving home was insane�the top of Kaba Aye Pagoda road had around 3 feet of water. We were in a big SUV, and it came up to the bonnet of the car. When we went through we created a tidal wave, which slammed into the trucks (and poor passengers) of stranded cars and trucks. Everything shut down!!

Meanwhile, last week there were protests across Myanmar� You�ve probably heard about it on the news as this is the most action that�s happened in a long time! It started small and has progressively grown throughout the week. On one hand I feel hopeful that this will bring the much-needed change, and on the other I feel pessimistic that it will all either fizzle out or draw the violent and suppressive action that it has before.

The monks were incredible�long lines sweeping down the road. People were cheering and chanting in the most hopeful, peaceful, yet excited manner. It was an honor to witness. The rain kept coming down all weekend, but this hasn�t stopped any of it. There was supposedly a 15 minute prayer vigil last night at 8pm, but we couldn�t see any of it when we looked outside.

A lot of my students are absent today because they're saying the military is going to react today. University Avenue (ASSK's house) was double barricaded with about 150 special forces/riot police standing outside all of yesterday and this morning. Apparently whoever let the protesters in to see her shouldn't have. Also saw around 15 army trucks with troops sitting by the side of the road on my way to work today. Trouble brewing! As yet, YIEC has no emergency contingency plan, though George tells me that the BC will close if any violence occurs.

Today I came in and there was sunshine in my classroom, and it felt like a long while since I�d seen it. It�s been such a wet past week, and weekend, that the sunshine is quite welcome. Hope perhaps?

Busy times

I realised today how long its been since I posted on this blog and decided I should say something, even if its only an excuse as to why I haven't posted. Basically, in the last 4 weeks I've been to Ngwe Saung beach for a long weekend, been to Bangkok for a visa, completed 3 assignments (yes, almost one a week, so lots of long nights), and taught. So that's why. Anyway, still living it up in Myanmar, and loving the new house. The inverter broke and there were some low voltage days where I had to discover how to use the booster. Otherwise, no big deal! Oh, and we had a house guest!

Anyway, just saying hi and I'm still alive! :)

You know you're in a Yangon taxi when...

The driver opens his window for air... and the rain splashes you
One window is shards of glass taped together with cello-tape
There is only one window
The window doesn't open
The window doesn't close
The window handle is gone
The window handle is shared (sitting conveniently between the two front seats)
The car next door goes through a rather large puddle and you get soaked

You sit down and your pants get soaked
You sit down and you're lopsided
You sit down and feel a piece of wood underneath you
You sit down and the spring pokes you

There are ants climbing up the wall
There is no wall--it's just the bare metal car frame
... and said car frame is so rusty it looks like it has sat outside unused for 6 months... or has gone through a war or two
You can see the ground rush past through the enormous hole in the floor
You can see the road through the door
The door is held closed with a little wire hook
There are holes in the ceiling
The front seat is propped up on a piece of wood... and held to the car by a piece of chicken wire
You've been bitten by at least five mosquitoes
You've squashed one of those mosquitoes and it's full of blood (your blood)

It whirrs
It mumbles
It moans
It rumbles
It shudders
It grumbles
It squeaks
It creaks
It goes no faster than 30km/hr

There are red spit splatters all over seat/wall/door
There is an enormous puddle of water on the floor
There should be an enormous puddle of water on the flooor but it has leaked out through the enormous hole...

Our house

So an interesting thing that happened when I got back... maybe I mentioned that we were having some problems when we first moved in. Things breaking... water problems, etc. Anyway, our landlady, being concerned, went to see her monk. She told us that the reason why we were having issues with our house was because the monk had said "something is out of place". Turns out that my Buddha statues should not be on the lower shelf and should face a certain direction. Interesting... I wonder what "element" in my life is so out of whack that I lose data, lose suitcases, lose textbooks, among all the other issues!! Will have to search for it no doubt! :)