Update for the first week of december

Differences (Saturday 29-11-2008)

Today Xenne and I went to see friends. They’re an Uzbek couple and she is pregnant. And with the vast amount of info you can get here…. Yep, just joking, there is NOTHING you can get here that helps you with your pregnancy except the occasional visit to a doctor for your check up and roaming the internet. And the second option isn’t even a very good one since the internet connections can be terribly slow and webpages can take forever to load. Not the best way of looking for info. So she gets most of her information from people at the school where they both teach and what they know about how things are done back in Uzbekistan. Anyways, there are other teachers with a 2 year old son. And apparently he is real fussy about what he eats, where he sleeps and all that. I knew this but never gave it much thought. After all, some kids are easier than others. Then today, while my friend was making a drink for Xenne, I heard that they still give this boy only lukewarm drinks, puree his food and so on. It started by my friend being surprised that I gave Xenne something to drink that came out of the fridge. She said it was a bit cold. I said that it wasn’t a problem. And Xenne loved the homemade plum juice. So we started to talk about raising babies. For me there are just a few big no-no’s namely sugar, salt, fried things and raw vegetables. But every once in a while he gets a bit of sugar, salt or something fried. Not much, but it can’t always be avoided. Of course, I try to be careful and do my best too give him a well-balanced diet but still, I’m not paranoid about his food. The parents of this boy on the other hand apparently made it their life to be overly careful with everything and now they’re reaping the results. So after comparing how things were done back home (Uzbekistan and The Netherlands) and how things are done here t we had some interesting differences. For example, in The Netherlands babies are soon left to play by themselves. Of course under a watchful eye but still. In Uzbekistan and here in Burma, babies are never left to their own devices. And from experience I know that our maid has serious trouble leaving Xenne to play by himself. She’d prefer to walk around with him all day. And in Uzbekistan babies are swaddled way up to 5-6 months so they can hardly move at all. My friend was also amazed at Xenne’s round head since all Uzbek babies (and adults) have always a very flat back of the head. According to her it happens because of the cradles the use there. Babies always look upward and never change sides. That is one of the reasons she wants to have the baby here. And I guess that the level of healthcare isn’t very different.

Picnic (Sunday November 30)

We’ve done it! We’ve finally found a spot where we can go outside and enjoy the outdoors. There is a little ‘funpark’ not far from our house. I never really went there after having been in a little part last year. All the equipment rather old and I would never venture in the Ferris wheel even though it looks sturdy enough. It also looks like something from the sixties. Anyways, we hawere there a while ago when KK decided to take Xenne for a round in the Merry-go-round. And he loves that. At that time the grass was still damp and so it wasn’t very inviting. But now the winter season has started with little rain and nice temperatures. So on Sunday we went to this place again with friends who have a son who is a couple of weeks older than Xenne. And it was so nice we were there for most of the day. Luckily we had brought a big mat to sit on since Xenne wasn’t at all happy with the grass under his feet….

Sinterklaas (Monday December 1)

We got an invitation to celebrate Sinterklaas. Apparently there is a rather big (22 or some) Dutch around here in Yangon and they are going to celebrate this affair on the 12^th of December. It’ll be interesting I’m sure. I know 2 Dutch here but I keep hearing about others. There are a fair few for sure since it is going to be quite a big thing. It is the first time that Sinterklaas will be arriving here in Yangon and he will be arriving by boat even. OK, only across the lake but I doubt the kids will worry about that…..

New plans (Wednesday December 3)

KK has been out all day today. First of all he bought 2 new bicycles. One of his cousins went with him to cycle them back. And then he went out to photocopy the leaflet I had made on the computer yesterday evening. Now he is busy distributing them around the hotels downtown. Over the past few weeks he has cycled all over town to find nice routes that tourists might like. And now we’re ready for business. That is, if any tourists are interested to cycle around Yangon. I think he has found some very nice routes that will show a different side of Yangon but there are some complicating factors. Of course, there are never many tourists here, relatively. And lately with that whole fiasco in Bangkok, well….. Then again, hotels might not let him post the leaflet so we can’t get our message across. And then there is always that underlying threat that someone might not be pleased…. But it is a very inexpensive way of starting a business here cause after all, we can always resell those 2 extra bikes if need be. And even if he gets only a couple of tourists a month it’ll be worth it. It’ll sure beat working for someone for $40 a month, no doubt about that. KK was thinking of letting this cousin help too. It would be a nice way in case people want different routes or if he himself needs to be somewhere. And since cousin has been living in a monastery for the last couple of months since he has no job and therefore no income, KK thought he might be interested. His brother can’t do it since he doesn’t speak English and shows no desire in learning it either. Anyway, cousin wasn’t interested. Why wasn’t very clear. He said something about his English not being very good but that could be remedied for sure. I suspect he just found the cycling too hard. But of course, I could be wrong. Anyway, I hope he comes back soon since I am quite curious what has happened in the leaflet- and response department today.

Ooohhhh.. sometimes…. (Thursday 4-12)

Well, as we probably all have every once in a while, today is one of those days. Somehow the kids in my class all decided to behave a lot less than normal. And why?? And when I came home it turned out that one of KK’s friends had been smoking in the house. A huge NO-NO! And it is not that he doesn’t know that. He’s been coming over for months. And he never smokes (inside at least) when I’m around. And this time KK was asleep in the bedroom (having returned really late yesterday after talking with some friends about his new venture). And both KK’s brother and our maid know that smoking inside the house is not allowed. But here the omnipresent Asian familiar trait comes up, they don’t want to offend him and so as long as I don’t find out… So I was rather pissed obviously. And both of them smiling a bit sheepishly (I think they’d forgotten to hide the evidence since the windows had been open or aircon had been on long enough for me not to smell anything). What I then hate most is that they so try to avoid conflict or to tell someone off. I suspect that this same ‘friend’ was the one who had been smoking in our apartment in May when we were on holiday in Thailand. And who burned a hole in one of our bed sheets (I don’t even want to think about what he had to do in our bedroom and our adjoining bathroom where I also found ashes). And then, while feeding Xenne, I saw that it was the same thing (although freshly made) that he has been eating yesterday and the day before. I think that when our maid finally gets something she sticks to it with a vengeance. And I don’t always have the time to make his food unfortunately. So I have to talk to KK about that so he can explain her that she needs to vary his food. Not that I haven’t tried that before. And asking about when he had his snack she said three o’clock (she does speak some English), milk she said because there wasn’t any food yet. So I said to her that she should not give him milk at that time, a banana or some other fruit would be the thing. Minutes later she says that she gave him a sandwich and milk for lunch and a banana as snack. But by then I wonder whether she does just say so because she thinks that that is what I want to hear or whether she’s actually done so and just got confused with her English. Honestly, sometimes this country and the mentality of the people gets to me.