karaoke

The eternal craze in Asia and here as well. So I'm sitting in the internet cafe as on most days when we have to go shopping and the ladies who work here have one of the computers reserved for their fun. Facebook, music and all that. Fair enough  but they often do sing along LOUDLY with the music. When I go to a karaoke place which is one of the few things you can do here in Myanmar with Burmese friends, you know that you'll have to listen (and participate). Fair enough. I can, of course, decide not to go. But here in the internet cafe when I'm doing things for myself, I'd rather not listen to belted out Myanmar copies of English songs. Luckily though, this time we can actually hear the music. On occsaion they wear a headset but sing along loudly anyway..

Mmm.. better start my shopping.

So much for my good intentions this holiday

I've had a week of by now, still about 2,5 to go.I'd told myself I'd take a day or 2 to catch up on a much needed rest and then do at least some things that I've wanted to do for a long time.

I did promise myself I would write a short piece for this blog at least 4 times a week thinking that since I don't have to go to school, I'd have plenty of time. Forget it. Every evening I'm knackered and can't muster up the energy to even boot up the computer. Eaindra is teething still and wakes me up at least anywhere between 4 -7 times a night. The one time this week she didn't do that, Xenne thought I might miss my waking hours during the night and wet his bed. By the time he was asleep aiagin, Eaindra was fully awake and it took me nearly 2 hours for her to settle down again...

Another of the things I really want to get a start on is learning Myanmar again. For me, who has always learned languages easily it is a incredible that after 6 years here I still can't make heads or tails of the language. Ok, both times I started to learn Myanmar, I was pregnant almost immediately. I don't know if that has any correlation. I also both times started with yoga. Which is another item on my list of things I want to start with (again).

Luckily I do have more time with my kids which is nice. I play the Wii with Xenne, see how Eaindra is learning to walk independently a little to fast for my liking (she can already take about 4 steps before crashing down), explain to Thandar how to go on with her Barbie-games (something she really likes playing) and more of that stuff. Unfortunately it rains still so much that a nice walk in the quarter is out of the question.

School was supposed to be far away in my mind.. And that is where I am now. Again. All foreign staff have left the country for their holidays but we need to hire another Myanmar person for our teaching staff and there are still parents and kids coming in for admission tests... I do come but I keep reminding myself to only come when absolutely necessary.

Eaindra is 1 year old!

Last Monday we celebrated Eaindra's birthday. She's now already one year old. Almost the whole extended family helped me to bake her brownie-cake.  She loved it and we have adorable photos of her biting into a large piece.

She does keep me awake though at the moment. Not sure whether it is because of the 4th tooth coming through or because she has a bit of a cold but the nights are not very restful.

 The little lady now managed to take a quick step or two between two objects when she wants to go somewhere. She can walk to the next street on one hand, and has found how much fun pushing stools is in the teashop (apart from charming all the boys there). If she is anything like Xenne, she'll learn the best part of walking in the teashop though I have to admit we do go a lot less than before. 

The last day of summer school

After 4 weeks, summer school is almost over. This year it was relatively short since there are some renovations and reshuffles about to be done especially on the ground floor.  After this morning, we have 2,5 weeks for the teachers and 3,5 weeks for the students before the regular year starts again.

The last couple of years summer school was a breeze. Well, not exactly that last year being 8 months pregnant and finally delivered Eaindra during the last week of the summer school, but in general fairly easy. I would have time to catch up on some of the work that I didn't get around to during the regular year.

This year however, I have been so busy. Both with the summer school and regular coordinator's tasks. Too many things to do and as always, not enough time. I am supposed to be working part-time and it is a good thing that Thandar and Xenne wait for me to take them home otherwise I'd be here every day until late....

Now, I'm just preparing my homework for the next weeks... *sigh*. I do know that if I have no time to prepare this during the holidays, I will be stuck later...

Time to go home

It is half past 2 and I'd planned to go home ages ago. It is raining so hard that the chance of getting a taxi, let alone a taxi at a near to normal rate, are between 0.0 and 0.5 %. It hasn't rained this hard since the beginning of the monsoon season. I'm sure that big parts of Yangon. like the downtown area near Sule, are flooded as they often are. I hope that it is OK near our house. We haven't had much trouble with water yet and I hope it stays that way. But these are a lot of extra drops on an already waterlogged Yangon. It has been raining heavily for the last 2 weeks or so.

Xenne and Thandar are happily playing computer games in the ICT-room so they don't mind too much. Unfortunately, lunch is at home. Though it looks like lunch is going to turn into linner or dunch, it already being this late and it'll take us another half hour at least before we're home.

Update on the car sales places

A while ago I reported on all those car sales places that have opened up in Yangon almost overnight. I thought most of these places were losing quite a bit of money. Rumour has it that many of them are funded with money borrowed and after the opening of those places, the government changed the rules again and cars are now cheaper than ever (well, still expensive enough but a small car now has a price tag of a small car and not of a rolls royce).

This weekend we went downtown again. We hadn't been for a few weeks. To my surprise, I found three more brand-new car sales centres!

As some Myanmar who lived abroad for many years recently told me: "Myanmar people are like lemmings. They copy whatever someone is doing because he or she is making a profit. They don't check whether they can make a profit too. They don't take into account how many places (internet cafes, car sales centres, whatever) are already around. They just see someone being successful. And they copy until nobody makes a decent income." I think they were right. That is exactly the way they do it here. I wonder how many more car sales centres will pop up before the first one goes bust....

There are many more cars on the road though so people are buying . Maybe they all make just enough money to survive? In the last 6 months traffic has increased 10 fold in Yangon alone.

Mosquito time

And they are enjoying their meals that's for sure. I don't like using mosquito killer much but we had no option. There were just too many around.

Even here at school, this first period I have gained 3 or 4 more bites on my feet and ankles. Apparently, these mosquitoes are into foreign food. And the bites are itchy! I am very undignified when I start attacking my ankles in a frenzy but that can't be helped.

It must have been all the rain that came down at the beginning of the week. Which was followed by some fairly warm and decently dry days. A perfect hotbed for mosquitoes.

The side effect of the spraying last night was that we caused a massacre among the big black ants in one of the downstairs room. After sweeping the floor we literally had a pile of them.

Family or not?

For most people a who is who in a family is often not that clear unless you ask further. If I say that someone is my aunt, you do not know whether the lady in question is  a sister of my mother or father or whether she is the wife of a brothers of either my mother or father (though nowadays of course in quite a few countries, she could be married to a sister). 

Here in Myanmar, relationships are even more complicated.  Many women are addressed as ‘Aunty’, ‘Uncle’ is widely used to indicate an older man.With siblings it can be very complicated too. It took me a little while before I caught on. Someone mentioned he had 7 sisters (or brothers). Ok, active parents but not impossible.  Then you hear of a child playing with his sister who is about the same age. “Twins?” , you ask. But no, that is not the case.Here cousins and even second cousins are referred to as brothers and sisters. Many a time, some cousins live in the same household. It takes you a while to figure out which child belongs with which parents. I have even heard people from the same village, age-mates, referred to as “my brother”.

It can make for interesting exploring if you have the time. In other cases it can be really frustrating if you have no idea what the relationship really is. 

A while ago I had parent-teacher conferences. In comes the mother of a child with a lady introduced as “Aunty”. I know this child lives together with grandparents, an aunty and uncle and their child (referred to by him as his sister), and his own parents at least. So another aunty, well I didn’t think much of it. Halfway through the meeting, I do have a funny feeling that this lady is no ‘Aunty’.  Indeed, we find out later that all that time we were talking to the tuition teacher. The mother spoke no English so couldn’t even correct the wrong assumption even if she would have wanted to, the tuition teacher obviously had no intention of making her role in the family clear. It made for some awkward moments since the child was not doing well in school. Without a Myanmar translation for the mother (which we did only ever so often since we were talking to an Aunt) we don’t know if everything came over all right.We did learn an important lesson though and from the coming year tuition teachers, Aunties or not, are no longer allowed to attend parent-teacher consultations.

More news on our pup's death

Apparently, around time our pup died, another dog in the next street passed aa\way too. In much the same manner as our dog. We also realised that shortly before our dog got sick, 2 people of the local administration office (or so they claimed) came to our house and told us we had to pay a registration fee for our dog of 1,500 ks (about $2). KK didn't pay right there and then. He said he would talk to me and we would pay later at the office. We think, but don't know for sure yet since we haven't been to that office yet, that those men wanted 'tea money' aka a bribe. Saying that we would go to the admin office did not go well with their plans.

The owner of the parent dogs told me later that they have also had several cases of poisoning by people of the office that is respaonsible for the mantainance and development of Yangon.

The question we face now is how we can keep a next dog safe.

Monsoon season and power cuts

These always seem to go together. I can imagine it when there is a fierce thunderstorm right above you. We had that the other day with lots of lightning and the thunder clapping right over our heads. Fairly frightening I have to say. Of course, all the while pretending there was nothing to worry about so as not to frighten the kids...  As soon as a storm like that happens, the power goes off. OK, I can live with that. What I don't understand is when there is no power when there is just rain. After all, rain is an often occurring event in the monsoon season. Yet, every time the rain comes down a bit hard the power goes off.

We now pay twice as much for electricity than before April this year. The government says it is to improve service and reliability. I'm counting on that and hope they hurry....

sad

Our 5 month-old puppy died 2 days ago. Of course everybody was really upset.he was a healthy dog a few days before and all of a sudden he just wasted away.

That was sad enough but now, thanks to 2 colleagues, my mind is busy with thinking about the causes. At first I'd assumed he'd eaten something wrong though I couldn't think what that would be. But I thought about it as an accident. but those colleagues of mine both immediately asked if the dog had been poisoned. How would I know? Now, i wonder if there is someone in my neighbourhood who has disliked our dog so much that they felt the need to do something about it. I don't know if someone has, I just think about the possibility. The dog was no threat to anybody. He was in the yard, behaved well for a pup , yes was going to be big. He was half Alsatian, half Doberman. But a big-sized dog does not mean the dog is dangerous. I'm often more careful around the little ankle biters.

It is a horrible thought to have with me constantly and worse, there is no answer.

Progress?

There is a lot going on in this country lately. We have had more dignitaries visiting in the past year than in previous 40 years I think.  Every week some VIP is visiting. And the number of tourists has shot through the roof. All very nice I’m sure and, apart from the occasional traffic jam because of a visit, there is little that disrupts normal life.

This morning I was watching one of the local channels. I usually don’t watch this but since we were leaving for school shortly after, I couldn’t be bothered changing the channel.

To my utter surprise I saw a promotion for Engelbert Humperdinck. Engelbert Humberdinck live in Myanmar. I thought I was dreaming. But sure enough it was there It was, the date and venue of the concert.

After my first shock wore off the only thing I could think of was that an artist must be pretty strapped for cash and/or attention to have a gig in Yangon. On second thought I realized it was a good match. His best days were in the 60’s and the Myanmar are suckers for that kind of music.

This evening when I was reading the newspaper I noticed a small article tucked away at the end of the paper mentioning the coming of Engelbert Humperdinck again. This time it not only mentioned date and place but also prices. And what prices they were. Western prices! Tickets are 70,000; 100,000; and 150,000 kyats . Roughly translated that would be $80; $120; and $170. In a country where the average salary is about $40 those prices can be called steep indeed. The local most famous rock band (Iron Cross) who have been around for ages  and still going strong usually sell their tickets around 5,000 to 10,000 kyats.