my my

The first real week of school is almost over. We've had a graduation dinner and I've run around like never before. Apparently it is a great way to lose weight since everybody is commenting on me looking thinner. Maybe i need to keep this level of stress up but I' rather spend some time planning my lessons properly and going home on time.

Since going home on time is my goal for the day, I do keep this short. I've lots of work to correct though and I might even get around to switching on the laptop later. In that case, I might be tempted to write something more than just an update note here....

A snake in the back yard

Yesterday when I arrived home Xenne ran outside to tell me the news.. we had a snake in the garden. 

Apparently it came via the mango tree from the garden next door. That house had been empty for a while and the garden hadn't been maintained well even before  that.

KK killed it eventually but he said it hadn't been easy. The snake was fast and he said it was of the poisonous kind. Mmm, glad I wasn't there. I did see it this morning though; a long, thin, green-and-white snake.

This morning, the mango tree lost several of its branches, especially the big one that reached our roof. I hope that after the huge black ants who also came from that mango tree, and now the snake, the mango tree will host no more guests who we rather do without.

Too busy

School has started at least for the teachers. Students will come on Wednesday. It seems like everybody wants a slice of my time. So, updating this si not a high priority.

But, we have bought a secondhand Wii this weekend. Better for teh kdis since the rainy season is still in full swing.

We also have two young cats (about 6 months old). We were at another branch of  our favorite teashop and Xenne saw a big orange tomcat he wanted to take home. I said jokingly he had to ask the owner of the shop. This man we usually see at our own place so Xenne knew him. He went straight there and asked for a cat. The owner said 'yes' and before I knew it one of the boys brought 2 cats. Which one Xenne wanted? eventually we decided to come back the next day since we had no box or anything to put the cat or cats in.

The next morning we got ourselves 2 cats (Xenne wanted them both) and in the taxi he named one 'Candy' and the other "Jinger' (Ginger). When I left this morning, the ladies were buttonholed next to the Buddha upstairs...

Finally, working internet but no time to post

Internet has been terribly slow of late. I did try to log on yesterday from home but it was an exercise in futility.

Now, internet is working but i have been running around for most of the day at school. Catching up on so many things that needed to be done. Especially since the computers and server were cleaned and therefore were unavailable for use at the end of last week.

It is almost half past 4 in the afternoon and I've just had a chace to check my email. I'll post this, then go shopping. We're out of diapers, wet wipes, and milk.

frustration

The internet has been slower than slow these last days. You can get a cup of coffee, wait for it to cool enough to drink, drink, and go for a second round.. By that time of course the connection has timed out...   I spend my time playing Spider Solitaire just to keep frustration at bay long enough to try and read my mail and maybe, maybe post this...

'New' shopping mall

We're at the shopping mall that is close to our house. We can walk here in about 15 minutes (Xenne's pace and stroller dictated). The place has been here for 4-5 years already but we never really visited. They didn't have a supermarket and somehow we forgot about it.

Since it is 'summer' holiday (more like rainy season holiday but at school we western teachers still refer to it as summer holiday) we decided to walk over and have a look around. We hadn't been for quite some time and someone told us it now  had a supermarket and even a playground.

It turns out that that is all true. Even better, the playground is much bigger than the one at Ocean where we usually go. Ok, this one is $1,20 to get inside but you do have a fair bit of space to run around in, climb over, swing, and more. The supermarket is there too though it doesn't look terribly big. We;ll have a look around there a little later.

But best of all, there is also a small bookstore (with a few english titles in photocopy form but heck they cost next to nothing) and a good myanmar selection. Next to the bookstore is an internet cafe. And all that is on the same floor, just around the corner of the playground.

So now we have everything we want very close to our house. The walk here is also interesting and it is a walk through small streets. We encountered 2 bicycles and 1 car. So very easy to do with Xenne and Eaindra.

Conspiracy!

The last time I had a night of uninterrupted sleep must have been way before Eaindra was born. She turned 1 last week.

Of course one knows that sleep is a treasured commodity when you have a baby. It is also common knowledge that the weeks before a baby is due, mama gets very little sleep since it is terribly difficult to be comfortable with such a huge baby-tummy. 

Our little one hasn’t mastered the art of sleeping through the night yet. In December she was well on her way with waking me up only once or twice a night. Then she got a cold and all bets were off.

Ever since that time, something will happen to make sure I will not get even 5 hours of continuous sleep. If it isn’t Eaindra than someone else or even something else will make sure I’m awoken before those precious hours have past. Like the last couple of days. Eaindra was doing well and I seemed to be on my way of getting a few hours of real sleep when something woke me. Xenne had sju-sju-ed in his bed so up we got and changed his bedding. He was asleep again real fast.  Great.  Unfortunately  Eaindra was wide awake by that time. It took me another 2 hours to get her back to sleep well enough so I could put her down. She has the habit of sensing exactly when I let her go and usually wakes up right there and then and I can start all over again.

The next night Xenne was trashing around in his bed and eventually crawled into ours. Of course, that woke me up but I wasn’t sleeping much anyway because of his continuous moving about. I got him back to sleep, checked on EAindra and found she had followed her big brother’s example: she was all wet. Luckily the bed wasn’t really so we didn’t need to change everything this time. For me, the interruptions weren’t over because KK decided to snore loudly that night. Horror!

The evening after the power was cut at 7 pm. This happens sometimes and normally we have power again shortly after and it is rare that it lasts a couple of hours. Xenne and Eaindra went to bad easily so my hopes were up. At 9 pm we had a flicker of light but the power stayed off. Again at somewhere just after 10 pm. Shortly after I decided to go to bed. I thought I’d switched off all the lights but at about half past one I woke up because of a light I’d forgotten and the aircon switching on. I closed the windows that I had opened earlier and went back to sleep. At about 12, Eaindra had put in an appearance for a bottle already so I didn’t have to worry about that. At somewhere between 3 and 4 I woke up again because I was hot. The power was off again and I realized that it was easier to turn off the aircon and open the windows again. All stayed quiet untl 6 am when the kids woke up….

The last 2 days I’ve had  only had a night-time bottle for  Eaindra at around 1 am, a quick check when either one of them is uneasy in their sleep (they seem to alternate this between the two of them) and the 6 o’clock waking up of either Xenne or Eaindra. It looks like we’re slowly getting back to a more normal sleep pattern.

Needless to say that KK sleeps through  most of this and usually only wakes up when called upon urgently or shaken awake. 

Cooking classes

KK has a friend who is a chef and he got him enrolled in a cooking course. Now KK has always loved cooking but he didn't like trying new recipes since he finds it difficult to read them.

Now, he goes to school every day during the week and comes home with food he learned to prepare at school. In the weekends, his friend comes over to help him prepare dishes we like to learn and aren't taught at school.

So, yesterday when I came home after having visited a friend I came home to a kitchen in a state I haven't seen it in ever before. But, there were chappati's, curries to go with it for me, spare-ribs and steaks (for KK and the older kids) and specially made gulash for Eiandra and Xenne. We have so much food, we don't need to cook for a few days... and it tastes so good. Well, I don't really know about the meat dishes of course. They looked very good indeed and I heard only very happy sounds while everyone was eating.

I'm especially happy that KK now knows how to make chappatti's. The potato curry that accompanied it and the spicy mint-chutney are absolutely delicious.

Yes, I'm a happy camper indeed...

Taxis

(Found this in my 'drafts' box. The joy of regular interruptions with the connection and/or electricity)

I actually wrote this last year during the rainy season and never got around to actually posting it. And it is still as valid as it was last year... Taxis haven't improved much. Though it is slightly easier to get a Parami Taxi (very decent with drivers who actually can drive. And Xenne loves to have these taxis). But the antique, striped-down to metal casing-and-wheels-kind of car is also still around much more then they should...

Let me tell you about the average Yangon taxi… Where do I begin? The other day, we came back from downtown. It had rained so here and there it was rather wet. I hadn’t given it much thought since the downpour had happened an hour or so before. We were halfway home when suddenly I feel a lot of yucky-icky wet-something over my feet. I look down and gaze straight at the street. Between my, unconsciously strategically positioned feet, there was a neat, round whole in the bottom of the car. I checked KK side and he too had the same extra aircon…. I was luckier than I though. Apparently there was no puddle on his side.

Taxis here range from decently luxurious (aircon and everything working) and we all prefer those if we get them. Unfortunately, there is never a taxi like that around when you need one. The majority though is of an altogether different kind. I’m by now so used to not having a handle to turn the window down that I automatically search for it in the ‘i-dump everything here place’ between the 2 front seats. You attach it to the little ‘pin’ that sticks out and you can actually lower your window or turn it up depending on your need. Sometimes this doesn’t help though. And then you just push down the window. The taxi driver can always literally pull the window back up later when he has time.

The seats range from ‘have been around since the first days of automotive travel to a little more recent, say 20 years ago. And as for the interior… I’ve been in taxis more than once where there was nothing left of the inside of the doors apart from the metal casing. You just lean out of the window and yank or the driver gets out and opens the door for you…. If doors don’t really budge when they should, I already give a big shove without even thinking about it…

The part that I like (or sometimes definitely not like) is when the most striped-down taxi wants double the price for a trip because I’m a westerner. I do know that the taxi drivers rent the car from the owner and that they have to pay all costs as long as they are driving the car. And a Junior driver (no matter if he is in his 60s or 20s) starts with the oldest car in the owners fleet until he has proven himself. But hey, I don’t have a money tree in the backyard either. Now it is even worse. It is rainy season and my my, prices have already gone up again… Which is especially nice when you have negotiated and get into the car, only to find that the driver hadn’t closed his windows when it last rained… I’ve had a few wet bums lately and I’m sure to have a few more before this season is over… But I am forward now to check the bottom of the car. Just in case we hit another puddle…

Update on the hospital experience

On Wednesday we had an appointment at 6:30 pm. We were on time but this time we didn't have to pay the 1,000 ks ($1,20) for 'services' aka having one of the nurses measure your weight, blood pressure, and temperature while 3 of them are watching.

At half past 7 we finally met the lady who was going to do the operation. First of all we had the normal preliminaries of report reading, checking of Thandar's tongue and a but of question-and-answer. She then asked us if it was possible to come in on Sunday at 5 am for the actual operation. 5 am ?! I told her that that was way too early. Sorry.

Ok, half past 9 on Thursday (yesterday) the? Ok, that would work. Thandar could drink things like ovaltine and milk up to 3:30 am and juice or water till 5:30. So I asked her if she was going to give her a general anesthetic? No no, but Thandar might be nauseous after and this could help her. Ok, sure enough. The lady kept on being vague though about what she would do ultil after a good while she told us that she would give Thandar a local painkiller-shot and that would be it. Then, minutes after she said she was going to insert a small tube like one used for babies and she made motions like it was something she would do in her hand like a drip or so. It satyed quite vague but oh well. So we did make that appointment for the next day.

We got Thandar some juice in the early morning and she and I went to the hospital on time. The nurses had asked us to come at 8:30 for preparations.

We had to come to the nurses room first so that was what we did. We were then escorted back to the general reception area for the necessary 1,000 ks fee for services. That paid, we were taken to the cashier. The nurse who accompanied us told me I had to pay a deposit. I thought I could understand this since not everyone has money in Myanmar and this might be the hospital's way of making sure they got paid.

The amount I had to fork over was mentioned in Burmese. I thought I'd heard it wrong. After all, my Myanmar is rather lousy. So I asked them if I had heard it correct and had to pay 20,000 ks (about $22) deposit? So far on all our visits over those 4 days I had only once paid 16,000 ks (about $17) and that was for the hearing test. Every other time it had been a couple of dollars. No, said the woman behind the desk 200,0000 ks. Excuse me? I wrote it on my hand just to make sure. Yes, 200,000 ks. ($240). I was in shock. For one thing, I think they should have told me it was so much before. Second, it was a deposit. What about the total price? Nobody could say but if the procedure was less expensive, they would give me back the remainder. Yeah, and what if it is more?But, they said, we needed to pay for the surgeon, the operation room and all these things... It sounded like she was scheduled for open heart surgery.

I cancelled the appointment right there and then. Sorry.

So, now we're going to ask around at some other places and in Thailand. The biggest drawback is that this place has a speech therapist and it is close to our home. Of course, we also wasted a fair couple of hours there as well.

Yuck spiders

Yesterday while talking to hubby, he told me that a couple of days before he had killed a big spider in our bathroom. Nice. Thank you very much. That was more than I wanted to know.

He said not to worry. The bigger one was in the dining room and that one was history too. He now claims there are no spiders in the house anymore. Something that I find very hard to believe and know not to be true since we have two daddy-long-legs hanging in the bathroom. Then again, these are not what I consider big spiders.

When we first moved into the house there was a spider the size of a bathroom wall-tile right next to the sink. Now I keep checking even more thorough when I enter. I don't want to be surprised again. I know how big spiders can get here, I've seen a few examples. Luckily not too many (yet). The huge cockroaches are bad enough. The joy of living in a tropical climate .....

Hospital excercises

The last 3 days we've been to one of the private hospitals/clinics here in Yangon. This place is fairly well known and not very far from our place.

The first time we went, I wanted all three kids to see the doctor. Eaindra has a diaper rash that is rather persistent, I wanted to know if Xenne needed his next vaccination, and Thandar is literally tongue-tied.

I'd been to this place before and in general I rated it as quite good. It is new, clean, and at those times the doctors were knowledgeable and efficient.

This time the waiting room was so full I wondered if we would ever make it before lunch -time (we came in at about 10). All three kids were checked by the nurses of which there must have been at least 5 in the room. Then we went for a sort of screening by a doctor who just wrote down in the booklets why we were there and then we could return to our wait.

3 hours later we were finally in the doctor's office. It was liking being in a factory. While he was dictating to 2 staff members (one in front of his table and one on the side) about the patient who he just examined, the next patient was led to a chair next to him. He then turned his attention to us (being the next patients) and started to talk to me about Eaindra, Xenne, and Thandar. Like most doctors, his english was very good so there was no problem of communication. While he was busy with us, the next patient was ushered into the room already. I have been in that office twice this week and I think that on average there are at least 10 people in there.

He did ask me some strange questions about Eiandra I thought, like whether she gets a bath regularly and things like that. But that might just be something to do with experience on his side...  Xenne and Eaindra were sorted quickly and for Thandar we needed to make an appointment for a hearing test.

The hearing test was yesterday and that was all fine. Luckily. The facilities were good and the waiting time was not very long. When we came down again though I wanted to make an appointment for her to have that tongue tie cut and the follow up of a meeting with the speech therapist. The reception wouldn't budge, I had to see the same doctor again.

So this morning back to the hospital. We were number 19 on the waiting list. We had to go through the hoops again of nurse's room with the measurements of temperature, blood pressure and so on and the screening doctor. Then we settled in for a wait. Again. We arrived at 9 and at just before 10 we saw the doctor we came to see only for him to ask us why we came to him since he would only refer us to someone else. I told him I tried but the reception wouldn't budge. He showed me why. In the booklet the doctor who had done the hearing test had referred us back. And that was the only thing those ladies had looked for...  Thinking skills are not necessarily involved. He apologized though for the time wasted.

So, later today we have to go again. And I'll give you updates on how we're progressing..

Every time we come into that hospital, we have to pay 1,000 ks (about $1.20) to just be allowed to wait. Or so it feels like. It might be that we pay the money for another reason but I haven't been able to come up with one yet.