Cultural differences...

First of all, we have moved. And are now trying to have everything the way we want in the new house. We still have loads of work to do of course but the initial stages are over.

When we arranged for the house with the owner, we agreed that we would paint the inside of the house. I prefer that since we can choose the colours and he gave us free reign so we can make the kids room nice and colourful. Much better than the colours that the burmese usually prefer. Their favourite colour for indoor walls reminds me of old hospitals. It is that colour of green...

They also love pink indoors and outdoors. The owner said he would paint the front of the house. I assumed he meant the front of the HOUSE. So when KK said that he had painted it pink (and I mean PINK) I envisioned a brightly painted pink house. Well, the owner apparently understand the the FRONT of the house. So the house still has paint peeling off at places but the wall around the house is now pink. Inside and out..........

Ok, loads of shopping to do. We have more space and more rooms so also need more rubbish bins and so on...

We also have to go and see about a puppy. Someone offered me a  pup last week. They have 7 pups. A mix between an Alsatian and another big dog. The pups are 2 weeks old and I think it would be good for the kids to have a first look...

Moving

We've found a new house and we'll be moving soon. We're waiting for the 'repair team' to finish their job. They are repairing and renewing all the electricity stuff in the new house. The owner has already painted the outside. I'm not too thrilled by his colour choice (pink) but oh well...  The house is big. There is plenty of room upstairs (2 master bedrooms, a single bedroom, a buddha room and something that can be used as a study) and downstairs there is a dining room, a loving room, one more master bedroom, and a decent sized kitchen (unlike the cramped space we have now). Outside there is another kitchen (which is great. No more awful smells in the house when fish or chillies are fried...), a squat toilet, a small space (for washing machine and such i think). There is also a separate garage with a room above it. It feels too good to be true. I only hope the electricity supply will be good.

It was much easier to find another place then we had anticipated. Last time we looked for a place we spend more than a month looking for something decent. And at the beginning of every school year we hear the sighs and complaints from the new people (or the ones who need to move). Prices are going up drastically every year and I don't think that that will change soon. Especially now more and more people are interested in this country. There is not a lot of good housing for foreigners. There are a few service flats and condos and I've heard that prices there are now way beyond what we teachers can afford. We had a couple living in such a place 2 years ago but I doubt they would do so now.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. Electricity, a working phone line, easy to get a taxi when needed.. we do not have to many demands really.

Early march we need to leave the house we're living in now. The owners don't want to let it (to us) anymore. Which is quite alright with us since we already wanted to leave 6 months ago. Then, it was not easy to leave with a 2 week-old child.

The roof of the house is leaking constantly during the rainy season (which is 6 months of the year!) and, even though it was repaired several times last year, we had leakages again and again. The house is just so badly maintained...

So we're trying to find something new. Which is quite difficult. Since Nargis and the resulting influx of NGO's house prices (apartments and all) have sky-rocketed...  The worst is that you don't get much for the huge amount of money that you pay. And you usually have to pay a whole year in advance...

Oh oh. time to leave. Will write more on the house-hunting...

Phone bill and other troubles

Every once in a while we have phone troubles. Usually this means that a maintenance guy has removed your connection somewhere and he will come for a repair job a day or so later. You don't have to pay him for the repair job but you do own him 'tea money'. He plugs the connection back in and that is the end of your problem.

This time we started off with this problem. It was fixed fairly soon and we had a working line for a few days. Then a new kind of problem arose. We had paid the phone bill but apparently, we paid an old one again. Someone at the phone company made a mistake apparently since we paid last months bill twice. You have to go to the office to pay cash and that was what was done. Now we are able to receive calls but can't make any. So no internet at home again...

Not sure whether we have the outstanding bill completely too or whether they will correct the error and we pay the difference. Offices here are very loathe to correct errors...

As always... not enough time

It is difficult to keep the blog up as we had visitors right after we came back from Bangkok. They left on Wednesday afternoon the second week of January and now we have an aunt if mine over for 3 weeks. So time is rather in short supply....

After all the trouble we had in Bangkok (and yes post WILL come) I had an email from the embassy the other day. They were very sorry but due to circumstances, they'd lost my date (and fingerprints which we do need nowadays). Luckily, someone from the embassy will come to Burma shortly and bring me an emergency passport. I have no more empty pages in my current passport. That trip was doomed to fail... :The one good thing is that our daughter now has an emergency passport so we can leave if necessary.

It takes a little longer

Yesterday, I started on my account about our Bangkok trip but there is just so much to tell. And we were all tired when we got back. Not to mention that Eaindra had a bit of a temperature and the laundry was a massive mountain of work.

School started again today and hopefully we can all settle back into our 'routine'. I'll try and post about Bangkok and Eindra not being allowed into Thailand tonight.

What a trip

First of all: a happy, healthy, and wonderful 2012 to all of you!

We're just  back from a 5-day trip to Bangkok. It was supposed to be a trip to get Eaindra her passport and a new passport for me and Xenne and after that, we would do some relaxing, visit the zoo (we'd promised Xenne to go) and just have a bit of a holiday since we haven't had some downtime for a long, long time. It was extremely stressful and we're all so incredibly tired... I'll write the full report separately and post it later today or tomorrow.

The positive is that Eaindra has an emergency passport and we have our visas and our new passports will be send to the German Embassy here where we can pick them up in a week or 2.