Changes

A lot has been going on here in Myanmar. Tomorrow, Hillary Clinton will arrive and even here in School someone mentioned it. She's another high-profile person in a line-up of well-known/important people to visit the country.

Another, smaller, change but with, for us, more direct potential is that the first ATM's have been installed in Yangon. Ok, you can't do much with them yet except withdraw money from an account with the particular bank that has that ATM (the few private banks are all installing ATMs). But the planning is that somewhere next year the ATM's give access to any bank account (with a Myanmar bank). Hopefully the service will be extended to a 'normal' ATM service so tourists don't have to worry about bringing enough dollars anymore. And i'd love to be able to deposit my money in a bank account and be able to withdraw when necessary. Even better, pay-on-the-go. Every weekend we go shopping and every weekend we stand at the counter wondering whether we have enough kyats. Even though you have a whole packet of them in your purse.

We can also access youtube now which is wonderful. Not that the internet connection is usually fast enough for it to be of any real use but hey, sometimes....

And pictures of a certain lady are now seen even on the front page of the newspaper. And her face is plastered all over town since posters of her are now being sold openly next to posters of her father.

They may be small changes but changes none the less.

November 19

Today we went on a day trip to Bago. We went with several teachers from school and it was really really nice to go and do something like that again. It has been a while since we did (day)trips. Last year of course a trip to Bagan but that was almost a year ago.

While we were driving into the countryside I was thinking to myself how I love Myanmar outside of Yangon. Yangon has never been my favourite place in Burma and I was reminded of that again today. Of course, it is nice to be able to get loads of western food stuff here 9thanks to the City Mart supermarket chain) but I also realised that I get annoyed at not having things like power just because I expect a city like Yangon to have a regular power supply (or other things that you expect to have). I wouldn't mind things missing so much if it was normal not to have them (I remember that from my travel time).

Bago is still very nice. I don't like the main street so much but they have some beautiful houses around there. We didn't go into Shwethatalyaung Pagoda since we were asked to pay $10 each (the non-Myanmar). Ok, it would give us entrance to a few other sites but we weren't going to visit many places anyway. While arriving at the Paya though,I had that strange feeling you sometimes have of recollecting an experience. I remembered how I loved visiting new places when I was still traveling by myself. The freedom of lingering as long as you wanted, exploring wherever you wanted to go, not having to pay attention to anyone. I miss it. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to trade my time now for anything but I think that as soon as the kids are older, backpacking will be back on our travel calender.

Our organiser was bend on drinking palm juice. That's were we were heading after lunch. With 2 preschoolers and 2 preteens included in the party, sitting on a mat while some people drink palm juice (which is slightly alcoholic) is not something that you can do for too long. So we left a group behind and went to visit the Snake Pagoda. I hadn't been there for a while. Last I heard the snake was dead. The snake turned out to be alive after all. Not extremely active but our science teacher says it is hugely overfed and under exercised. It is enormous though. While I was inside the enclosure with the kids (all 5 of them) the snake moved its head and 'tasted' the air. Xenne wasn't at all afraid of it but I was the more afraid for him. Not that it would harm him I'm sure (they told me years ago that the snake eats 12 chickens a week...which seems more than enough), but it is a big snake (about 5 meters).

The monastery looks a whole lot different from the last time I was there (which must have been somewhere in 2007). Then, the monastery looked almost forgotten. Now there was a huge entrance gate, a big open space to park the bus, a covered area on the side with 2 big cars which obviously belonged to the monastery. It felt strange.

Our little one was so easy during the trip. Not yet four months and she cried not even once. The other two had a great time. It helped that both had a playmate of around the same age. It is something we should do more often.

Electricity (or the lack of...)

X was watching TV the other day and the Power Puff Girls were on. Mama, he said, look the Power Out Girls! Of course I had to laugh.... But he has a point. The past two years the electricity was pretty goo din our neighbourhood. We had our share of the power outages but they usually occurred in daytime. Lately, we have many outages and at all times. In the evening they are still usually not more than half an hour but on Tuesday the power went off at 4:30 in the afternoon and was still not on when I left for work the next day.

Now I'm only hoping that we won't get the same situation as a few years ago. We went on a power supply schedule that started in early November and lasted till early June. We were living in a condo building at the time and eventually we got a separate cable supplying the elevator. We had no power from 5 am till between 5-6 pm for two days and then the third day we got electricity at around 11 am till 5 pm. Then we sat in the dark until 11 pm when the power would come back on. We started that time with an inverter so we still had lights and could use the TV but that thing only lasted for 2 months...

Now we have a small generator outside. It makes one hell of a noise but fans and light work so I'm pretty happy. Though, of course, you can't let it run the whole night... I keep my fingers crossed that it won't get any worse.

Nice resolotions but...

it is quite obvious that I have other priorities at the moment....

Luckily in Yangon we don't have any of the problems with flooding that are now happening in Bangkok. Though there are some parts of Burma where there are problems. There was a flash flood in Pakkoku (across the Ayeryawaddy from Bagan) apparently which was mentioned in the newspapers and quite a few people died. Nobody seems to know why the river flooded so fast.

And there are some problems in other parts of the country. But am not exactly sure where.

But as said before, Yangon is fine. We still have rain every so many days but it doesn't cause any trouble. Hopefully things will get better soon in all the areas, both in Burma and elsewhere, where floods are now.

And the other part that I wanted to post the other day...

I'd planned to write a nice observation on something or another tonight but am too tired. Of course we have the normal family things going on. Thandar went over to a friend's house on Saturday. That was a new experience for all of us. She did miss home a little I think since she called 3 times for various reasons. Xenne and I made apple-cinnamon muffins from a banana-nut recipe. I sometimes have to improvise a bit here. This time Kyaw Kyaw was supposed to bring bananans but had too much shopping stuff already. It was a very good experiment and there are 2 only muffins left. I also made some oat- and wholemeal buns. That was also something I was asked to do again. And true, they taste great. Baking bread and cookies is something I do more and more. Especially since everybody here likes it when I do it. You can get good quality bread here prices start between 4 and $4. Not to mention that you have to take a taxi either to one of the big hotels or to Sharkey's and you enjoy bread for about $8. That is a bit much I think. Besides, This way I can bake whatever I want. And those oat-whole meal buns are definitely not to be had elsewhere.

Then today we did our shopping, I corrected a Maths test and some homework. For dinner I made an impromptu 'pesto' -sauce to top the pizza. That took em a little longer than I expected but the result was great. KK and Thandar especially were almost fighting over the last bits.

When Thandar had her first taste of western food (pasta) she said she didn't like it. Now, she asks me every other day when I'll be cooking and baking next.... It seems I'm doing something right in the kitchen...

Finally I got my stuff together (I hope)

This is what I wrote the 29th of September....

It is funny. For the better part of a year I haven't written anything on this blog. It seemed to be so pointless with me only being able to update the blog when I was on a visa run to Thailand. Now my mind is reeling with the possibilities and of course, having found out the site is no longer blocked, I can't resist writting a little tonight (Tuesday). This is by no means a guarantee that the blog will be kept up in future. I have to admit that an family extension from one child to three children makes time even more of a precious commodity but now at least when I do write something, I have the possibility of posting it as well......

Now, with the whole world at my fingertips (well, Yangon at least) what shall I write about? I think I'll spend a good night's sleep on that. Provided Eaindra will let me. So far she's been the easiest baby ever. 2 months old and sleeps an easy 6 hours a night. Admittedly, not always the most convenient hours for me but even that seems to be changing. The last 2 nights she wanted to be fed at around midnight. She woke again at 3 and 5:30 two nights ago. Last night (or better said: this morning) she came at 6 am. I hope she will continue to do so. Then again,.the times Eaindra lets me sleep well, Xenne wakes me up...

Shoot!!

Now I do have access I keep forgetting to bring the stuff... Today I realise I left my memory stick in the laptop at home. The other day I saved a blog update in the wrong format (still to be posted since on the forgotten memory stick). A great way to revitalize this blog....

Will try and remember to bring memory stick (with another update) tomorrow.

Btw, book week is a success so far. We get a free book for every 10,000 ks spent (about $12) but I've managed to buy the books I like from that stack for 1,000 each (including 2 Dr. Seuss books. Xenne loves those...).

Need to go home and make pasta but someone opened the big tap in the sky... You can't see much further than a few meters. But it's almost five. Wonder if I can hitch a ride in the school mini van. Mmm... worth a try.