| Dinner & Demolition | |
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Kim and I were itching to have a day in the kitchen so we invited a group of new friends over for a big family dinner. As Kim created magic in the kitchen I ran back and forth to the store across the street retrieving different ingredients that were forgotten about on our big shopping trip. Music blaring, water boiling, and broom sweeping, we danced the day away in the kitchen. The evening was spent with a large group of our new friends sitting around the table enjoying every bite of Kim’s delicious feast. For most of them this was the first time having any sort of actual American food (or food from home as we like to call it) since arriving and it was beyond appreciated. The buffet was set with slice roasted pork, French style red wine braised beef, garlic mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, honey glazed carrots, potato salad, and fresh garden salad. As Nora Jones sang out from the speakers and wine filling our glasses the night drifted along at an easy pace. But this was nothing compared to what was happening right before they arrived.
About an hour before everyone was set to arrive I pulled out our table to the middle of the room and expanded it to ready it for the large crowd we had coming. No more than a few seconds later, there was a big drip of water that splashed all over the table. Shortly after, another one followed on the other end of the table. See we have two consistent drips in our kitchen ceiling which have been mildly annoying up until this point but we had been told that there was no use fixing it in rainy season. But tonight this would just not do. So I sent Kim down to the office to see if someone could come up and put some more packing tape over it (I would have gladly just done this myself if we had packing tape and a latter but alas). Surprisingly Kim came back a short while later followed by three workers. I say surprisingly because things almost never happen immediately here, it is always “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow” aka sometime in the distant future after you have asked at least three more times –or- “Please wait for me” aka I will come at the most inconvenient time you could possibly imagine most likely in another month or two.
In they came, the three workers, and Kim got back to cooking as I attempted to ask them to put more tape over the cracks that were leaking. I thought they understood when they left only to return with a latter and three more people. As one of them took to looking at the ceiling the rest stood or sat around watching. Apparently here repairs are a spectator sport. Since we had so many extra helpers I decided to tell them about the leak in the spare bathroom coming from the shower area. Silly me to think that one of the extra people would work on it, instead they called down the guy who was working on the ceiling, off the latter and into the bathroom. After some more scurrying around the one worker person was compounding the bathroom tile as his audience watched idling around him.
With the bathroom now covered in compound (because it wasn’t enough just to put it over the leaky area – it had to cover the entire floor and toilet too), the one worker guy got back on the latter to inspect the ceiling some more. No sooner had he gotten up there were bits of plaster falling all over. He decided that he needed to get a good look at the situation and to do so meant pulling down all of the plaster that was put in place to “fix” the leak long ago. I hastily grabbed the dinnerware from the table as chunks began dropping from the ceiling. He apparently felt satisfied in what he was seeing because he came back off the latter and went with a few of the helpers to retrieve some more tools. When they returned I stepped out of the bedroom with hopes that they had found some tape but what I saw instead was a handsaw about to go through my ceiling. I frantically screamed at them to stop and with wild hand gestures and muddled English tried to explain to them that I was having a dinner party and the guests were set to arrive in 15 minutes. Somehow I managed to finally get through that all I wanted for “now” was it to be taped and they can cut “tomorrow.” Relief came when they finally sent someone who returned with tape and patched up the drips with a temporary fix.
Of course tomorrow came and of course the workers did not. We gave them until Tuesday when Kim went down to the office and demanded someone to come up again. “Yes, yes. Very soon.” After returning the office hours later Kim stayed until someone followed her up to the apartment. Making sure they were all set she left to run to the grocery store. Returning a few hours later she saw the horrid sight of two gapping holes in our ceiling, but what was even worse was Kim’s knife sitting on the table now covered with plaster dust and bent at the tip. Yes, they had used one of her brand new professional chef’s knifes to cut a hole in the ceiling. Needless to say Kim was furious and rightly so. On top of everything they hadn’t even fixed the leaks! We can handle quite a lot with a good amount of grace and patience but this was one epic fail Myanmar.
About an hour before everyone was set to arrive I pulled out our table to the middle of the room and expanded it to ready it for the large crowd we had coming. No more than a few seconds later, there was a big drip of water that splashed all over the table. Shortly after, another one followed on the other end of the table. See we have two consistent drips in our kitchen ceiling which have been mildly annoying up until this point but we had been told that there was no use fixing it in rainy season. But tonight this would just not do. So I sent Kim down to the office to see if someone could come up and put some more packing tape over it (I would have gladly just done this myself if we had packing tape and a latter but alas). Surprisingly Kim came back a short while later followed by three workers. I say surprisingly because things almost never happen immediately here, it is always “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow” aka sometime in the distant future after you have asked at least three more times –or- “Please wait for me” aka I will come at the most inconvenient time you could possibly imagine most likely in another month or two.
In they came, the three workers, and Kim got back to cooking as I attempted to ask them to put more tape over the cracks that were leaking. I thought they understood when they left only to return with a latter and three more people. As one of them took to looking at the ceiling the rest stood or sat around watching. Apparently here repairs are a spectator sport. Since we had so many extra helpers I decided to tell them about the leak in the spare bathroom coming from the shower area. Silly me to think that one of the extra people would work on it, instead they called down the guy who was working on the ceiling, off the latter and into the bathroom. After some more scurrying around the one worker person was compounding the bathroom tile as his audience watched idling around him.
With the bathroom now covered in compound (because it wasn’t enough just to put it over the leaky area – it had to cover the entire floor and toilet too), the one worker guy got back on the latter to inspect the ceiling some more. No sooner had he gotten up there were bits of plaster falling all over. He decided that he needed to get a good look at the situation and to do so meant pulling down all of the plaster that was put in place to “fix” the leak long ago. I hastily grabbed the dinnerware from the table as chunks began dropping from the ceiling. He apparently felt satisfied in what he was seeing because he came back off the latter and went with a few of the helpers to retrieve some more tools. When they returned I stepped out of the bedroom with hopes that they had found some tape but what I saw instead was a handsaw about to go through my ceiling. I frantically screamed at them to stop and with wild hand gestures and muddled English tried to explain to them that I was having a dinner party and the guests were set to arrive in 15 minutes. Somehow I managed to finally get through that all I wanted for “now” was it to be taped and they can cut “tomorrow.” Relief came when they finally sent someone who returned with tape and patched up the drips with a temporary fix.
Of course tomorrow came and of course the workers did not. We gave them until Tuesday when Kim went down to the office and demanded someone to come up again. “Yes, yes. Very soon.” After returning the office hours later Kim stayed until someone followed her up to the apartment. Making sure they were all set she left to run to the grocery store. Returning a few hours later she saw the horrid sight of two gapping holes in our ceiling, but what was even worse was Kim’s knife sitting on the table now covered with plaster dust and bent at the tip. Yes, they had used one of her brand new professional chef’s knifes to cut a hole in the ceiling. Needless to say Kim was furious and rightly so. On top of everything they hadn’t even fixed the leaks! We can handle quite a lot with a good amount of grace and patience but this was one epic fail Myanmar.
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| Snakes on Campus | |
It’s cobra birthing season. Who would have known? Twice this week they have found snakes on campus, in my building! Apparently they were just little baby snakes that can’t even open their mouths large enough to bite anyone but try telling that to Kim. Knowing her fear of snakes I decided to keep this information to myself, however Sharon spilled the beans and I was met at the apartment door on Tuesday with a bug-eyed Kim holding a knife and insisting I check all of my bags for snakes before I enter the house. This greeting kept consistent for the next couple days. Apparently this is a common thing here, last year they had a huge issue and were finding snakes in lockers and backpacks. They ended up closing school for a day or so to have a specialist come in. Good thing I don’t mind the little slithery creatures.
| The Doctor's Office | |
Early in the week Kim had a small break out of eczema on her hand. For those of you who don’t know her, she has been fighting regular breakouts of sever hand eczema for over a dozen years not. During a break out her hands go through stages of itchy, uncomfortable, painful, dry, and much worse. I don’t want to be too graphic so I will leave it at that. Any who, although we have yet to find a cure or preventative for the eczema, sometimes if she gets to the doctors in time she can get medication to slow down the process. So on Wednesday afternoon we found ourselves headed down the road to Asia Pacific, the local clinic that was highly recommended to us by other ISM teachers. After waiting just under five minutes (as a walk in) we were escorted to the patient room where the doctor quickly arrived. As Kim explained the situation the doctor patiently listened and asked questions. After examining her hand the doctor brought back a few medications for her (anti-inflammatory, steroid cream, solution to sterilize the open wound, etc.) then insisted that we return in a few days if the hand wasn’t better.
The appointment took all of one hour including walking time. The total amount paid for the appointment was $15 usd and the medication was another $8. It was the easiest experience I have every had with a medical situation – no unnecessary tests or vitals, no irrelevant questions or fancy words, simply listening to the patient and providing the necessary care in a (much) timely fashion. We could get used to this.
| Zoo | |
On Thursday Kim went to the Zoo with Sharon and the two kids, H & K. In Kim’s recount of it, the zoo was kind of depressing. The housing for the animals was very bleak with little vegetation. The animals themselves were few and not very exciting. The word is that when they moved the capital from Yangon to a no-ones town up north they took all the “good” and “interesting” animals with them to create a zoo up there. On the bright side it was a fun adventure especially for the little ones. I will have to go back with Kim sometime and have a look for myself. Kim only got a few pictures before the camera died unfortunately.
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| Open House | |
On Thursday evening I had an Open House at the High School. It was my first time interacting with any parents (aside from the lunch that the PTA held for us when we first arrived). The experience was kind of dull seeing as I only got 5 parent visitors in to see me, which is about average as the school tends to have very low turn outs at parent events like this. Although all of my students speak very good English from having been in this international school setting for so long, the majority of the parents do not speak any English. Luckily I had my assistant with me to translate but it was still a bit awkward to know what to talk about. Surprisingly most of the parents wanted to know about how to get their kids set up to take AP Art courses. More surprising is the fact that these kids are only in 9th grade right now. (Seniors, occasionally juniors, take AP courses as preparation for college) Students and parents at this school have somehow gotten the idea that the more AP classes the student takes, the better chance they have for getting into college. It is a crazy sort of epidemic that many of the teachers and administration here have a difficult time figuring out what to do with.
Although I don't have any pictures from this night, here is a slideshow that I played for the parents throughout the evening of the students working so far this year:
Although I don't have any pictures from this night, here is a slideshow that I played for the parents throughout the evening of the students working so far this year:
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