Birthday Wish : Starting My Mobile Soup Kitchen

And so..... the celebratory month of August continues...... here comes another birthday. Need I remind anyone that I am still young and damn bloody fit? Ok, the eyes are starting to tell-tales and I just don't know what's up with those annoying white hair, but I shall will the far-sightedness away and if I can't see the whites, they're not there :P So - Happy Birthday to me and Happy Merdeka to ... Malaysia.

It had taken awhile for me to get here - but here I am finally. At this age, it's not so much about talking and dreaming (though I still do a lot of that dreaming and building castles in the air) but it's more about putting words into action. Thus, putting more meaning to this year's birthday, I'm turning another dream into action :)

I am starting a little "Mobile Soup Kitchen".... where I will cook and distribute the food to the poor and homeless around Yangon. I intend to do this once every month and because this is just me and me alone, I won't aim for the skies - it'll only be a more realistic figure of 50 packs of rice + 1 dish for a start. As I sit and write this piece here, the BKT is simmering in the kitchen and the delicious herbal smell is wafting through the apartment (hurray - it covers the smell of the open garbage dump downstairs!!). Uh-huh - auspiciously starting my mobile soup kitchen by introducing herbal porky stuff and grilled chicken to the people of Myanmar. I don't know what's the menu like for next month, but I'll strive to do this every month - fingers crossed and all.

One may wonder why I am embarking on such a project. Well, as I said, this is a long time coming. But I'm just happy that I am able to make it happen. I suppose, being a 'greedy-for-food' person has something to do with it (God knows the number of times I had been greedy and it had landed me in hot soup - case-in-point - Myanmar :P) Despite my "healthy food days", I do love to eat and I have had the privilege of living a life where I do not know what real hunger is all about. I don't think I am a fussy-eater, but I guess, the quirks I have when it comes to eating may be deemed as fussy. No fish, but I can have fish cake :P And I'm not a gourmet meal person either. I love junk food!! If I don't impose some self-discipline onto myself, I would be snacking all day long.

Anyway, I digressed.

I am doing this because I am blessed to be able to eat to my heart's content. I may not have the luxury of feasting on abalone and caviar (eweee by the way) but I always, always, always have chilli, instant noodles and potato chips in my pantry.

And in a way, I hope to inspire others to embark on the same journey. Just imagine, for someone who isn't even a real cook to begin with and who cooks a whole week in advance for MOH - to be able to put together 50 care packages for 50 poor or homeless persons says something. And if I can do it, so can anyone else - after all, I am deemed a "barely pass" housewife :P

So, here's to a meaningful celebration for all :)

4th Year Anniversary : Roaring Tiger & Meowing Lioness

To say time flies is really understating it. Unknowingly, my favourite month of the year has crept up upon us and..... let's see now....  4 years of wedded bliss!!! Woohoo!!!

As per my annual tradition, I write a piece to commemorate our wedding anniversary so here goes :)

The last one year had seen lots of things changing and happening for the both of us here in Myanmar. I suppose, the most significant being MOH's career promotion - he decided that the grass might be greener on the other side and thus jumped over to the dark side - the client's side.

With the new role for him, there happened (and is still happening) a change in tide for the both of us. In the corporate world of Myanmar, I had chosen to take a back seat, focused instead on enjoying my consultant role at City Mart and making a difference to the lives of the underprivileged children that I work with here. Whilst for MOH - as the Head of Marketing for HTC Myanmar, he is becoming quite a mini-celebrity, appearing in various print and electronic media every other day. Strangers come up to him and say "Hey, I've seen you in the papers!" where as I am "Eileen who??? Oh Richard's wife." :P I had pledged full support when he wanted to do this and I am happy to say that he does have every bit of my 100% support. I do know for a fact that this job is very challenging and stressful for him and I also know in my heart that he does not enjoy the role. For some of us agency suckers - having the opportunity to work across a few different brands and products breaks the mundane of just working on one brand.

Anyway..... his new role and new levels of stress had led me to new discoveries about MOH. Friends and loved ones, may I please present to you - Gordon Ram-See. Huh - and you guys thought I was anal... :P Uh-huh. I had personally seen him working and boy - talk about anal, bitchy, sarcastic. And still - he manages to pull it all off with a poker-face. He isn't mean or nasty, just..... a very practical but sarcastic roaring Tiger (that's the nickname his local staff had given him! Behind his back! LOL!) Even though we both treat our domestic helps very well, Li Su our house-help and Ti Lone, our driver are more afraid of him than they are of me. With me, they can climb all over my head. It also seems as though I have suddenly ceased to be the bad cop. He is now the bad cop and I love using his name in vain :P

It brings me back to a recent strongly-worded email which he sent to our evil landlord. I've been emailing the landlord, asking him to fix the leaks and indoor flooding numerous times and the last response from the landlord was "Get out of my house now!" I was going to offer the other cheek and call truce but out of nowhere, MOH sent an email which basically slapped the landlord so hard, he probably didn't know what hit him. Surprise! Surprise! Never mess with the roaring Tiger these days.

One might think that this change of tide, or how some of my friends call it - this "power shift" would be unnerving, however, it wasn't in the wee bit such. In fact, looking back, it had been a very natural transition, if I may say so myself. Actually, I don't think it is a "transition". It is just as with any relationships, we are growing to understand each other better and better. If he's late home, I have my dinner first and keep dinner warm for him. (I don't know what's the fuss about insisting to wait up to eat together? If one is hungry, one eats first! Right?) Sometimes, he walks in, pretending to be all bossy-like and demands "Where's my food?" Most times, I would ignore him - it all depends on how his face really looks when he gets home. Haha. If he spoke to me haughtily over the phone - "Where's the car??! I need the car NOW!" - I don't scream back and tell him to speak to me properly. Instead, I quickly get into the car and make a face at Ti Lone and he'll know what to do. In instances like these, I end up having to tag along to whatever meetings he has to go to and experience what it is like to be a driver-in-waiting :P Thank God for mobile data in Myanmar now, I can work out of the car :P

Literally - my 100% support means I do not stand in the way of his work. I do the laundry (and since we no longer have a cupboard - it's awesome because the clothes go straight from the clotheslines to the sofa :P), the cleaning up of indoor waterfalls and indoor pools and the freaking alien-mould, I cook..... and then I have my own work to do - which no longer feels like a part-time job, by the way. Did I mention that I no longer cook for an entire week :P After being chastised over and over again for that by my "very supportive family and dear friends", I am now cooking twice a week :P Hello! I too have work :P And for that - I am patting myself on the back three times :P

All aside, I think the mutual understanding and support we have for each other had helped grow our relationship positively. And here's what keeps both of us, ok, ok.... me... going despite the utterly busy schedules we have, with visitors, be it friends or big bosses from HTC coming over and hardly having any 'us' time, is I know for a fact that MOH gets into bed every night, kisses me and whispers "I love you" into my ear, even though I may be fast asleep (or snoring like a pig as he would describe it). And there's the laughter - everyday. Even on the worse of days, we would make each other laugh, be it clowning around or just poking fun at each other or playing tricks on each other, we live for the laughs with each other. It is for these small little gestures that I know everything is intact, nobody is growing apart and our love is growing stronger.

And I know I have his full 100% support too in whatever I do. I am hell-bent on saving the world and he's my anchor because this Tiger prefers to think things through rationally. Case-in-point - I would of course love for every kid to be in the football team (emotional-thinking) but he says "not try hard in class, no football!"(hard-ass rational-thinking :P) When he can make the time, he's there with me on the weekends with the kids. Sometimes, out of the blue, from nowhere, he'd come up with a brilliant suggestion for me on what I can do with the kids, for the kids. I know too that he's 100% behind me when I start my Soup Kitchen soon :) ......

I feel that part of this anniversary piece would require an admittance to a certain incident which took place not too long ago.

Whilst we both love Myanmar, living and working here has its moments. I count my blessings and I've learnt to give the other cheek and overall, try to be zen about these so-called Myanmar moments. But you know what, I say this over and over again - if I can do it 100%, I'd be Mr. B himself :P So it was at this time period, with the new projects coming in from work and working till late even on off-days, the nightmare of indoor waterfalls, the stress of fighting with the landlord over the stupid apartment situation, the frustration of battling alien-mutated mould, no internet but feeble optics instead, horrendous traffic, what-have-you........ I had a meltdown.

It was a Saturday morning breakfast and MOH and I decided to try a new local shop which looked rather promising. I ordered the half-boiled eggs and toast. Now, you see, I only eat my half-boiled eggs with soya sauce and pepper. The pepper, no problem. But for the life of me, I cannot remember what the hell was soya sauce in Burmese and the waiter no speaketh the England!! I even went to the kitchen in search of soya sauce and they kept saying no, no, no. By the time I gave up, my eggs had turned cold and my toast had gone limp. I fiddled with my eggs and then I burst into tears! The poor waiter, oh God.... he was shocked (I did apologize to him guiltily on the way out). He must think me a real idiot for crying over stupid half-boiled eggs with no soya sauce. MOH..... MOH...... he let me cry for a bit and then asked me "Why? Somebody bully you izzit?" And just like that - he made me laugh. The very next day, he took me for breakfast again at Yakun - new franchise in Yangon. Now, being a Singaporean chain, you know they serve half-boiled eggs with thick black sauce. Not soya sauce. Guess what MOH did? He told me to wait and he walked across the street to a mom & pop shop to buy me a bottle of soya sauce - just in case I had another meltdown over eggs. I call that both being funny and being sweet at the same time. My heart melted - not over diamonds, not over any bling-blings. Over soya sauce. Go figure :P

A friend pointed out that these situations could either bring two people closer together or push them apart. Well, Thank You Myanmar for bringing us closer together - from the furniture-hunting on a shoe-string budget to the apartment-hunting (also on a shoe-string budget :P) to the mould wars, to the power cuts in the middle of the night in summer, to all your moments. Cheers! We still love you :)

And to my dearest MOH......... here's to a great 4th year as husband and wife. I now truly understand that love stories are really not made up of Leonardo DiCaprios and Titanic moments. They are made up of these :

1) Moments when you open your eyes, the first thing you see in the morning is a drooling, snoring partner next to you and you think - "oh God - I have to capture him on video!"

2) Moments when you come home to find indoor flooding, boxer shorts flung on the dining table and you say "I will make him eat his shorts!" but instead, when you see said partner, you pinch his fats and call him Fatty Jelly

3) Moments when you are feeling stressed and down over apartment situation and your partner takes you round the neighbourhood, knocking on doors to make enquiries despite it being 10 o'clock at night

4) Moments when your partner hogs the entire bed by sleeping diagonally and you squeeze yourself into a cocoon next to her and still caress her forehead and whisper "I love you" into her ear

5) Moments when in the middle of the night, your partner pinches you and accuses you of stealing her pillow and you jump out of bed to pick it off the floor and put said pillow into her arms

6) Moments when you know your partner is having a very bad day at work and you send him a text  just to say "who loves ya, baby??? and can you pick up a can of WD40 on your way home?"

7) Moments when your partner takes the children's failure to heart and you have the balls to tell her "If you are able to save 1 out of 100 kids, you have done great" even though you know she won't believe it

8) Moments when your partner falls ill because she had been idiotic enough to run happy in the rain and you bite your tongue from saying "I told you so" but instead force medicine down her throat

9) Moments when you asked if weed would help alleviate your partner's pain - despite how ridiculous it sounds

10) Moments where you sit up all night fanning your partner with a blanket due to power cuts in summer

11) Moments where your partner is trying to deal with the death of a loved one and you tell her if it makes her feel any better, she can pinch / smack / bounce on your Jelly Belly.....

12) Moments where you and your partner fall ill from the stress at work and an awfully stressful apartment fiasco and you take one look at each other and then laugh because you understand the situation you are both in.....

I have a hundred more moments such as these and I look forward to the millions and zillions of them with you :)



_____________________________

"When you're close to tears, remember,
Someday, it will all be over,
One day we're gonna get so high....

Though it's darker than December,
What's ahead is a different colour,
One day we're gonna get so high.....

Cos we are gonna be, forever you and me...
We will always keep it flying high
In the sky of love......"

Life in Myanmar : Stressful Apartment Fiasco

Moving again. Downright pain-in-the-arse

Mingalabar...... and greetings from very wet Yangon!Of late, most of the expats in Myanmar are feeling a bit beaten down by the damp weather and the escalating cost of rentals. I feel compelled to share my story about my arse-luck with apartments in Yangon.

Last December, we've had to move from our first apartment as the landlord sold it and wouldn't renew our contract. Since MOH and I really liked Yankin Township, we persisted in finding a suitable apartment in this area. We found one very quickly. The landlords were great - BEFORE the full year's rental was paid. It was "Oh, don't worry, any problem at all, big or small, just email me or speak to my son." They live in Singapore and naively, we thought - well, they reside overseas and they must surely be exposed to what it took to be proper landlords. How wrong. Once the full year's rental was paid..... it was literally like we had a new landlord! Despite being promised the "highest quality" at the cheapest price (we got the apartment at 5 lakhs for 2 BRs), this seemingly new apartment was plagued with building problems right from the get-go. We lived with it all anyway - electrical fused box which ... well, fused. Electric points which did not work, doors that were falling off the hinges, piping issues, ..... We fixed it all ourselves because "any problem is not our problem. You are tenant, it is your problem." Ok. And it doesn't help that the landlord did not live in Myanmar and when they did come back, they proclaimed themselves to be "foreigners" and as such, weren't able to help us. Anyway, the rain came and ever since then, we've literally had to deal with indoor waterfalls and wading pool. Nevermind the alien mould-infestation,.... I mean, the water was seeping through the walls, for crying out loud! I had never before stayed in a building that was so badly built! I sent numerous SOS to the landlord to fix the issue. He handed us over to the "contractor" which later turned out to be "just a friend" not a contractor, who hired some goons off God-knows-where to fix things. I swear to you, they came, they made a terrible, terrible mess, removing every single grill in the house and then decided they couldn't fix the sunshades from indoors. I mean.... OMG. They left and the leaks never went away. I have really good photos of the indoor floods and waterfalls - which I kept sending to the landlord. His "contractor friend", after awhile, decided not to answer anymore of our frantic phone calls and even had the cheek to tell the landlord we didn't allow the workers to go into the apartment, as such, cannot fix things. Long story short - my last email asking the landlord to please consider fixing it through a contractor that we have found and if he does fix it, we would extend our rental contract. His response was a "Get out of my apartment now."

MOH, the 'Tiger', of course, is not going down without a fight. We want our refund. This landlord had said to deal with everything via our agent because "it is the agent who brought you to my house and therefore he should be responsible". We haven't seen any money as of right now. Nevermind the fact that the landlord keeps reminding us about the "2 week free stay present" he gave us (we moved in 2 weeks ahead of contract period, you see). I had left out the parts where the landlord's wife and daughter pissed off our agent big time one night and also accused my husband of trying to break down the door to her apartment to rape her. OMFG. (When they are back from Singapore, they live in the unit downstairs.). As far as I am concerned, this place is not suitable for renting until it is fixed really good or when the owners learn how to be responsible landlords (a bit of a fat hopes, but still...one can hope). Even the tenant downstairs, who is local says the landlord is "crazy" ... really now.

So.... our hunt for another apartment began. The ridiculous cost of rentals is by far.... unbelievable. We did find one which we liked and managed to negotiate it down to 6.3 lakhs. On the day when we were supposed to sign the contract, the owner called to say someone is willing to pay a higher price for it and she had signed the contract with said person. Later, the agent told me the other tenant outbid me at 10 lakhs. How far this is true, I cannot verify, but if that idiot really did this, I'm just going to say - OMFG. It was already ridiculous enough at 6 lakhs. 10 lakhs??? What gives?? As you may well know by now, apartment-hunting on a tight budget is a real pain in the arse. I mean, yes, my husband works with HTC and I do part-time consultancy work for City Mart but it doesn't necessarily translate to big-fat-paycheck, if you know what I mean. Part of what we earn goes towards supporting 200 over kids from 3 different homes which we volunteer at here in YG. I'm not saying we're angels, but we try and hubby and I have no kids, therefore have different aspirations. If I spent 10 lakhs for an apartment, that could mean having less money to support these kids (and I do get help from friends back home who support my efforts for these kids but there are so many of them!!)
Nevertheless, we moved on in our quest to look for another apartment. Together with an agent, we found one - also in the Yankin area (yes, I do love this area). The owner asked for 5.5 lakhs. He must think we're in New York.... :P My dear agent managed to negotiate it down for me to 4 lakhs - but on the condition that we fixed in everything ourselves - grills, sunshades, A/C, etc...... it was literally an empty unit, no flooring, not even light bulbs. When this was all confirmed, I was teaching a class (I also teach event management for free to a group of under-privileged kids) and I literally had to stop the class, run all the way to the apartment to pay my deposit just in case some fellow outbids me again. So, after the sign-off on the deposit, I thought - ok - time to celebrate! 4 lakhs was still too much to pay for 800 sq ft, but - ahhh... nevermind. Previously, in Cambodia, we were paying a bit less than that for a bigger unit, absolutely fully-furnished with the most adorable landlady ever and I do miss Madame!!. But hell, I'm not in Cambodia now, and I know that.

Anyway, yesterday being a day where we had to pay up the 1 year rent, some drama ensued. When I got to the tea shop (the landlord owns a tea shop as well as 6 other apartment units), he was shouting at my agent. The owner's agent hustled us to another corner of the tea shop and then explained the situation to me. The owner was now refusing to rent unless I also installed parquet flooring for his unit. (We were all ready to live with concrete flooring!!). I mean - what the hell, right? My agent told him it's not in the deposit contract that we are to install the flooring (which led to the shouting). I asked if anyone could read English - and turns out, the owner's brother could. I wrote a note, pleading with the owner to please show me some kindness as I wasn't here to rob or steal from the people of Myanmar. I'm not a rich foreigner with hardship posting fee attached to my pay-package and I'm helping his people! While the owner and his brother was in the discussion, I had contemplated to forgo the rent all together and leave with my deposit - except I found out that work had already started on the grills at the new apartment. *slaps forehead*.

The decision came back that the owner wants me to leave behind the A/C units when I leave the apartment IF I didn't install the parquet floors. What the hell, right? I smell the greed so strongly, I wanted to puke. The agents were all at it. Even the owner's agent stood on my side, requesting for the owner to honour the contract. In the end, I was so fed-up, so stressed out.... in a fashionably meltdown manner :P, I asked if the owners were really poor, because if they were really poor, I would donate the parquet flooring to them but that would mean 200 kids wouldn't have food for awhile and the karma's on the owner. The brother, he shook my hand and said done deal, no need A/C, no need parquet flooring. All is ok and I can pay-up.

And so.... I got the apartment. I'm going to forget this bad start. But then again, I would remember the kindness of the agents - mine and the owner's - all locals, who stood by me and held my hands. The owner's agent even gave me her number and said that she lives in the same apartment block and if I ever needed any help, just give her a call.

As for my agent - she's actually the girlfriend of our driver - Ti Lone. They had both been so wonderful in helping us sort out our living arrangements. They were going to do it for us at no cost, no fee whatsoever too, but we decided to pay her the 1 month's customary agent fee anyway. She knew my limitations and she fought very hard for me. When she negotiated with some of the other apartment owners' agents to not collect the commission (I really cannot for the life of me figure out how this works).... they were not happy as to why she as a local, was helping a foreigner "disrupt their income" and to this, she replied "she is helping our people, so I help her!" Not only that - for the agent fee she is getting, she said her services would include helping me organize all the fixtures required before I move in (hence the very quick work-start on the damn grills!!). Fingers and toes crossed for a smooth move next week. But I also hope Thaw Thaw would have every success as an agent because she is definitely offering services that no other agents offer. For those who do not follow me on FB, Thaw Thaw also volunteers with me.

Such is my apartment luck in Myanmar. But one or two greedy owners or agents do not make everyone in this country bad or out-to-get-you. There are my Burmese brothers and sisters out there who have got my back too. Just as how Ti Lone, our driver held my hand and comforted me when I broke down in tears fighting for my rent with the greedy owner. For that, I am thankful.

Myanmar really has her charms, but definitely has her moments as well. ("feeble optics", anyone?? :P) We will just try our best to wade through them all. At the end of the day, we just need to know we're in someone else's country. Let's do good by them.

Till the next time around!