Why this morning was a great morning

1. I had cheese on my toast for breakfast. But (more) seriously -
2. We went to see an apartment where we'd rent a room for 2 weeks, once we come back from our Bangkok visa run. The place looked great - big room with a balcony (!), equipped kitchen, washing machine, and a lovely german room-mate. Sealed the deal and looking forward to some normality.
3. I attended a P&G event. That might need explaining: P&G has recently contributed water purification sachets to Myanmar disaster readiness via World Vision, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to be invited by the kind country director of World Vision Myanmar. The P&G-ness of it all made it feel like home; the demonstration of the sachet cleaning filthy lake water was really something, and I met a lot of really nice people who just wanted to be friendly and help me. I got a bunch of business cards from P&Gers and others.
4. I got a goodie bag with P&G products.
5. I talked with that same country director, who about 2 weeks ago planted a seed of a social enterprise idea in my head (a project he led several years ago in another country). I've been thinking about it ever since and wanted to ask for his opinion of me reapplying it in Myanmar. He was encouraging and enthusiastic.. and so am I.
6. As I walked out of the hotel, on this sunny (and somehow not humid) day, with beautiful grasssy lawns and silence around me, I had that feeling which I thought is only achievable in Geneva, that of, "oh how perfectly delightful life is!".
7. After a pleasant taxi-ride home, I got myself a delicious plate of Rice-Sleh from the nice lady downstairs. It's the second delicacy she served me this week, and I feel it's bringing us closer. Today she asked which country I'm from and showed me her daughter. I felt a bit bad paying so little for her yummy food, but I promised to be back.

So much work to be done!

Bit by bit - finding work (update)

So how is the work-seeking project going? I know, it looks like I've been trying to avoid the topic, distracting with pictures of rivers and pagodas. But actually, it's been going quite well. Nothing is moving fast, nothing is a sealed-deal, nothing is clear, but still, there's progress. After 2 weeks in Myanmar, and thanks to a really nice Australian guy I got to know here, yesterday I met with a local organization who's doing great work across the country, working with local communities and organizations to improve livelihoods; improving agricultural practices, encouraging small businesses, driving informal education and training, and everything else that's good. I hope to start working (voluntarily) with them very soon, on defining a very interesting (and broad!) 5-year project proposal, which should then be sponsored by a UN agency. At the same time, I'm getting a small income from some private-sector work I'm doing (we can call it "consulting"). Having some interesting work, a small income, and increasing contacts, I'd say I'm better off than I expected to be at this point.

Three Updates

1. Looking in two
In the past few days the obvious probelm came up, that us two world explorers are looking for similar occupations in parallel; we each have different contacts and a different story, but in the end our needs are quite similar. Not only is this probably sub-optimal for our efforts, but might well lead to us finding ourselves in very different places in Myanmar (it's a big country+ transportation is poor = not an option). Since our contacts are after all - strangers, we probably shouldn't bother them with our complex dual-case.My idea would be to minimize email contacting, and try and have meetings upon arrival, which would allow for greater flexibility. Any ideas for strategies how to address this?


2. Photography project
A kind colleague suggested during our farewell coffee that I do some photography in Myanmar. We do own a pretty good camera and I do love taking pictures; I've been trying to look up ideas for a photography project I could do during our trip. I saw several ideas online: taking a daily picture, taking a picture for each letter of the alphabet, documenting something that interests me, etc. Ideally, I'd really like my project to reflect the country's development; to demonstrate the change happening over time (and I do expect that to be quite noticeable, even in a period of less than a year). Do let me know if you have any ideas!

It's probably going to be easy to get this kind of photos.

Update Oct 19:
My newest idea for the photography project is to put together a list of top-10 photos - either famous ones or photos of things I love in my current life. Then my project would be to find parallel photographs in Myanmar.

3. Progress
Following up on the promising lead I mentioned 1-2 posts ago: it has developed to a near-offer to undertake a small amount of work on the ground, which - while not exactly the kind of work I was looking for - could be a great learning opportunity for me, as well as an opportunity to get better integrated and fain a better understanding of the Myanmar landscape. How exciting! I didn't expect anything that concrete to come up at this stage, so even though it's quite small, it really makes me happy.

Baby Steps

Time is passing, and while normal life - working, travelling, laundry - is getting in the way of seriously sitting down and planning our departure, some slight progress can be seen in my networking efforts. I'm spreading the word that I'm going to Myanmar, trying to talk to everyone I can.. and just recently some potentially-interesting developments have arisen from a surprising direction. I'll keep you posted if it materializes into anything.

And yet in the back of my head (and in my shiny new google doc), our "to do" list is getting longer: entry visas, vaccinations, travel insurance, cancelling our local contracts (phones, insurance), and oh so much more. I'll try to remember to post that list when ever it seems complete - might be helpful for someone in the future.

I did spend yesterday evening checking out guesthouses in Yangon, after discovering last week that we will probably not be able to rent an apartment (legally; at least until we have an actual working contract). Prices have been going up steeply in the past year, so what we're planning to pay might buy us something like this:

Tripadvisor traveller photo of one of the highly recommended guesthouses in Yangon;
Somehow the smaller sized image makes it look a bit cosier.

Well, in all fairness, that was the most depressing picture I saw. The rest of that guesthouse actually looks quite nice and the included breakfast is supposed to be amazing (with freshly squeezed exotic-fruit-juice), but calling that room home for a few months, or even a year? shudder.

Yet excitement is certainly rising. I only have 2 more days at work, after which I can be completely free to look up all those things-that-require-lookup, start packing, read the recommended books (2 historical novels were recommended: my grandma gave me "The Glass Palace", a novel taking place in Mandalay in the days of British occupation, and a colleague recommended Orwell's "Burmese Days".) We'll also watch "The Lady", a recent Hollywood movie about Myanmar's NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Between these, I of course plan to enjoy a last taste of beautiful Swiss life.