A usual saturday in Myitkyina

Many of you have asked to tell about how is everyday life up here. It is true that until now I had little time to really experience “everyday” life in Myitkyina…Workshop at the beach (no it was not Club Med ;-), then visit from the Headquarters, Workshop in Mandalay for team builduing for the Kachin team…Well I have been traveling quite a bit and been busy with rather unusual occupations for the mission.
So finally this WE is the one…a USUAL WE in Myitkyina. Ok you will probably find it not very exciting and you will probably be right…
Wake up around 7 or 8am…unfortunately our housekeeper comes around to change the ice in the icebox (no we don’t have a fridge as we don’t have 24h electricity….) and does the dishes also during the WE (which is extremely kind of her)…however my room is just next to the kitchen. Shouldn’t complain as I have a housekeeper, but well it is hard to be awakened so early on a Saturday, especially when you have spent the previous WE in a 19 hours Chinese train to Mandalay…
But let’s go back to my usual WE. I can not sleep anymore after 8am, as once the housekeeper is gone the church in front of our house opens its doors…and the songs start (in Kachin there are a lot of Christian). The only thing left to do is to wake up and to prepare breakfast. Mind it here, I have been eating so much lately that I have to …be on a diet! So no bread (which is homemade, we find flour here in the North because of the proximity of India) this morning only FRUITS! And one coffee…I am still Italian afterall.
A quick look at the telephone and you know that it is still out of order…so I jump on my bike and go to the office to call a travel agency in Yangon for my April break. We have a few days off for the so called Water festival = Burmese New Year. What happens then? People throwing water to you in the street…so usually all the expats do one thing…leave the country!!!!! I have finally decided to go to Cambodia, Angkor temples…hope to find a good deal. Who is interested to join me I will be there 13-22 April! As I am at the office I go through the emails of the few couple of days. I didn’t have time to check my working email as I have spent quite some time in the field, so I have a few things to get done for our new challenge…start antiretroviral therapy in Kachin! If everything goes according to the plans the first patient who will receive anti-HIV treatment should start his treatment May 15th! Until then a lot to do and mainly trying to update doctors, nurses and counselors…not to talk about logistics.
So I finally get a few emails through to Yangon, and get out of the office to go straight to my sport place…tennis court! Yeahp, I had to change sport but it’s fun and makes you run a bit. But definitely 11h30 it’s too late for a tennis lesson…it’s already getting quite hot up here! After receiving one ball in the eye (not big damage, do not worry)…I joing my colleague for lunch at our usual Sunday’s place…Chinese dumplings and grapefruit juice!
Back home for a little coffee and a hot shower (today we are lucky as the sun was shining…so hot water thanks to the solar panels! I finally get back to my bed for a nice nap…but it was written that today I shouldn’t sleep! First the phone rings…great we have the line back again…10 min later our guard appears with a man asking for “pocket” money as he repaired the phone line…ok…then 10 min later the phone rings again! Just a test from the guard to make sure that the phone DOES FUNCTION!
Once again I just get up and get dressed to go to the market. Colorful place, very good for your ego as all the women tell you that you are beautiful (the men would not dare…it is not very usual to flirt in the streets around here…) Fruits, vegetables…and butter. Ok let’s stop the diet for tonight; we will make a strawberry cake ;-) Some shopping for longyis and a stop at the tailor to have some tailor-made dresses…
Back home just on time to start preparing our dinner…Pate brisee for the strawberry cake, and some zucchini marinate and other veggies…just to compensate for the cake! Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, good everything is there.
Some international news from TV5 monde thanks to our satellite and eventually a DVD to finish the evening…when it’s not a DVD can be a book or a few words for my family and friends (now that the phone line is repaired I can finally get back to internet…but no more than one or two messages at a time as it takes me one hour just for these two messages…) Bedtime…10pm?!?! Yeahp!
That’s it… it was a usual saturday in Myitkyina.
Next stories coming soon…a usual weekday in Kachin and a usual day in Yangon (pretty different I can tell you…) and also…what you can find in your dish at lunch time (and subsequently why I have to go on a diet!)
Cheers to all!