Well we finally have the blog working again. Something about the new WordPress system made it impossible for us to save posts, but now Gav has sorted it out we think. Thanks Gav!
Continue reading “Back to School”Back to School
Radio Silence
Whoops, it’s been a while. We ended the school year back in June, but it was the biggest “whomp whomp” ending to a year ever. Not only was it strange that there were no kids on the last day, at least half our faculty were gone as well. Our end of year “party” did take place physically at school, but we were required to wear masks and about 80% of the teachers chose to Zoom in. I did ask the director how I was supposed to drink my beer with my mask on. I did not get an answer. Continue reading “Radio Silence”
It could be worse…
…you could be working in the construction industry in Myanmar. On May 3rd, a Sunday and the day before we got Mabel, the house directly behind us started getting torn down. Houses are built right up to the edge of the land here so this house is about 3 feet away from ours. At first they started removing the tiles from the roof and then wooden beams etc. We then started seeing them hammering away at the floor they were literally standing on with sledge hammers.
A Mabel Fable
Once upon a time there was a crazy couple who got way too emotionally involved with a street dog. They walked to the street corner where she lived twice a day to feed her, gave her medicine and (the kiss of death) gave her a name. All was well and everyone was enjoying the relationship until one evening as the crazy couple were feeding the sweet little street dog, a car sped around the corner and hit the dog. Continue reading “A Mabel Fable”
Hello From the Inside
I hope you have seen the brilliant parody some guy has done of Adele’s Hello. Even though we are not actually trapped inside here in Yangon, we are still in the midst of a lockdown which has now been extended until June. Although we did see some road blockades and very empty streets at the beginning of the order, things seem to be slowly ramping up and people are getting out and about more. Continue reading “Hello From the Inside”
Spring Break
Despite that glamorous pool-side picture up there, we just had a fairly boring Spring Break. We thought things were lame last week when we had the voluntary stay at home order, but the lameness increased incrementally through the week, with first a notice that gatherings of 5 or more were banned (punishment = 6 months in jail OR a £25 fine). Continue reading “Spring Break”
The Undiscovered Country
Benjamin Disraeli, a 19th Century British Politician once said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” I have been copying daily stats from the WHO Situation Reports on to my own spreadsheet tracking the major countries affected by the virus. Continue reading “The Undiscovered Country”
Lockdown
We are now officially on our April break. Our original plan had us taking a train from Beijing to go see the Terracotta Warriors today. Then our second plan had us getting on a houseboat in Halong Bay today. The reality is I am sitting on my front porch in Yangon, watching Gav potter around in the “garden.” Continue reading “Lockdown”
It’s Happened
Things have escalated quite a bit since the last time I did a post. Last weekend we had no internet at the house, so you missed an in-between post, but Myanmar officially reported its first two cases about a week ago and since then the number has risen to 20. Continue reading “It’s Happened”
It’s Happening
Tuesday at 3:05pm, right after classes had finished for the day, we got the news that school would be moving to virtual learning effective immediately and lasting until at least May 4. It was not super surprising as there had been a growing feeling of unease among the expats in Yangon and some embassies started asking non essential employees to repatriate. Continue reading “It’s Happening”
