Tuesday 30 January 2018

Fresh Bananas from our tree

January news ... Happy New Year!

This morning we were awakened to a fresh bunch, a hanging cluster tier bananas to eat with our muesli.  All in courtesy of our humble neighbour!   With a smile and a nod, he came around our house this morning to deliver bananas, while we sat on the porch with a hot cup of coffee in hand to ward off the early morning chill of 13 .  (yes, it gets that cold!).    Last night, our humble neighbour, who endlessly goes out of his way for us, had freshly harvested bananas  from our tree for us to have for breakfast this morning.  What a treat!  Banana fruits develop from the banana wine colour heart in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers known as ‘hands’, with up to 20 banana fruit to a tier.   

Shortly after our banana harvesting adventure, we’ve since noticed that 3 new banana shoots are already sprouting from our old banana plant that was recently cut down to the ground.   

Here on the home front, Kevin and I take advantage of cool January temperatures to take a stroll either in the Herbal Garden grounds or within the neighbourhood.  The soft breeze almost engulfs us with whiffs of snowy-white perfumed flowers that guard the Iron Gate.   Our humble neighbour, on one fine day, aware of the heavy scented gust that too gushes his household, demonstrates the process of what the white flower seed can do.  The benefits.   White flowers, some already in seed clustered on stems,  our humble neighbour seems to perform  a crushing  magical motion for us to see; his hands pressed together with a plant seed between his hands, he shows us how seeds can easily soften into a powdery form.  Proud of the outcome, with a heavy throaty chuckle, he announces how this fresh powder is unique to Myanmar and how readily available it is for anyone to use and how good it is for a woman’s skin.   With this wealth of information, I offer him to pop by our little courtyard to harvest them at any time he so wish to share with his wife and eldest daughter … J   

Interestingly enough, one of our individual speaking presentations at the parliament is to do with ‘fashion’ that defines who we are as a person.  What compels us to be who we are and to do the things that we do?  Is it environment, our upbringing, our culture, the language we speak, I ask?  Questions for conversation are what we highlight regularly in the classroom.

Talking about highlights, at dinnertime in January, a black Mercedes drove in to our parking lot to request our passports and updated visa.  The 2 official immigration officers and the dual role individual: driver and English interpreter, stated, after scrutinizing our official documents 3 times over,  that  our papers were in perfect order.   Despite the fact, that the interpreter  had assured us that we no longer needed to show our papers at the NayPyiTaw immigration office the next day, Cuso SuSu had already warned us of our immigrations visit, that it was indeed necessary to go through the immigration official procedure through KoAung, our go between person who ended it up looking after things for us.    Naturally, this was another immigration routine check –in to ensure that our papers were in order! 

When it rains, it pours, or better yet, there’s never a dull moment to be had!   That same evening, the right-hand hinge of the iron-gate rusted off its hinge.  However, nothing could be done with it immediately, because we were leaving for the dentist in Yangon.  As a result, the Iron Gate was left open at the discretion of the humble neighbour who looked after things for us during our absence.

Elsewhere in NayPyiTaw, at the parliament, the parliamentary leaders met with us Cuso volunteers, Geoffrey and I and other International Business staff to welcome us to the New Year, to recapitulate some of the good work that we were doing for the parliament and what were our next steps?

The 3rd week of January brought us another Cuso Volunteer.  In courtesy of Cuso SuSu , we dined at the Tai Restaurant just outside the SweKyaBae township to welcome the new volunteer François.  Naturally, at the parliament on Monday morning, I was disappointed to move out of the parliamentary Research ~ HR office to join Geoffrey and François in the old JCC room sandwiched between the Research and International parliamentary offices.  Rationale: Parliamentary officials felt it best that we Cuso volunteers share a room separate to parliamentary staff.
 

Yes, we thought long and hard about our wish for all you to ring in the New Year in.  Together with good health and happiness, we've added an extra hope for 2018, another wish for you to experience, something extra.  We wish you wonderful friendships, a skill that captures your imagination, a job that offers fulfilment, and, of course, new things in your life that will make your heart sing like the 2 birds who sing to us every morning at the wake of dawn, preparing a bird’s nest on one of our mango trees.

On this happy, joyful note, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for February 2018….:)