Virginia's Final Blog

Whew! I know: too much time between blog posts. Well, there’s a good reason for that. I think most of you who read this blog are aware of the exciting changes that happened to Ty and I in the past few weeks.

While Bruno and Madeleine were visiting us, I got an early morning phone call from the British Council’s SE Asian office. I’d applied for a job there (as well as a transfer to Abu Dhabi with the company I was already working for). Meanwhile, Ty had applied for a summer mentoring programme with the British Council in Abu Dhabi. The week after Bruno and Mado went on to Istanbul, I had 2 interviews and Ty had his the following week.

The first one, for the current company, went super well, and I had a glimmer of hope that Ty and I would be able to move to Abu Dhabi and live the good life there. It would have been a whole new context for us: a vibrant city, great restaurants, culture, concerts and so on – the complete opposite of MZ (I’m not saying that MZ doesn’t have its charms, but 18 months in a conservative town in the middle of the desert can be, um, challenging). Also, Ty would have been able to find work in Abu Dhabi.

The second interview, with the British Council, didn’t seem to go as well. A telephone interview, patched through a satellite phone from Rangoon, Burma (aka Yangon, Myanmar), in the middle of a work day – meaning I’d had to juggle my schedule quite a bit – made for less than ideal conditions.

In Ty’s interview, he learned that the man who was hiring him was relocating to Burma.

Two weeks later I got a job offer… via a patchy satellite connection. We were suddenly faced with the realization that we were moving again. And this time to a country that is one of the more, shall we say, unstable in the world (in case you were wondering, the current company didn’t want to grant me the transfer – which is, I guess, their loss).

Another week, and Ty had his job offer, meaning that he would have to move to Abu Dhabi for two months before leaving for Yangon.

We were pretty psyched about getting into the British Council. They are located just about everywhere in the world, and are the industry standard when it comes to ESL learning and testing. They also train English teachers (Ty got his CELTA from the BC in Abu Dhabi).

As you can imagine, everything went into overdrive. We had to hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, as we began the process of moving to yet another foreign country. For those of you who have done this, you understand too well just how frustrating the process can be.

But then, things just started falling into place: Ty’s boss in Abu Dhabi, who was also moving to Burma, offered to add our bits and pieces and boxes of books and such into his container shipment; my current company agreed to end my contract in 2010 instead of 2011 without penalty; our friends and neighbours in MZ helped us get rid of our furniture and other things that we weren’t taking; our friend Paul agreed to take care of our cats until their transport could be arranged – yes, they are coming with us – I just have to get a house in Yangon first!; our dear dear friend Nawaf willingly dropped everything at a moment’s notice to ferry me everywhere I needed to go, and to help smooth out the paperwork procedures for our visas. There suddenly seemed to be people everywhere who had been to Burma, or who knew people living there. Suddenly, instead of stepping off the ledge into the unknown, we were surrounded by a support network that we didn’t even know existed.

Everything has been a bit surreal, and I’ve had the feeling that my last week here has been a mirror image of my first week, as if I am walking backwards in the sand and erasing my footsteps.

In about an hour, I will pick up my suitcases and walk out of Ty’s Abu Dhabi apartment. Tomorrow, I will arrive in Yangon, Myanmar and a whole new adventure will begin.

Before I leave I know that I need to write out the things I will miss from our time in the desert:

• My teachers: Aziza, Gharam, Nihal, Rose, Blair, Ruqaya, Suheir, Najat, Nawal, Muneera and Latifah will always have a special place in my memories. I learned so much from them (including a dirty joke or two), and was always amazed at how willing they were to work with a crazy blonde kid with weird ideas about things to do in a classroom…
  
• Arabic hospitality: It’s true! All you have to do is compliment someone on an article of clothing and it will be handed to you… or a similar one will be bought for you. But it goes beyond the material. I knew I had been accepted when I started being kissed (sometimes up to three times on each cheek!) at every greeting.
  
• The sand of the Empty Quarter: It’s incredibly soft… and fun to play with. It was too hot (55 degrees!) to visit the desert again before I left.
  
• Camels: They rock!
  
• The food: One of the memories I’m taking with me from the UAE is about 20 extra pounds (so easy to hide under an abaya!). I don’t know if I’ll ever taste such incredible food ever again (the food in Burma is apparently best described as “pungent”)
  
• The philosophy: I’m not a particularly religious person, but I have completely taken on the ideas of Inshallah (if Allah wills it) and Mashallah (what Allah has willed). We’ve written about it before, but the idea behind not having complete control over everything was an eye opener. And, while moving, it was almost reassuring to know that I couldn’t control everything… and that maybe some things were best left up to someone else. Strangely, it all fell nicely into place. I also have to mention "tolerance" here -- while elsewhere, we may feel fearful of Islam and its followers, most Muslims are unbelievably open and tolerant of other faiths. It shouldn't be surprising, but it is another lesson I've learned.
  
• Friendships: In a very different crowd from the expats in Korea, we found our niche, somehow, with some very interesting characters out here. The best part was that, on our absolute final day in MZ, we got to say goodbye to all the people who had meant the most to us – for some reason, they hadn’t all left on vacation yet!

Allll righty -- I have to get going now. All the best.

Next stop: Burma!