いってきます！

Nobody guessed or sent in a guess of my vacation destination (hello is anyone there?), so no prize. Anyhow, I am off to a country, island, baobab trees, vanilla beans, ilanilan flowers, lemurs...



Madagascar!!


Yes, that Madagascar, the Disney movie Madagascar


It is kind of an odd choice as a holiday, probably. My boyfriend and I wanted to go somewhere francophone as we both are constantly studying and not studying French, somewhere warm, adventurous, not too touristy etc. Not many places fit this profile. A few options came up, either Tunisia or Madagascar, and many things considered, the verdict was Madagascar at the end. Flying via Bangkok, St. Denis (Reunion) et puis Antananarivo (capitale Madagascar). I have been brave (?) to book hotels and etc with my broken French.

マダガスカルに２週間、休暇で遊びに行ってきます。一体どんな所なのか！？想像がつかない。今年は最初のお休み。１０月１７日に戻ってきます。最近は仕事も忙しく地震や飛行機事故、自分のこれからのこと等、色々考えたり、不安なことが多かったので、のんびりしてきたい。フランス語も練習しつつ。帰ってきたらまた写真載せます！お楽しみに。

Je pratiquerai français quand on est la! Je m’attend que le voyage soit beaucoup des aventures ! On a préparé par une fois per semaine « le jour français » quand on doit perler seulement français. Apres beaucoup des recherches en ligne et avec lonly planet, tous hôtels sont réserves sauf que les derniers deux nuits, deux vols domestiques, un parc national, foret tropicale et plage!

Fragility of Lives

It feels like there has been a series of disasters this year. In Japan, earthquake, tsunami, nuclear disaster and huge typhoons. Here in this country, the earthquake a week ago and a plane crash that happened yesterday, which killed 19 people. Two of my colleague’s friends got killed in the earthquake, and a colleague from another UN agency died in the accident. It is hitting not quite home as I do not know them personally, but it is surely hitting close and my anxiety level is high. I keep thinking that I or my friends could have been on that plane yesterday (the same airline that I always fly with). Especially, I was waiting for someone to come back yesterday and he was supposed to fly with the same company in the same morning.

Quite recently, a girl, whom I knew in Guyana passed away. She was a fellow volunteer, a very nice girl. She died very quickly after being diagnosed with a disease.

Though we are resilient in difficult situations, human lives can be so fragile. We don’t know when our time comes. It almost feels that it’s a miracle that I am still alive. I should not get consumed by this anxiety but really need to live each day and each moment to the fullest.

Monsoon and Singing Bowl Bath

It rains so much this year. The monsoon season should be already over, but is still rains at the end of September.

Raining has some consequences:

No laundry (no dryer of course)

and

No hot shower (as water is heated by solar panels)

You have to be creative in a resource-poor (?) environment.

On a day when I desperately need to shower- meaning I haven't for two days or something, a singing bowl bath was invented.

This simply means boiling water and pouring it into a singing bowl and bathing with the water. This is only because I don't currently own a bucket. It is quite funny as I use another smaller bowl to scoop water, it makes such a nice bell sound. It makes me smile despite this not so glamourous situation.

早く雨が止んでスカッと晴れて欲しいものだ。ヒマラヤ山脈も綺麗に見えるだろうし。お湯も出たら最高！

I am alive

I am still alive and kicking... I am saying this not only because I haven't written anything on my blog but also because of the earthquake in the country (actually on the boarder with India where they have suffered more casualties).

A few people died in the city which include friends of one of my colleagues. We have been anticipating a massive and catastrophic one which is expected to be worse than the Haiti earthquake, so I was more frightened when it started.

Anyway, I am safe. This was not "the one" fortunately. It really makes me appreciate that I am still alive and I need to appreciate each day.

A lot happened since the last entry obviously, some positive life change, i turned 35, small weekend trip, monitoring mission, 4 day long workshop, new work possibility on a horizon etc etc, which hopefully I will write about in coming days.

I am going on a major holiday next week for 2.5 weeks. I am really excited as this will be my first real vacation this year. I haven't gone anywhere this year (life of consultant without no leave days.... and NY doesn't count since it was work!) You will hear more about the trip soon! No one can guess where I am going probably. I will send you a special gift if you get it right.