Hello from Indian Ocean

I can hear the evening prayer from my hotel room..... yes, I have arrived. Surreal to take a boat from the airport to the capital city island. Really interesting, what kind of life await for me here in this country.

When I think about it, it is almost insane I moved here for one or two years without never being here! I have never thought of such a thing, but it is crazy.

I feel lost and miss my friends in Nepal, but the funny thing is that since I have left I already had three chats and two conversation on skype. So thankful to the technology, I feel "connected" all the time. I just said good-bye to my friends but in less than 24 hours we are already talking about my flight, what they are eating for dinner etc etc.

Tomorrow I will be going to the office to meet my new colleagues, do paper work and so forth. I am sure I have much more to report!

赴任地に到着しました。飛行機から見た海の青いこと青いことそして、珊瑚礁のターコイズの色がハッとするほど綺麗。上から高そうなリゾートもいっぱい見えた。泊まっているのはプールこそはないけど、タイレストランに付属しているブティクホテル。パッタイをお腹一杯食べて、ほとんど寝てないので（生まれて初めてビジネスクラスに乗ったのに！）今日は早めに寝ることにしよう。心細い気持ちを噛み締めながら。それにしてもこの気持ちは、どこにいってもいくつになっても同じだな。初めてカナダに留学した時も、YMCAのボロい部屋で不安でかつ手持ち無沙汰な気分を味わったな〜。ここの赴任国も住めば都になりますように。これは妹に電話で言われたこと。ではお休みなさい。

shopping spree

次の赴任地に移動することを口実に、お買い物三昧の週末。土曜は、ベルギー人の友人とランチをした後、日本人の友達と待ち合わせて、写真を撮りつつ街をブラブラ、そして買い物。日曜は有機野菜市場に行った後は、この街で私が一番お気に入りのチベット仏教のお寺に行きまた買い物.

今週末に買ったのは

• 花柄の模様のついた可愛いボール２つ、サラダを作るのにや、ホットケーキやお好み焼きのたねを混ぜるのに丁度良い。


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  ビーズマーケットでシルバー、ゴールドともう一色ネックレス。これはその場でぱぱっとお兄さんが作ってくれて、一つ１００円するかしないかという驚きのお値段！ここの国では原則既婚女性しか付けないけど、外国人なのでそのルールは免除。


• ウールのショール、これも道端のマーケットで、友達とお揃いで。これから南国に行くのになぜと言う気もするけど、きっと職場はクーラーきき過ぎで寒いはず


• 新ショウガ（すりおろしてハチミツにつけておくと飲み物や料理に使えて便利


• 本４冊、次の赴任地で一人の時間を有効に読書に費やすつもりで


• グレーのウィンドブレイカー、雨降りや、ビーチで活躍しそうな、ポケットから裏返していけば小さいポーチに入った形になる優れも


• 瞑想用の座布団二組、次の赴任地で、今年始めたにも関わらず、続かなかった瞑想を、もう一度トライ！

Such a productive weekend!! 散財したなーと思って計算してみたら、１万円も使ってませんでした。チベッタンチェストは、もうちょっと見てから決めることに。お値段のはるものはなかなか決断できない私．．．。

Re-living the emotions

One of the positive things about keeping this blog is that I can read past entries and remember how I was feeling back then. Of course, I do not write everything that happened in my life or how I feel, as something is too personal and I “censor” the content sometimes so that my family and friends do not worry too much. I was reading some entries from November- December 2008. This is precisely three years ago when I was getting ready to take the previous UN post in this country. I seemed to have wanted to postpone the departure, feeling nervous about moving and sad about saying good-byes. Very similar to how I am feeling. I even described it as “pulling off a bandage” to do this quickly and get over with the pain. Going through the same emotion and same thought patterns, I wonder if I haven’t grown since then, but then again it gives me some kind of assurance that “I felt that way, but, look, everything turned out all right or even better than all right at the end. So, you will manage this time, too. ” Luckily this time, my departure is not as traumatic as three years ago. I am not moving to the other side of the world; I will be almost in a same time zone (1 hour difference) in a more or less same region; I preliminarily plan to come back in February next year for a short visit; I could leave some stuff here etc; I have already worked with the UN and have a better idea of what it is going to be like.

There are certainly things that do worry me. I have never worked in a Muslim country before; the aid community is very small there, so there would not be many expats. I am not sure if there are many activities to do in the evening on the weekend on such a tiny island, which may seem trivial but is very important for me to maintain a good quality of life. But, I have to remember, I could have chosen to stay in NY and live there rather comfortably, but I opted for this- the excitement of a new country, learning different culture and being close to the “field” and feeling much more fulfilled with my work. So, there you go, I will have all that and tons of seafood and fish in addition, not to mention the beautiful beaches!

To-Do-List

About three weeks remains till the departure. A resignation letter was submitted. I am booked on a flight on 29th. I will be working until the last Friday before I leave, and I need to make a thorough to-do-list and start getting ready.

Things I need to do:
- Shopping (books, Tibetan chest, some scarves, cushion covers etc)
- Frame my photos
- Dentist appointment
- Go to massages as often as possible
- Exercise and get healthy
- Spend as much time as possible with friends
- Getting a cargo company to pack my stuff and ship
- Organize a party to invite people to say good-bye and thank them (maybe two: one work related and another friends only)
- If possible, another weekend trip where I can see mountains
Where do I start?
On the weekend, I crossed off `going to a movie theater` (even though it was in Hindi with no sub-title, managed to follow the story..) organized another dinner party.