Impulsive shopping

Saw on a window of a store and bought it immediately. One of a few things that I actually bought for my apartment in this country. 

帽子

By the way, it's been a while since she has gone back, but my mother did complete the summer hat that she started knitting before she left. 早速、週末に出掛ける時は被っています。こんなにつばが広いのは持っていないので、重宝します。お母さんどうもありがとう。分かりにくいけど、紺色です、ちなみに。今週くらいから雨が降り始めたんだけどね。

ははきたる

My mother has come to visit me from Japan this week with a suitcase full of japanese food! We are off to a resort island tomorrow morning. I hope she enjoys it. So nice to have her around.  She brought some knitting yarns and says she will complete a hat by the end of her stay here.    

ジェンダーバイアスこんなところも

私の主な仕事は、ジェンダー主流化というもので、主流化なんて言っても一体何のことか一般の人には分からない。簡単に言えば、政策とか国のプログラムに女性の視点を取り入れて、女性も男性も同じように、恩恵を受けたりサービスを受けたりできるようにしよう。そのプロセスで、女性の地位が上がるようにしていこうというもの。

なので、普段は例えば、新しいプロジェクト文書を読んだり、会議に出たりして、”地域住民の視点が反映されているって言っているけど、参加者リストを見ても女性の名前が全然ないんですけど”なんてことを言ったりする仕事。ジェンダー専門官なんてたいそうな名前が付いているけど、実際は壊れたレコードのように、女性は弱者は？と繰り返し言うだけの誰にでもできる、コモンセンスさえあればできる仕事。正に言わばno rocket scienceである。

だけどこんな単純なことなのに、それがあきれるほど実行されていないから、私みたいな仕事が存在するわけでもある。

今度この国で、すべての島で地域行政にアドバイザリーの形で関わる、女性開発委員会の委員の選挙が行われることになっている。この選挙については言いたいことは、もちろんたくさんあるんだけど、（あえては言わないけども）その候補者に配布する、手引書みたいなのの原案を今日書いていた。私が書いていたのは２ページほどの選挙運動のやり方とか、人前で話す時の注意点、スピーチの書き方等。なるべく安価にする為に、デザイナーを雇うわけでもないので、ネットでいくつかのクリップアートを探していた。選挙関係のテーマに一致するものを。そこで気が付いたのがクリップアートは、ほとんどのイメージが男性で、女性のイラストがあまり見つからなかった。こんなところにもちょっとしたジェンダーバイアスがあるのかと正直少しむっとしてしまった。

Seminar, meetings and workshop

Finally getting over the withdrawal and becoming immersed in my job. This week, I am attending a two day seminar on anti-trafficking, then a colleague from my regional office comes on mission. I have to accompany her to a number of meetings with government partners, NGOs and political parties. Next week, I am organizing a four day workshop on gender and national budgeting issues where I am also a participant. The next two weeks will be a non-stop engagement, and in the meantime I also need to work (desk work) to plan activities for the next two months. I have recently taken over a chair position of one internal coordination mechanism/ committee, so I also have to plan for this. All of these things are, even though they are gender related issues, relatively new to me and provide great learning opportunities.       

バンコク観光その２

 Dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant. Sipping watermelon+ vodka cocktail

Street food in China town, everything absolutely deep fried!

The trip was just perfect with over-injection of fun, joy and great food.  I am suffering from a severe withdrawal symptom. sigh....  Now counting days till the next holiday when my mother comes for a visit! 

バンコク観光

 Getting on the long tail boat after visiting a floating market. The market itself was not what I expected. Nonetheless, it was nice to go through the water canal, looking at traditional houses and colorful temples.

Lumphini Park- I guess it is the equivalent of Central Park in NY. It is too hot to relax there during the day time, though....  I know now why shopping malls are so popular here. It is simply too hot to walk around and shop!  I am not a big fan of malls, but I understand the logic. 

Colors of Bangkok

３泊４日のバンコクの逃避行から帰ってきました。ネパールから来た彼と合流して、のんびりバンコクを満喫。

運河のボートツアーで水上市場に行ったり、中華街を散策したり。熱射病で倒れるかと思うぐらい暑かったけど、汗をだらだらかきながらもバンコクを歩き回った。後で地図で確認したら６キロは歩いていた日もあった。炎天下にあり得ない！美味しい物もたくさん食べた。ホテルの近くにあった、２４時間営業のスーパーの中の安食堂みたいなところでも何回か食べたけど、そこでもチープな美味しいさがあって何だか楽しい。目の前のカウンターの中で、ハンバーグやらケッチャップライスやらパッタイなどのジャンキーな物がどんどん出来上がっていくのを見ているのも壮観。飲茶や韓国料理、フレンチも堪能しました。モスバーガーも行ったし、ロイスのチョコレートチップスも食べた。それにしてもバンコクには何でもあるね。NY以上に日本の物があるのがすごい！もちろん紀ノ国屋で本も買ったよ。キットカットチョコを食べながら、久しぶりにハリウッド映画も映画館で見た。ハンガーゲームズというので、映画自体は正直お薦めできないけど、映画館に行くっていうだけでテンション上がってしまう。安上がりな自分に笑ってしまう。

泊まったホテルがすっごくシックで、天井から水が流れる、インフィニィティスタイルのジャグジー（よく分からないよね　笑）があって、お風呂に飢えている私としては、ミントのバスソルトを入れて3回も入ってしまった。

今回はお買い物はあまりしなかった。買ったのは新しいサンダルだけ、伊勢丹で！たくさん買い物してやれという意気込み満々で行ったのだけど、いざとなるとそんなに欲しいものも見つからないし、値段を見ると馬鹿らしくなる物も多いし、色々見て回る忍耐力を欠いていることが分かった。

Self funded R&R

This week, I was supposed to be in Dhaka to attend a four-day workshop. I was really looking forward to going somewhere, and it was canceled at the last minute. I was very disappointed and almost upset. I have planned my work around it, and I had prepared for it. Even though I was not too excited about going to another south asian country, it was still going to be very nice to get away from this city, meet other colleagues etc etc.

So, instead, I have decided to go to Bangkok this weekend with two extra leave days. It is a convenient excuse to say that my mental health is more important than saving money. I am not sure if I could justify spending this much just to go for 4 days, but the idea of going there makes me this happy. Then, it's worth it. It is in a way a self funded R&R. May be hard to imagine why I would need one in this tropical paradise country, but you really do!

Work-wise it actually worked out better. I have a consultant since last week who is working with me. I was going to manage it remotely, but I have benefitted a lot by being here and interacting with him.

Can't wait!

お気に入りスポット

首都にあるホテルの屋上のレストラン。値段は高いけど、眺めが最高。

夕暮れ時の変わりゆく空の色。

これで良く冷えた白ワインでも飲めると最高なんだけど、そこは残念ながらフルーツジュース。

週末はここでゆっくり一人でお昼を食べたり、本を読んだりすることもある。すべてが夕方まで閉まっている絶望的な金曜日の救いでもある。

望郷

Photo credit: My mother, Kyoto Yamashina Sosui Canal

I think cherry flower is one of the most beautiful things in the world. Something so special that cannot be compared with other flowers.

Wish I was there.

When was the last time I was there during the sakura season?

さくら見たいなー。

海の色

Turquoise color water- gradates to a darker shades of blue as it goes deeper, so transparent and you can look right through it. -on sunny Friday on a diving day trip

今日の格言

今のアパートに引っ越してきた時に、家の壁に付いていた付箋のメッセージ。あなたに起こるすべてのことはあなたに起こりうる最善のことなのです。

赴任当初はちょっと落ち込んでいたので、何だか少しなぐさめられた。前の住人の不思議な置き土産。

1Q progress review

If I say a review of the first quarter, it sounds like work-related, but it is not. It is April 1 today, and I realized that already one-fourth of the year is over. How quick!! Then, I thought should review progress on my new year's resolutions. I had to go back and read my January entry to remember what I have resolved.... it would probably tell the state of progress...

Here I go:

• Going to the gym 3/ week- I do try. I probably go on average twice a week. I run on a treadmill 4-5 kilometers and normally join a group class.
• Getting the PADI open water diving certificate- I have completed 80% now, and if I manage to go this weekend twice, I will be done! My new objective is to buy a nice under-water camera and capture the amazing under water wonderland. Need to research cameras, anyone any tips??
• Read a book/ 2 weeks in English- I have read so far Leaving Mother Lake, Sold, The Color Purple, The Bonesetter's Daughter, now I have about three books that I started but not finished. These were all good and recommended if you haven't read them.
• Be healthy and eat well- this is unfortunately the least performing department. I have stress-ate and my waistline has significantly expanded. Need to go on a restricted diet to be able to stay with my current wardrobe..
• Be independent and self-sufficient- this is hard to measure and abstract. I did not set "indicators" as such. I guess I have gotten used to spending time alone but I am still far from 自立する need to work it more but not sure how to do that exactly.

So, how do I do overall? What score will you give me?

A few more personal projects are coming up...

Weekend away

Went away to a resort nearby. An acquittance of mine (I guess she is my friend now!) happened to be coming this way, so I decided to go along. Just a 30 mins speed boat ride, here I am in front of indigo ocean and on a white sand beach!

I didn't do anything special, sitting by a pool, mostly reading, sipping soda water etc... It is refreshing to be away from the chaos in the capital.

This was one of the reasonable resorts (about 220 USD with full board, cheap for the standard in this country!). The food was mediocre, but it was simple and adequate. I enjoyed the stay.

Sitting on a lounge chair, watching the sunset and beautiful colors of the sky... I guess you don't really need much more!

明日からまた仕事頑張ろうっと！

となりのしまにおつかい

Taking a 10 minutes boat ride

going to pick up dry cleaning

to the next island

crescent moon above dark water

海のモチーフ

デザイン変えてみた。どうでしょう？見にくい？？最近海岸で撮った写真です。ちょっとやらせが入っているけど、というのは貝のレイアウトを自分で変えてから写真を撮ったので。

こういうミクロでアップの写真が大好き。森の中の森とか、海岸の砂浜の一角に広がる小さな世界。箱庭の世界。道端に落ちてる葉っぱや石や、ふとしたカフェのテーブルに飾ってある花や、見逃してしまいそうな小さな花に一瞬の感動や美しさを感じる。ダイブで潜ると、珊瑚も一つの森のよう。泳ぎながら、この色良いなーとか、その色の組み合わせと来たか！なんて魚に心の中で突っ込みを入れながら水中のワンダーランドを楽しむ。

光の調節とか使い方が分かり始めたので、夕方の写真とかサンセットとかなかなか前よりは上手く撮れるようになってきた。オンラインで写真のクラス取ろうかな〜。

Island Life

自転車に乗っている人が多い。カーボンフリーな生活。首都では滅多に見かけないけどここでは女性も。

Island Life

デザートはバナナ！

週末の楽しみ

Today's menu was a tower of banana-cinnamon pancakes, vegetable scramble eggs and fruit salad- having friends over for breakfast on the weekend. It's one of a few ways to enjoy ourselves in this rather quiet (dull- if I am blatantly honest!) place. As soon as I can get hold of some Japanese rice, I can host a sushi party!

Mission report

Back from the trip to the north. One hour flight and speedboat trips.

This time I visited three islands and met with local government stakeholders, community organizations and women and men in the community. Very good insight to the gender issues and island life in general! We worked hard. We even had meetings at night starting 8:30 after the prayer time.

I was traveling with a national colleague whose parents are from this area. We got invited to dinner at her relative's house and got to enjoy a local feast! On the photo, typical local breakfast: thick roti type thing with coconut, and shredded tuna and coconut with lime, onion and chili. Very tasty!

White sand and walls made of coral stones. Picturesque little street lined with coconut trees

Always feel re-energized and motivated after coming back from field missions. This week, we have a validation workshop to present findings (partly of this trip) and analysis of gender issues with central level government stakeholders.

国内出張第２弾！

Going off to the northern area to visit a few islands in order to have some consultations with local government and communities!

It is difficult to push activities through now due to the political situation, so even a small activity makes me really excited! Contrary to the time when I was in Nepal, I do not have many opportunities to travel outside of the capital in this country. Traveling can be very costly, as it involves normally both air and sea transportation quite expectedly. I used to go on field missions almost every month in Nepal. I love these trips even with sub-standard hotels and long travels, as I get to see the real issues in the country and interact more with national partners and colleagues. Building relations is one of the important parts of the job.

Upload photos and entries when I am back.

Trouble continues at it rains heavily

昨日の夜は一連の抗議行動が始まって以来、一番酷かった。血を流して倒れている人の映像がニュースに映されて、他の島でも警察署や裁判所が放火された。刑務所でも囚人が逃げてスピードボートで首都に向かっているなんて怖い噂も出回る程。

私は昨日の昼前に会議で職場に行ったけど、数時間後にまた自宅待機の勧告。私は緊急の仕事はないので、引き続き今日も家です。

今日は朝からこの国の状況を象徴するような激しい雨。スピーカーから流れてくるお祈りも物悲しく聞こえる。

Trouble in the Paradise

The country made it to the front page of the BBC World news. Have you headr about the big news?? Due to political instability and possible security risks, today and tomorrow we have to stay (work from) home. The not so well known side of this sunny vacation destination country may be a bit more recognized now. So no more making fun of me that I am "working" in this country (rather than vacationing!).

I may have to cancel a mission and some planned events, which I have to say is very disappointing. Amidst the instability and uncertainty the life goes and the work has to be continued. Everything cannot come to a complete halt because of this though we need to make sure that security of staff is not compromised. There would be lots of implication for work ahead.

My Sanctuary

蓮や葉っぱ、唐辛子モチーフの散らばる、ホッとできる私のアパート。

窓からは国立のサッカー競技場が見渡せる。まだ試合が行われているのを見たことないけどね。

Match Box City

世界一人口密度が高いという

マッチ箱を重ねた街で

The world just expanded

週末に初ダイビングを経験。私は元々すごく恐がりだし、自分がダイビングするなんて想像したこともなかったけど、挑戦してみようという気になったのだ。

パニックに陥ったらどうしようとか、水に入る前はかなり心配だったんだけど、以外に落ち着いていた。息を吸うのとはくのに集中しているので、なんだかヨガのプラナヤマ（呼吸法？）をしている気分になった。最高で８メーターくらいまで降下。上を見ると怖くなってしまいそうだったので、兎に角下を向いて考えないようにしていた。

これからオープンウォーターの資格を取るつもりです。ダイビングができるようになったら世界が広がるなと思った。今まで行けなかった水の中にいける訳だし、あまり興味のなかった国や場所も、海が綺麗らしいと聞くと既に行ってみたい！と思ってしまう。またレーポートします。

Tried diving for the first time! It was a trial lesson. I am now ready to sign up for the open water certificate class.

Two months

I have been quiet but still alive and kicking! It's been two months since I have moved to this country and started the new job.

I finally feel a bit more accustomed to the life here. I know where to go grocery shopping (so that I do not stupidly spend 10 dollars on a broccoli) feel comfortable in my apartment, started going to a gym, found relatively affordable massage places, occasionally bring a packed lunch to the office and made a few friends.

To be really honest, I almost regretted taking this job and coming here without knowing so much how the life was going to be. I think I have come to terms with the reality in a way. I will make most of it while I am here and try to learn as much as possible.

On the job front, it still feels rocky. Contrary to how you would imagine this country as a paradise on a beach, the political situation has become very volatile in the past few weeks. Our organization is also criticized for different reasons, and our work may be in jeopardy. I can't write so much about it, but this has created an environment where talking about gender issues has become much more difficult. It is hard to tip-toe around the issue when we are working with women's empowerment and gender equality. I hope I will be able to achieve some results in this situation. I have ups and downs but still remain hopeful that I will enjoy the work here.

In mid-January, I went on my first mission in the country. It was very interesting to see the life outside of the capital. I am hoping to go on another one in a few weeks. Traveling is very expensive in this country, so I have been advised to be careful with expenses. I have a very limited budget.

今年は

日本にいないとお正月の実感ってあんまりない。紅白も、年越しそばも、おせちも、初詣も、こたつ＆みかんもない。こちらは、かろうじて１日はお休みだったけど、２日からは仕事です。年越しは、空港ホテルにて。２０１２と書かれた、真っ赤な紙の帽子を被ってのカウントダウンでした。

２０１１年はあっというまに終わってしまった。去年は、３月からNYで働いて、６月の末にはネパールに舞い戻り。そして今の仕事を１２月から始めるというとてもペースの早い一年だった。自分の人生がどんどん流れていっているのに、それに追いつけないような気持ち。でも、色々な経験もできて、たくさん本を読んだり、刺激があって良かった。その前の年は辛いことが多かったけど、これだけの変化が富んでいたにも関わらず、精神的にはまあ安定していたかな。

今年は、自分が成長したと実感できる一年にしたい。まずは、人には頼らず精神的に自立すること。去年は中途半端だったので、今年こそはもっと体を動かして（目標ジム週三で）、健康的な食事を心がけて、ダイビングの資格を取ること！できれば写真のクラスもオンラインで取りたい。あとは、２週間に１冊英語の本を読むことと瞑想。簡単そうだけど、なかなかできないんだなこれが。

環境が急激に変って、ちょっと正直落ち込み気味だったんだけど、気持ちを入れ替えて頑張ろう。年女なのに厄年っていうのが腑に落ちないけどね。

皆に取って２０１２年が素晴らしい年になりますように。

今年も宜しくお願いします。

２０１２年もどうぞ宜しくお願い致します。今年の目標はただ今考え中。近日中に発表の予定。

Found an apt finally...

やっとお家が決まった。一安心。予算大幅オーバーだけど、取り敢えずここならと思えるアパートなので、良かった。兎に角ホテル暮らしは辛いので、自分の生活を始められるのが嬉しい。８階のお部屋で、日当り良好, 眺めも悪くない。家具の趣味もまあまあかな。強いて言えばもう少し海が見えれば、ベターなのだけど。ビルとビルの間から少しは覗くオーシャンビュー。このアパートに１年間住むかは分からないけど、ベッドルームは二つあるし、どんどん友達や家族に遊びにきて欲しい！それにしても、こっちの家賃の高さには驚き、正にマンハッタン並みである。明日、入居です。

Fashion File ／現地ファッション事情

Before I came to this country, I was advised to particularly dress conservatively, when you are young. Though I am not so young, I do look young. Extreme difference between resorts where you can pretty much be naked with a tiny mini bikini while in the Manhattan and on other residential islands, you are expected to dress "respectfully" and "decently". My Kurti shirts that I have been wearing in Nepal and knee length skirts that have been tacked away in my closet for the past two to three years (as the trend was a bit shorter skirts recent years) are once again in my heavy-rotation wardrobe list. No short skirt, no open neck shirt and no no-sleeves in the office and not so much on the street.

As I observe on the street, I would say 80% of women wear hijab (head scarf) and a small minority wears the black head-to-toe veil (not bulka need to research the name). So, the covered percentage is quite high. But, most of them wear modern clothes with hijab. In the office, the percentage is much lower, and some of the ladies are very fashionable with tight trousers. They must be quite progressive to work in the UN.

As much as I miss wearing my nice summer dresses, I am relieved that there is not a so super strict dress code. And at a same time, I also do feel relieved that this is more or less non-consumerism, no high-pressure-to-dress-nicely and always have up to date outfits environment. I do love shopping and dressing up, but I find it hard now to be in a hyper capitalist- consumerism society where you are made to feel inadequate if you don't have this and that and end up almost compulsively want to buy things just because.

こちらは宗教上、あまり足と言うか肌を出すのが御法度なので、数年前にはやっていた膝丈スカートが大活躍。最近は短いのが主流（だと思うんだけど）なので、着る機会がなかったので、何だか嬉しい。後は、ネパールで着ていたチュニックのシャツは露出度が低いし体の線も出ないので、丁度良い。来週、インドに出張に行くので、また何か買ってこようかなー。ベールを被った女性の隣をノースリーブで太腿もむき出しにした観光客が通り過ぎて行く、なんともおかしな構図のこの街。ここ最近は、週末にしか着れないカジュアルだけど可愛い服（ジーンズやオフィスでは着れないスカートやワンピース）を買ってそれを着るのが好きだったんだけど、この生活では現地スタイルと、その外とリゾートで着る服のギャップが反動でどんどんエスカレートしていきそうで怖い。

Trip to Sin Island

ここマンハッタンは宗教上の理由で禁酒なのですが、ボートで１０分海を渡ればお酒の飲めるホテルがある！他の国連機関の女性に連れていってもらった。元々、お酒なんてほとんど飲まないし飲めないんだけど、ダメと言われると飲みたくなくなるもの。久しぶりにビール飲んだ。おいしかった。今日が週の始めなので１０時前には帰ってきたけどね。たまにはこんな息抜きも必要なんだろうな。

Got out of dry Manhattan and escaped to an island by a 10 min boat ride. One hotel serves alcohol there! A glass of beer at pool side is good occasionally.

マンハッタン散策

この街、首都の島、これから便宜上マンハッタンと呼ぶことにしましたので、悪しからず。Mの字しか一致してないけどね。週末の金土（言い慣れない）は街の散策とお家探し。お店がいつ閉まっていつ開くのがまだ把握できていないので、金曜日はスーパーが開くのを１時間近く待たなければいけなかった。レストランなんて４時まで開かないので、空腹と水分不足で倒れそうになったよ。スーパーにちゃんとした物が売っているのか、かなりのドキドキだったけど、ピーマンとかズッキーニの野菜やチーズ・ヨーグルトも売っていたので安心した。これだけでも週末の収穫と言えるかも。今のところはホームシックにもならず、元気にしているので御心配なく。あまりにも暇で、話す人もいないので、思わず隣のベンチに座っていたインド人のおじさんと世間話しちゃったけどね。家探しのことは詳しくまた後で書きます。

To make things easier and more fun, I have unilaterally decided to call this capital city island "manhattan" since both start with 'm' and I am going to find all the other similarities between these two places that I lived this year. Yes, I am very ambitious!

It is interesting to discover the city. I was really nervous yesterday. That was not because I was making a big presentation or going on a speedboat. I walked into a supermarket! I was warned about the lack of fresh produce and other luxury items in this country prior to coming here. Eating and cooking are one of the most important things in my life. I was very much relieved to see not a wide range but decent fruit and vegetables and cheese& yogurt on the shelf. Expensive but manageable. I also made a visit to a sleepy produce market where I found bananas, coconut, papaya and watermelon. I have to ask my family to send a stock of Japanese ingredient, but I think I could survive. To be honest I was quite scared about the life here and felt negative before coming. I am sure there will be different challenges ahead, but for now I remain positive and optimistic. I forgot that one of my good “cho-sho” was supposed to be flexibility and ability to adopt to a new environment. It is also all about perspectives. My Pakistani colleague made a comment how easy the life is here, being able to walk on her own etc compared to her country. Stares and occasional comments from guys on the street do annoy me, but I livd with worse in Guyana.

I spent the whole Friday alone. Shops are not open until 2:30. Walking around the city, I was on a verge of passing out being so dehydrated and hungry. Most of the restaurants only open at 4. Luckily, I found one restaurant in a nice hotel, which was about to close in 10 mins. They kindly let me in and stay for an hour until I finished easting. I was so bored while waiting for shops to open, and I struck a conversation with Indian businessman who was sitting on a bench next me. He imports vegetables and spices from India to this country.

Costs of living- expensive in general. Nicer hotels and restaurant even in the capital which is not so much touristic quote prices in USD. One dish can easily cost 10-15 dollars. Taxi is affordable. No matter how far you go on the island, it is a set price for about $1.3 though you cannot go that far on this Manhattan. Lunch at a local restaurant for tuna sandwich with french fries& mineral water was about $2.

I will write about apartment hunting later.

New Timetable

I have to get used to the new timetable in my new life; my weekend starts on Friday; shops close one to two hours throughout a day according to the prayer time, which I haven't figured out. I need to plan my days around that.

I worked the full day on the first day on Thursday. I was introduced to my colleagues, bought a sim card for my newly purchased phone (!), got an e-mail address and ID card and had a security briefing. Good progress, isn't it! Unfortunately, I was not given a private office as I hoped, but I will be sharing an office with another 3 people who all work for the same office. I don’t have an ocean view (the office seems as congested as the city and as I could see only three most senior people have their own room- lack of space everywhere in this country or at least in the capital.) but a kind of garden view of a courtyard. I can surely live with this. The most importantly, my immediate colleagues are very nice: Filipino lady, Pakistani intern and another national staff that I did not meet yet. I am yet to meet my big boss who is currently on paternity leave and another boss in the regional office in Delhi, India, as I have two reporting lines.

I am the only person in the office who work for this new UN agency that has been established since the beginning of this year for women’s empowerment and gender equality. There is lots of gender work to be done, and certainly a job is already cut out for me, which is good. On my very first day (when I planned to sneak out early....) I was given more than 40 resumes to review and create a short list. Next week, I will be in a series of consultation meetings in addition to more briefings. I look forward to getting busy and immersing myself in work. The UN is very small in this country, and in total there are only 11 expatriate staff.

I had lunch with Nepali international staff, who happened to be a friend of the landlady of the apartment in Katmandu. Such a small world! In the evening, I was invited to a dinner by UNICEF Rep and other colleagues and had wonderful crab curry and panacotta.

My focus now is to find an apartment as soon as possible. I will look at a couple of places this weekend. Wish me luck! Having a nice place is crucial in a place like this, where I will be spending lots of time by myself at home.

I was somehow misinformed about the office time. I read somewhere that the working hour is 7:30 to 3 without a lunch break. However, it turned out that it is a flex time between 8-9 and then you work till 4 or 5 with lunch break. Phew, I was not sure how I wold work the whole day without refueling...

買っちゃった

使いこなせないだろうけど、こんな出費はjustifyできないのだけど、ドーハの空港で買ってしまった。

Upgraded from my cheap phone to an i-phone..... finally trying to catch up with the technology. Impulsive shopping at Doha Airport.

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。


• 
  
  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.

新たな出発/ New Beginning

次の行き先が決まりました。インド洋に浮かぶ、スリランカのお隣のリゾートで有名な島国です。ここの国連オフィスで、プログラムスペシャリストとしてジェンダーの仕事。このポストは今年の５月頃公募され、NYにいたときに応募したもの。筆記試験と２度の面接を経てめでたく獲得！オファーが出るまで４ヶ月だったので、国連にしては早いほうかもね。赴任は１２月の頭の予定。

３年間いた慣れた今の国を離れるのは、正直寂しい。だからといって、ずっとここにもいられれないし、最近は飽和状態になりつつあるので、実際は潮時こもしれない。でも、また新しい土地でゼロから生活を立ち上げていかないといけないと思うと、気が遠くなるのも確か。ひとつの所に留まることもできないし、かと言って移動するのも大変。根無し草のエイドワーカーの悲しい運命。現状に甘えていることはできないし、変わっていかないことなんてないし、自分も変わっていかないといけない。日々チャレンジ！と自分を奮い立たせて頑張ってみるつもり。一体どんな国で、どんな新しい出会いがあるのだろう。不安に思うこともたくさんあるけど、前進あるのみ！

もしかしたらキャリア的にも転機になるかもしれない。開発業界でこつこつ経験を積んで、まだまだ未熟なんだけど、ここにきてようやく選ぶことが少し可能になった。NYで働いていた時に、勤務していた部署から実は仕事のオファーを頂いていた。でも仕事の内容や、グレード（国際公務員のレベル）がJPOの時と同じということもあり、条件的には比較にならないコンサルタントの仕事を選んで戻ってきた。周りにはもったいない！と言われたけど。今回は、今のコンサル契約をあと４ヶ月延ばして、ここに留まることもできた。でも、正規職員で希望していたレベルのポストだし、仕事内容も興味深かったので、オファーを受けることに決めた。今までは必死で働いて必死で仕事に応募して、選ぶ贅沢なんてなかったのだけど、選べるとなると、それはそれで難しい。今年は２回もこんなことで頭を悩ませて、疲れたよ。自分のやりたいことは何なのか、何を目指すのか、キャリヤやプライベートのことも含めて、考えて考えて日々模索。答えなんて簡単には出ないけど、そのプロセスが大事なのかもね。

今と同じジェンダーの仕事なんだけど、女性への暴力に特化した内容ではなくて、幅広く女性の政治や社会参画という新しいエリアに関われるようなので、専門性を多様化できるチャンスかもしれないので、頑張ろう。

I am moving to a new country. Islands in the Indian Ocean next to Sri Lanka, famous for its beautiful beach. Please look it up on a map! I am not going there for a holiday unfortunately. I got a new job! Programme Specialist focusing on gender, which I applied back in April this year. I am planning to start my new post at the beginning of December, given all paperwork is in place.

I am certainly sad to leave the country which I called home for the past three years. I have never stayed in one place for such a long time past 15 years! This was a real luxury, I found, to have this type of stability. I got used to the life here, have many wonderful friends, enjoy the work for the most part. Frankly speaking, I am little scared to let everything go. However, what I have now or had before do not remain the same. My friends are leaving; the office situation is not so good; there is not so much room to grow professionally anymore and I do need a new challenge. So,it is the right timing. This is the life of development worker that I chose.

I will be working for another UN agency to be responsible for gender programming of the UN in the country. I will be doing more than gender based violence, so it will be an excellent opportunity to diversify the focus of my work. More details to come...

Madagascar続き

こんな感じで１８日間の長い！と行く前には思ったお休みは、すぐに終わってしまった。帰りはバンコクに１泊して、デパ地下みたいなところで、日本食を買い込み、紀伊国屋で本を買い、今まで食べた中で一番美味しかったタイ料理を食べてきた！大満足の休暇でした。帰りたくないって思うかなと思いきや、日常もそろそろ恋しくなってきたので、丁度良い長さでした。

一人で飛行機に乗ってどこでも行くのに慣れていた私は、誰かと一緒って良いな〜ってつくづく思った。機内で到着地の現地時間がアナウンスされる時、いつも腕時計の時間を直すのを躊躇してしまう。なぜかと言うと、よくあるパターンは、去った場所に大事な人を残してきているので、その人のいる地域と同じ時間を刻んでいる時計の時間を、変えるのがとてつもなく寂しいから。もう同じタイムゾーンにいないことを否定したいようなそんな気持ち。今回何のためらいもなく時計の時間を変えた自分に気が付いて、それが何だか嬉しかった。

It was nice to have a compnay for traveling, though I am used to getting on a plane and going somewhere on my own. I normally hesitate to adjust my watch when the time of destination gets announced on a plane. I usually leave someone behind. I feel sad to change the time of the watch that is ticking the same time as him, as if I am in denial that I am no longer in a same zone. This time I caught myself immediately changing the time on my watch, and such little thing made me feel happy.

I got used to the luxury of spending 24/7 with my boyfriend during the trip. Now back in the country he works late every day, and I miss him, and that is the downside of the holiday.

Forest Lodge

ロッジの中のダイニングホール。食事はここで頂く。セルフサービスでコーヒーやクッキーもあるし、色々な種類のラム酒も！バニラとオレンジ味のラムが私のお気に入り。
熱帯低気圧にも負けず、良い働きを見せた私のてるてる坊主！
６日間の滞在の最期の３日は、お部屋がいっぱいだったため、特別に海岸にテントをはってもらい、そこで寝起きをした、テントの目の前はこんな感じ。夜、寝ていると耳の横で波の音がしているような気分になるほど。近くの村の人がたまーに通るくらいで、誰もいない贅沢なプライベートビーチ。寝そべって本を読んだり、ヨガをしたり。

Wait for the third wave

The second half of our trip was to the northeastern side of the island. This was the highlight of the holiday,

I have stayed in two eco-resort places in Guyana before, and they were both excellent. However, this place, Masoala Forest Lodge was superb. You can't ask for better settings. It consists of 6 tents, and the maximum capacity is only 12 people. It is located in a remote part of the Masoala National Park. There is a large dining hall in front of a beach. Photos will not do justice to describe the beauty of the place. Right next to the beach there is a pristine tropical rainforest, just exactly like their catch phrase “ ou la foret rencontre la mer."

Around this lodge there are two small eco lodges and a village with only 150 inhabitants. I could hear nothing but the waves of the ocean and birds& insects. A couple who manages the lodge are very warm south-african. It is as if we were staying in a relative’s home. For dinner, all the guests sit together around a large dining table, and it is a real family atmosphere. We got to chat with some lovely Swiss people and talk to the couple about Africa etc. Even for a short time, there is a sense of community and really special…

One of the best part of the stay here was the food. It was mostly seafood from this area, fresh fruit and for both dinner and lunch always came with dessert! For someone like me who always feel deprived of fish and seafood living in a landlocked country, it was like a dream!

It is absolutely a gorgeous place, well worth the 90 minutes really bumpy speedboat ride (the second time to confront my fear during this trip.) Two German ladies who were supposed to come to the lodge with us the same morning, saw the rough sea and were too scared to get on the boat. They must have lost their booking that is not so cheap…. I was certainly really scared. I had my arms and feet tightly crutched to whatever I can hold onto, and I was full of bruises when I got off.

In the lodge, if you wish, you can walk around the rainforest as long as you want (an official guide is assigned to each group). You can also do nothing, which we did for a few days out of the six days of our stay. You could swim, snorkel or get on a sea kayak and enjoy the sunset in the Indian Ocean.

Having endured the busy travel schedule the first half of the trip, we mostly took it easy. I was reading Paulo Coelho book that my good friend gave me as a birthday gift; my boyfriend who was so loyal to our (supposed to be) strictly French speaking vacation was reading Camus novel or looking seriously into his laptop with a headphone on, as he takes a distance education music production class.

After three days of on and off rain, I got a bit fed up and was longing for some sun, especially because I wanted to swim and snorkel. The weather forecast was not favorable, so I thought of something that I used to do when I was a kid. Before some school excursions or special events, I used to pray for sun by making a special doll and hung it near the window accompanied by a special song. The doll is called, teruteru bozu (sunny sunny boy/ monk …?). I created a make-shift version of that with a handkerchief and hung it in our tent. My boyfriend thought it looked like a voodoo doll to curse someone. Believe it our not, the weather gradually improved somehow.

It was still a bit gray with occasional rain, but we managed to do some snorkeling and sea kayaking. I tried for the first time sea kayaking, which was not what I would normally do. I was initially scared but finally I got used to it and loved it. We did it three times in total, and every time we went one notch higher and went further. When we were trying to re-enter the sea from a beach where a few large rocks made the waves higher, the host, Chris (manager of the lodge) told us “ Waves come in a set of three, so wait for the third wave and start paddling hard.” It was exhilarating.

When you sit on the sea-kayak (different from the river one where you put your legs inside the boat), you really feel like you become part of waves. Waves move underneath you, and it is such a wonderful feeling.

The third time we kayaked along a small river. It was so quiet and peaceful. On the way back we witnessed a small drama unfolding in front of us. A hawk stole a chick of parrots from their nest, and they (parents birds) were chasing the hawk, which was holding the chick. It was a rare sight and felt like a real time national geography or documentary.

It was challenging to re-enter the ocean from the river. Waves were quite strong. As instructed by Chris, we paddled really hard, managed the first wave and then got turned over and fell into the sea. I was totally soaked, but it was so cool!

On the kayak, we saw many silver flying fish jumping, a flock of tunas, birds diving into the sea trying to catch some fish. AMAZING!

Lemurs lemurs lemurs

Our poor guide Nico was trying so hard to find more animals in the forest, but by then two us were lemur-ed out and totally content to just walk around. They are really just like the Madagascar movie!

Sun setting in Mozanbique channel

インド洋に沈む夕日。真っ白なビーチがどこまでも広がる。モザンビークから吹く風を感じながら海岸を散歩。

Madagascar vol. 5

At the Kringy nature reserve, we must have seen about 10 different kinds of lemurs between night and morning walks. Couldn't keep track of them all! Some are nocturnal and others are active during the day. We saw some of mouse lemurs, the world smallest primates. All lemurs have big round eyes, log tail and really furry. Extremely cute! Some of them curiously look right at you and others look away avoiding the torchlight. We were amazed by the eyes our guide as to how he could find these creatures among branches.

Most tourists and, I am sure, all Japanese ones will wait around in the park to time their return back to Morondova with the sunset along the famous baobab trees. Being exhausted from the tight itinerary, we opted for going back immediately hoping to spend the afternoon on the white sand beach we saw on the first day in Morondova. We still made sure to make a stop on the baobab street and saw scared baobab and baobab ameroux (two trees intertwined) to take some photos.

Chez Maggie Guest House was a charming little place right on the beach. We had a two-floor bungalow, which had a wonderful ocean breeze. We had nice lunch and enjoyed a stroll on the beach looking at the channel between Madagascar and Mozambique. For the dinner we had gigantic crab with garlic butter sauce. That must have been less than five dollars. Unbelievable! It was fun to struggle with cracking the shells.

Everything was great until me and my boyfriend got into a near argument about anti-malarial pills. Somehow, such a basic precaution for any travelers to tropics totally escaped our mind when planning the trip. Having both worked in different malarial countries and being vaccinated against almost all possible vaccinable diseases, we got de-sensitized to this kind of health precautions. The second part of the trip was to the country’s most wet region, hence malaria would be a real risk. We got really paranoid, which almost ruined our second trip, but anyway it turned out that the area where we were going is too remote for malaria mosquitoes to fly and reach. We missed our first chance to have a real fight!

Baobab- can't have enough of your photos!

Flower of the tree

バオバオの木の写真はたくさんありすぎて、載せきれません！マラウイにいた頃のことを思い出しながら、がたがたのジープの旅。

Madagascar vol.3

The first week of the trip was quite hectic, more Japanese style of moving to different places every day. The part of the trip was coordinated by a hotel in Morondova, called Chez Maggie. The tour was organized for two of us and accompanied by a guide/driver.

After taking a hour-long flight (on time, impressive!) from Tana to Morondova and having lunch at the hotel, we drove along the famous baobab avenue and through a very dry landscape to reach the Tsyngy National Park for over eight hours.

On the first night, we made a stop at a small village on the way. It is a very simple hotel with no hot water, no door to the bathroom/toilet (just a curtain), just like a hotel where I would normally stay during field missions for work. We had no expectation for dinner at a such place. As we were tying to place an order for dinner, my boyfriend whispered to my ears “maybe we shouldn’t eat meat or seafood here…” There were no vegetarian options and we ordered an appetizer and main dishes. We call this kind of experience in Japanese “fooled by fox”. A waitress brought a beautifully served five-star hotel level dishes! We had crab salad with mayonnaise, fish with coconut flavored rice, a huge fresh water prawn called Gambo followed by chocolate crape. It was delicious and we were totally positively surprised. How would we expect such a wonderful meal in a guesthouse in a middle of dusty village!?

We got up at 4 the following morning (I never get up this early even for my work.. holiday is a hard work) to reach the park, which was supposed to be the highlight of this trip. We arrived in the park office and an official guide was assigned to us. I saw the guide grabbing what it appeared to be a safety harness. I was hoping that this was not meant for us. This is UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is basically a forest of black pointy rocks (pinnacles). I could also describe it as looking like what I would imagine as a kind of torture device in hell. On the contrary, it is a sacred place for the locals where their ancestors lived. We followed our guide through a forest and it suddenly opened up to a mount of rocks. Some rocks look hostile with very pointy tips like a blade. We walked through narrow passages between rocks, taking

ladders down the cracks of rocks. I started to break into cold sweat. I am afraid of height and I hate ladders! (ladders often featured in my nightmares) It got worse when we finally had to climb up the rocks. We attach two carabineers of the harness to metal wires pre-installed on rocks for safety. I was really scared but there was no turning back!

I realized that I again had no idea what I signed up for.. If I had done more research about the place, I may have not done it (remember my experience of white water rafting in Zambezi and wild Great Wall in China, which equally had the potential to kill me). The worst part was when I had to cross a shaky suspension bridge over these pinnacles, which should have been at least fifty meters off the ground. I was almost in tears and really had to calm down myself and just to focus ahead and never to look down!

The view from the observation point at the top was great. It was just at the midday when the sun was strong, so we couldn't stay for a long time. The view was worth confronting my fear of heights.

We saw some lemurs, mongoose and birds on the way back. There were some rocks with fossils which reminded us the the ancient history when this was in the ocean. We unfortunately missed out on some geological and cultural explanations, as it was all in French.

Fear

State of meditation....

Antananarivo

It took me a while to be able to say the name of the city! My first impression of Antananarivo (Tana) was that it is like a mixture of KTM, Sarajevo (Bosnia) and Georgetown (Guyana). It's hilly with many buildings in a nice colonial style architecture yet still bit chaotic. It is a cute little valley town, and the purple of Jacaranda trees was very vivid.

We stayed in the capital city in total for four nights: first night when we arrived, another night in-between the trips to east and west two last nights in Madagascar. For all four nights, we stayed in a very charming hotel called Sakamanga. All three rooms where we stayed were really tastefully decorated. The hallways have antiques and old photos, and it was like a museum. They also have a fantastic restaurant. Highly recommended!

まだがすかるまんきつ

旅行から無事に戻っています。週末に写真と旅行記をアップロードの予定。遊びすぎで、風邪気味。