N 115…. Home Sweet Home

Yesterday I read in FB about how Burmese people are flocking to buy condos and apartments in Bangkok. It said Burmese people are making Bangkok their capital.

 With the political situation in Myanmar it is not strange to become like that. At present the economy is on the brink of collapsing. Inflation is high, prices of food and commodities have become what we haven’t heard of, the value of Myanmar kyat has plummeted that even if one is not doing any business his money would become devalued. If we have 10000 kyats in hand some time ago, this  money would worth only 3000 kyats now.

So the grassroot people who don’t earn much and are already poor are facing great difficulty for their sustenance. Hearing news about farming cannot be done in Upper Myanmar because people are on the run, and also about fields and farmlands in the Ayarwaddy Division being destroyed by pests and insects make us worry for food in the coming year. Famine is inevitable for many people.

Beside poverty and difficulties for many people our country is lacking the rule of law and order. Many people are desperate for money and so they are committing many crimes, from petty theft to robbing with weapons. The most common crimes are handphone and motorcycle  robbing or theft.

So it is not unusual that people want to flee Myanmar. Thailand is only an hour away by air,and the costs of living are affordable that Myanmar people are wanting to go and live there. But I assume that it will only be temporily . Everybody will come back when the situation improve and become normal.

But if someone ask me if I want to go and live in Thailand or some other countries I would say no. I cannot imagine living in any foreign country, where the place to live in, the surroundings, the language, the culture, the people and everything are unfamiliar and not what I am used to.

I had gone on holidays to Singapore and Melbourne for 3 times at each place when my daughters were there . We  usually visited in December staying about 1 month each time, We had wonderful experience there because the places are developed, everything nice and clean, and transportation good.

Even then we can stay not more than 1 month. After about a month of visiting places, shopping, outings we had had enough and would become homesick. So we never stayed more than one month and would head home.

So I want to say that home is the best place for me. The home I say now is my home in Taunggyi. I had written about how we live in my blog N 108”The Way we Live” It is about my household and my neighbours. Now I am writing about my house which is not a modern, grand and new one, but is livable and I like living in it.

My house was built around 1995. So it is about 25/30 years old. I moved to Yangon after I retired in 1997straight from the house in BEHS compound. I came to live in this house only when we returned from Yangon to live permanently in Taunggyi round about 2012  .

I live with my husband, my 2 daughters , one married with a son and one unmarried. So there are 6 in our family and some who do household chores for us.Each of us has our our own bedroom with TVs and bathroom attached and there are still some spare rooms left.

My 3 bookcases with books which I collected after I returned from Yangon sit in our upstair sitting room and the books which we brought back from Yangon not long ago are kept in a room transformed from the verandah.

Although I and my daughters like gardening we don’t have space to grow plants. So we grow flower plants in pots and keep them wherever we can,at a small space beside the driveway, at the foot of the brick fence or at the side of the portico where 1 car usually park. But my plants are not much healthy because there are many pests and insects which are always destroying them. Even then we cannot stay without planting, buying, and collecting more. Anyway this hobby is making use some of my spare time. And it is a pleasure to watch pretty flowers bloom from them.

I am old and frail now and cannot do much strenuous work ( which I do not need to do ) But as a habit I do much of my personal chore and also help tidying and organizing things and materials in the house. I use some of my time for religious work, do some reading and watching TV programmes  as much as my eyes permit,  use the sewing machine when need arise but only a little. Sometimes I go into the kitchen to do some cooking and visit neighbouring houses in our compound for some chit chat.

My life as a woman with hobbies and things to do is better than not having none. Doing varieties of things helps me to be more active and gain agility and my home permits me to do what I want to do It is a blessing that I can live like now and I am contented with my life.  If I am staying at another place which is not as convenient as  my home I will not be able to do so. Naturally I don’t want to move to any other place which is not my home. So in my opinion my “Home Sweet Home “ is the best place for me.

 

 

 

N 114     How I became a coffee (powder ) producer

As I had worked as a government appointed personnel all my life I have not been in the production and merchandising businesses . I retired in 1997 and stayed without doing anything , but living on what my husband provided for the family.

It was in 2015  when I suddenly realized that I wanted to produce coffee powder. after meeting my daughter’s friend who came to deliver coffee at our house in Yangon. He and his partner also produce locally made coffee roasting machines. The price of their coffee roasting machine and other expenditures was within what I can afford, and I don’t have to worry for the place and building as there surely would be one in MNT compound , which belongs to my husband.. So I decided to give it a try , to produce coffee powder with its own brand.

After ordering a roaster which will take some months I had to think about the brand name. I received some suggestions from my daughter and granddaughters , but they were not of my liking. Then the word delight which I have seen used in some Western foods came to my mind and I decided to use it along with Highland which I already liked. Highland Delight….Of course  because coffee is really the beverage  that makes people delighted, happy, content  and it is produced only in highlands   especially the highlands of Shan State..

After that looking for a designer for my coffee bag , to order the bags and to buy accessories like weighing machines and plastic bags took me to the city centre many times. As for the coffee beans to be used I ordered  one ton from Pyin Oo Lwin through some communications.

While I was busy with these processes I went to visit  Gawranji Island with some household members and friends staying only one night there.  After I returned I got Bell’s Palsy( My blog no;N  92 )and had to get treatment for a month or two. Not completely healed I returned to Taunggyi and got  more treatment.

But the disease did not affect me much. I can go around doing things and get ready to start roasting.I had bought one ton of coffee beans from Pyin Oo Lwin and later went to Ywa Ngan to buy more beans.

On one April day KKM and KAMS who produced the roaster arrived from Yangon to show us how to operate the roaster.  Because that day was an auspicious day we designated it as the opening day , but without any ceremony.

I hired only one young man as the roaster and two part timers to do packaging. The young man was not a trained roaster but he started roasting as was taught by KKM who made the roaster. Later I sent him to a short coffee roasting training. Experience also taught him to be more efficient, and now he is doing well in the work.

I produce two kinds of coffee. Highland Delight is produced using coffee beans made by wet method. By this method the red, ripe coffee beans are soaked in water and left to be fermented for some time. After that they are taken out and dried after discarding the outer coverings .By dry method coffee beans are simply dried in the sun. After they are dried they are put into a  huller  machine and crushed to separate the beans and the outer covering.

 Though they are produced by different methods both are pure Arabica coffee from Ywa Ngan district. But as the buying price of the wet method coffee is more expensive  , coffees made using this method have to be more costly than the ones using dry method.

 I have been a coffee producer for six years now and so I have experienced many mistakes and ups and downs. It is not an easy thing to start a business which is new to us. Sometimes the coffee beans would be over roasted that they cannot be used, but have to throw away. There were times when I bought more than enough (not knowing how much coffee beans will be needed)that with time the beans lost their properties and become spoiled.

Bussiness was better before the covid period, when there were hotels and teashops who would use my coffee. During covid crisis sales had gone down but it is picking up again recently, though not on a grand scale. Anyway it doesn’t affect me much as I don’t live on its income. But  the business can be said that it’s not a failure , but  a steadily growing one.

I am getting old and cannot take care of the business efficiently  now.  So I decided to hand over the business to my youngest daughter, who is young,  energetic, and inspirational. I hope the business will grow more and markets expand under her guidance,  so that  Highland Delight coffee and My Coffee reached every place and persons to fulfil their cravings for a cup of coffee every mornings , days and evenings…..

 

14^th April 2022