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.