leaving eyes...

I've always loved leaving eyes...how suddenly all of the colors are brighter and everything is a little more dear than it ever was before.

In two days I'll be in India, where I plan to travel for two weeks. I'll see wonders and beautiful places unlike any I've yet seen. When I return, I'll have three more working weeks before my best friend comes for a two week visit. I'll return to work for one or two days before flying to Thailand. I'll spend the month of June traveling to all of the places in SE Asia that I've missed in my two years here, then off to London. From London I will probably take a couple of short jaunts in Europe to see my beloved Barcelona and mates both there and possibly in Roma.

Tonight after work I will return to my island, have a drink, perhaps watch some Monty Python as I pack my bag and re-dye my hair. I know that come Tuesday, the most tremendous sequence of events will begin and even though there are a few weeks yet left in Maldives...they'll be gone in the blink of an eye.

There's something incredible about a place like this; living with people who have never seen snow, or felt anything colder than 20 (an airconditioned room) in their life unless they work in the kitchen and need a parka for the freezer room. They've never pet a dog (dogs are illegal except for the one in customs to smell for drugs). To meet a girl, guys just give each other numbers of girls from their islands. They call and chat with the girl and if they like each other, the guy will go on holiday on her island. It's the only way to meet people from other places. They can't see the point in skydiving...or any other adventure sports aside from surfing.

People in the Maldives build their own homes. There is no buying of homes here. They apply to the government for a plot of land and they have so many years to build a house on it if they are to keep it. Some people have a couple of homes because when their parent died, it was passed on to them, but perhaps they got married and moved into their husband's home. Old homes are made of coral, but new ones are all made of cement blocks.

In the north of the Maldives, many of the homes still have traditional Maldivian bathrooms: outdoors, no roof (I've never visited a home in monsoon season) and there is a well that is half in and half out of the bathroom wall, the floor is poured concrete with a drain or two. There is a toilet with no seat and no running water, but a bucket next to it. You pull a small container of water up from the well over and over again, filling the bucket so that you can bathe yourself or pour the water down the toilet (which forceably flushes it). Larger bathrooms may also have a table with a large water container on it, and most of the household dishes. This is because it's the only good place to wash the dishes, since it has drains in the floor.

On most islands there are very few if any cars. Some islands still don't have a jetty, so going to shore means either swimming from the boat or rowing in a dinghy. Status symbols here are mostly mobile phones and motorcycles. Guys will spend 6 months salary on a mobile phone. Motorcycles are almost entirely Honda Waves. Guys get this kind of far-off dreamy look in their eye when contemplating buying a motorcycle.

Then there's the local traditional music, or "bodu beru". It's African in origin, not surprising since Maldives isn't so far from Africa if you're a seaman. Maldivians are a mixed up race that has its beginnings in all of the countries touching on the Indian Ocean.

Then there are the colors...the blues from the sky and the sea are unlike anywhere else. The silky white sand blends with the sea and the sky until it all looks like a watercolor painting...and a simple one at that.

The ocean speaks here. Sometimes it's petulant like a child, other times it rages with frustration like a teenage boy. Some days it's as calm as a Buddhist in meditation. Everything inside of it communes with and supports one another. I laugh to think that parrot fish sometimes eat coral and when they poop, they poop this beautiful white sand that fills our beaches.

I will miss this place.

por los leones

-filling my senses-
@surrounding surreal@
breathing : hearts beating : sleeping
loving all endings beginnings
/never meeting; existing/
laughing : souls touching : embracing
/meeting; existing; always/
*loving dawning of love*
flying : pulses racing: entwining
#surreal surrounding#
-filling our senses -

to sleep or not to sleep...isn't the question

I saw the sunrise again today for the 6th straight day. Early start? No indeed! What may the problem be? Insomnia as ever. I'll be turning 30 in two months and I still have more energy that most teenagers.

The plague of insomnia...in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' "One Hundred Years of Solitude", it was a cause of great fear, and all the servants fled. Highly contagious, it soon infected the entire town. At first it was the most wonderful thing, all the things that everyone could accomplish! Before long they understood how terrible a thing it really was...or they would have if they could remember anything.

In Amelié, a young Amelié thought that her comatose neighbor was actually getting her whole life's sleep in one go. After that she could stay awake day and night!

What is keeping me awake these nights? Nothing in particular except a lack of sleep. I'm high strung. If anything excites or upsets me the first thing out the window is sleep...and there has been a lot to do both this week.

My daydreams about my upcoming trip to India fill my mind with such beautiful pictures that I find it hard to let go. Once asleep, dreams come as they will, not as I will them (I'm working on this: Carlos Casteneda, "The Art of Dreaming").

I have an interesting relationship with sleep. It's one of my favorite past times because I have such vivid and wonderful dreams, and yet for whole sections of my life I've rarely taken much of it because there are so many wonderful things to do both day and night!

The adult in me realises that sleep is a very good idea and has devised all sorts of methods of knocking myself out this week...but my body has often as not proved stronger. A glass or two of wine usually sends me straight to my slumbers, but last night? Not even 5 could stop me from seeing the sunrise. A double cognac in warm ginger tea is another favorite...unfortunately I tried two after my habitual large glass of wine one night. I did nod off finally at dawn, but 4 hours later was awake and fantastically thankful for my new darker sunglasses. I shan't try that one again (at least not more than one).

Today's success story? After creeping into the gym for the first time in the two years I've been here, yesterday I worked out for an hour...which of course gave me a super energy blast for the remainder of the day and night. Today I tried a two hour workout followed by dinner and meditation and now I'm very relaxed and happy to go to sleep...unfortunately I have several hours of classes still ahead of me.

sigh

the art of negotion...

Living in Asia is living in a series of negotiations. From jobs to classes, wages, prices and all of the details of a contract: everything should be negotiated. Now, to be clear: negotiating is different from bargaining. When you bargain, the goal is to try and get the best deal/price by your skills at wearing down the other person and it's set up as a sort of "friendly war". Negotiating on the other hand is about questions and information: the more information that you have, the more likely you are to be able to reach a satisfactory solution for both parties. In bargaining there is often a clear winner and a loser, but in a good negotiation both parties can be winners.

An example? Well, last week I suddenly decided to go to New Delhi and then to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I booked the ticket by phone the next morning as soon as the office opened. (For those of you who know me as NOT a morning person, you'll be surprised to know that I was their first caller at 08.01). I was told that this was a direct ticket from Male to Delhi for USD $620. "Cool," I thought," that will be easy". Later, as I was confirming the times and such along with all of the information given to me, I asked, "Ok, so that's a direct return flight from Male to Delhi?" to which the man on the other end of the line replied, "um...err, no. That's direct from Male to Trivendrum and then a direct flight from Trivendrum to Delhi." I briefly wondered if it was possible to TWO direct flights in one trip, wouldn't that make it a flight with a stopover?

Today, at the ticketing office, I understood why they classify it as two direct flights...it's because although the first flight is only 1 hour and the second flight is between 2 and 3 hours...you have to wait a full 23 hours between the flights! Because they are both "direct flights," the airline doesn't have to pay for your hotel as you wait. "Thank you. I'm going to look at my other options," I said as I left.

Over the next hour, I walked into and called all of the airlines around. The next best flight was Male-Colombo (Sri Lanka), then Colombo-Delhi in the same day over the course of about 10 hours, but it was $100 more, and I was already $300 over my budget for the ticket by going all the way to Delhi instead of somewhere closer and more affordable. (I only make USD $700 a month...and that's up from the $500 a month I was bringing home up until January because I was paying off my diploma).

There was another Indian Airlines office down the street. I tried them on a lark. "Yes madam, we can give you a return ticket, Male-Trivendrum-Delhi for only USD $850, special price.
"Are you the same as the Indian Airlines up the stree?" I queried.
"Yes, madam."
"Then why is your 'special price' $230 more than their normal price?"
"Because this is a special price, madam."
"$230 more than your same offices down the street"
"Special price madam, limited time offer."
"Hmm..." To my credit I didn't laugh or insult the poor man but instead, investigated further.
"What are the times?"
The times were the same as the other office: one hour flight, 23 hour wait, and 2-3 hour flight.
"Is there a faster way?"
"Oh, well, you can go the Madras route in the same day."
"Price?"
"Special price, madam: $1050"
At this point, I DID start laughing and said my thank you's and goodbyes.

Now, I was aware that there WAS a route that would get me there in the same day. All of my questions in the first office had availed me nothing because I didn't already know this information. Armed with my new tidbit, I went back and purchased a same day ticket from Male-Trivendrum-Chennai-Delhi which will arrive in the same day, only 10 hours and four airports after I've begun my 4 hour journey for the original price of USD $620 instead of the special fare of $1050.

It's all about negotiating the facts: the more facts you have, the better hand you can play.

happiness...

I'm fantastically happy at this moment. No, today wasn't a great day. I woke up 5 hours early (and only 3 hours after going to sleep) with a stomachache and the terrible knowledge that although I was so tired it hurt to be awake, I also wasn't going to be able to sleep again. (They've been doing drilling outside on the wall next to my bed beginning early in the morning everyday for more than a week.)

An hour later, I got a call that the boxes of English class supplies and textbooks not only hadn't been moved to the other island, but it had rained heavily on them. So...several hours before anyone is used to seeing me, I was outside face unwashed, teeth unbrushed, hastily unpacking destroyed boxes, packing things into new boxes which I had to find, calling a mate on the other island to pick them up at the jetty when they were delivered and seeing them over there myself just in case anything went wrong. I still have to go and lay the books out to dry. They're wrecked, but still photocopiable.

No, it's not circumstantial, it's internal. I'm supremely happy. Some things in my life are going to change, and I have some wonderful stops before they do.

Tonight? I've a cocktail party with the same dull superficial conversations that I've had twice a week at cocktail parties for nearly two years and then I'm going to play guitar and sing with a good friend until late.

It's a wonderful thing to have happiness flowing through your veins. It's like a spiritual raincoat. Everything just rolls right off of you. I will tell more later, but for now I will say nothing because I'm superstitious about talking about things before they happen.

I just wanted to share because so many of you reading this have written me such supportive letters and emails, not to mention the sweetest packages I've ever received as I had a very hard year last year. I promise to write more beautiful things soon. Thank you for all of your support through the good and the bad. I enjoy writing for you.

my sister always said...

 

The last time I visited my sister, she noted that there was something pathetic and homeless looking about the way I slept. Today I was downloading pictures off of my new camera and found this surprise waiting for me...looking at it, I had to admit she was right!