Changing towards happiness

I'm going to write about happiness again, but this time it's personal.

I feel that I'm happy here... what did it take? Well, going through depression (both for me and Ruben); travelling around; being really sick for 1 month; changing a job, and getting a cat :)

The path was not easy... it took some time and a lot of nerves and doubts. But now I finally:

- LOVE what i do for living. I finally unlocked myself, and everything thanks to the fact that i was not scared to risk, to let it go, to quit. I was open for a discovery, a new challenge, a way to redefine myself. And all these found me. I got not only a new job which fulfills me completely, but a great boss who is truly a life and work coach to me.

- MEET interesting people and enjoy their company; but at the same time try to avoid those who drain my energy. I can't say I have a 'best-friend-forever' here, it may or may not come, but I did clarify for myself which type of people I want to be with.

- FEEL AT HOME. Well it may not be a 'home, sweet home' feeling. But since we have got our kitten Nalatje, I almost run to get home. Because I know that this sweet cat will be waiting for me there and desperately cry of happiness when I come in (and the next moment she will go completely nuts and jump into my plate with pasta... That's a different story though :) )

- COPE with the difficulties of living in Yangon. The heat, broken pavements, lack of any kind of comfort or etiquette... This all is not so sharp for my eye anymore. I stoped noticing certain things that disgusted me so much in the beginning.

- STARTED to enjoy being different. The way I look, the country where I'm from, the languages I speak... It is all rare and different here. I don't feel self conscious anymore about the way people stare at me and what they may say ('She is so pretty!') There were moments I wanted to be like any other Burmese girls to avoid attention. Now I understand that I DO have a privilege to be different in the way people admire me. Let's see where it will bring me.

- AM AT PEACE because Ruben is finally finding solutions for all the work-related difficulties he has got. I wish that he will enjoy his life here as much as he can. I am sure he will :*

But I must admit, that Myanmar is the most unusual place I lived so far and it I'm definitely going through the life-changing experience. 

Happiness Myanmar style

For those who are wondering how life in Myanmar is I have 2 words - difficult but HAPPY :) Watch this video, it gives a snapshot about Myanmar lifestyle. 

Happy watching!

Who is Nala?

I think from now one we should change the tagline for our blog into 'Asian adventure of Lyuba, Ruben & Nala'.

Nala is a new member of our family - our little kitten girl. We have been dreaming about having a cat already in Belgium, but due to diverse factors it never happened. And since we are in Asia for undefined period of time, we decided that there is no point to postpone. 

To be honest it felt unreal that we ARE getting a cat. It's a big responsibility since me and Ruben both have 'adventure deficit disorder' , which would mean that our cat would most probably travel with us. After doing research on how to transport a cat to different countries and what is necessary for that, we decided not to hesitate. 

In the very beginning we decided that our future cat will be an adopted cat from a shelter or taken from a street. Why to buy a fancy cat if there are so many of them out there needing human's love and care? 

I wish that every newborn cat had Nala's lucky destiny - she was born on January 1, 2014 from a stray cat, but some nice people took her and her brother in their house until they could find a permanent home for them. The couple who took them posted on Facebook page of a shelter about the kittens and immediately contacted them. Actually we didn't really see a proper picture of her... Just her back - her 'owners' didn't have a better picture. But when I saw her colors I knew that this little lion should be my 'baby' :) 

Nala on the left and her brother on the right. I couldn't clearly see her, but I knew she was a cutie

We were preparing to receive Nalatje literally as before having a real baby: read about what to buy; went shopping to buy all nice 'girlie' equipment and food for her; kitten-proofed our flat so she couldn't get hurt. I was concerned if she would like us, or maybe she get would get scared in a taxi on the way home, if she likes her cat house. 

When we arrived for her she was sleeping in her little house; she was shy while her brother was really active and playful. I could see she has a bit of eye infection and some fleas. But that is easy to treat. For me she was already beautiful. I'm used to have cats and kittens and I can immediately say if the kitten going to be a beautiful cat. 

She was so calm in the taxi; she liked her little cage-house we chose for transporting her. That evening we also took her to vet to get some treatment and decided when we can start giving her all necessary shots. 

Nala behaved so nicely! Almost didn't cry, ate well and used her litter box. I was amazed how smart she is! She was trying to hide a bit and apparently her favorite spot is behind washing machine (even while it's working). 

Nala's favourite place and her toy

Today is a second day since she with us. It was difficult for me to leave her this morning as both of us have work to do. I was constantly thinking about her, if she is okay and if she is not scared. But apparently Nalatje get used to the flat very fast - she already slept under our bed, on the sofa 

between pillows and on our big luggage. Nalatje knows that she is going to be a traveler and that lots of nice adventures await her :)

Nala is waiting for adventures to come

Going crazy while playing. My little lion :) 

In a couple of weeks she will hopefully feel completely confident in us and her new life. I can't wait for her to start purring and be cuddly. 

The sneaky dengue fever

Oh my, I didn't write here anything for more than 2 months. Time flies... We've been here in Myanmar for more than 4 months. Many trips and guests happened, I have to write about them all to keep track of my memories. I will, but not today.

Today I want to write about something less exciting - dengue fever - since I've been sick with it for the last 2 weeks.

First time I've heard about this disease when I got to know that a friend of mine from Brussels, Alejandra, started to work as a travel blogger for an organization called Break Dengue. Here is the website & blog http://www.breakdengue.org/. Alejandra is currently travelling around South East Asia, doing her research on dengue and writing about her findings. Back then, when I first read about dengue, I didn't even knew about other mosquito transferred diseases besides malaria. I couldn't imagine that at some point I will know about dengue as much as I know now...

Firstly, once you're beaten by a mosquito, there is an incubation period of 2-7 days. And apparently I got that one, since I didn't feel bad immediately, but rather gradually started to get low fever of 37C, muscles pain and easily get tired. I thought that i'm just tired from all the travelling and sun heat... Btw, the mosquito is active in a day time unlikely to malaria mosquito who bites during the night. Ah, brave & stupid me - I never use repellent, especially during the day.

Secondly, dengue is also called a 'break bone' disease since one of the symptoms is bones, joints and muscles aches. Tell me about it... IT IS very painful! My low back and neck were so stiff and in so much pain so I had to take a looot of painkillers.

Thirdly, fever fluctuates from low to very high. I personally had 39,9 C. It comes back no matter how much paracetamol you've taken. And it brings a lot of headache, especially in the zone behind eyes. At moments I thought that my left eye is definitely going to jump out of a socket... Another amazing part of it is that you feel hot and cold at once. You are shivering like crazy trying to get warm. And when you're finally warm, you start sweating like a pig...

Fourthly, there is no vaccine against dengue and you can't be immune to it. Well, after being sick  I'm only protected for this seasons. But since there are 4 types of dengue and it also modifies from year to year, I am not immune for the coming seasons. What a joy...

And at last, there is also no specific antibiotic or whatever medicine against dengue. You just painfully wait until it's over taking some painkillers and paracetamol and drinking plenty of fluids. For me the fever period lasted for 6 days. It felt like 6 days burning in hell, out of which I spent five in Bangkok on my visa run and was 'enjoying' my hotel room since I couldn't do ANYTHING else. At least I was lucky not getting a hemorrhage dengue with bleeding and bruises.

Thanks to dengue I've get to know that actually a doctor from a very simple private clinic in Yangon can do much better than an advanced emergency room in a good hospital in Bangkok. This doctor diagnosed me immediately and his treatment saved me from burning down just in one evening.

Now I'm recovering thanks to this magician.  It's been my 4d day without fever (or almost no fever, since it comes back for short during morning time) and it feels great! The only downside is that I feel very tired and sleepy all the time (during dengue I had some kind of insomnia since I couldn't sleep well due to pain and high fever). They say it may take up to one week to completely recover.

This dengue is a great lessons learned:

- ALWAYS wear mosquito repellent while travelling;
- GO to the doctor immediately if in doubt - you're in Asia, and crazy things happened.

My mom is scared for me and saying that I shouldn't stay in Asia : 'You see, you get very sick there, maybe Asia is not for you!'.

Maybe it's not, maybe it is. At least 6 more months to go. And hopefully without crazy stuff! :)