Back in Burma

Well, one year later. What is different? There was an election of sorts, an election that was so fraudulent by design that no fraud was necessary on election day. Well, just to be sure, there were multiple instances of vote rigging by the regime on election day. So democracy has come and gone.

Inexplicably, the regime has released Aung San Suu Kyi. Others consider this evidence of the regime's hold on power. They are so confident, that they can release the only person who can seriously challenge their moral and political authority. I consider this over-confident, the kind of decision that politically tone-deaf and isolated regimes later come to regret. We'll see.

The regime withdrew the cheap monthly SIM cards that many of us poorer people were using. Mass communication, communication for and among the masses, is threatening to them. Even though my phone number changed each month, it was still convenient. I miss my phone.

The regime also withdrew the visa on arrival procedures, which I never had a chance to test. Visas are much tougher to come by, and it is no longer possible to overstay a tourist visa indefinitely, as I had done before. So I'll be getting my first business visa, with luck

I think that there might be some kind of official 'state of emergency' left over from the elections. Maybe things will settle down and get back to 'normal'. I'm doing 'normal' things. I work mostly out of the embassy. I meet old friends at teashops. I keep scheduling and postponing a trip to Mandalay, to bolt three routes at Teashop Crag. It'll happen. I have a beautiful room--sunny, airy, spacious--on the sixth floor of a mediocre hotel (not a tourist hotel) that is walking distance from the embassy. When I'm not working out at the embassy gym, or visiting friends, I'm working my way through Season Two of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, or listening to music.

My work here is becoming part of some strange (for me) international career, taking me to places like Mexico, Baghdad, Pretoria, Ghana. I'm not sure that this is a good thing, and actually not sure that it is in fact a career. It has taken its toll. Jamie and I are separated, legally, and we don't know where that will lead. But--I feel hopeful, and a good chunk of the work I do feels meaningful to me. So it's fine for now, but I still have mountains to climb, and not much time.