Myanmar..?.Is this a country?

The immigration officer at the Airport Immigration didn't believe that there was a country named "The Union of Myanmar."

I could understand his doubt. The information on my passport was handwritten, and the letters in the expiry date column said: 15 Jan 2007. So I told him to turn to page 9 (the page with new expiration date) and asked him, "Has no one from Myanmar been in South Africa?" His reply was a curt, "No."

When I tell the locals and other interns I am from Myanmar/BUrma, I have to add on two more sentences to say that 1. It is the country where Aung San Suu Kyi is put under house arrest, and 2. It neighbours China, India and Thailand.

That is why I got excited when my supervisor at Help2Read, Mandy, told me about Ma Khin Khin who has been here for more than 19 years. I just met up with her, and Ma Nhin, another BUrmese who is raised in Cape Town.

We went to the Funny Festival at Baxtr Theatre, a venue at the University of Cape Town. It was a great 2 hours that left my mouth cramped from laughing too hard. There were comedians from both local and international scenes. The show was a mix of light and witty humor, and I didn't get all the jokes and references, when they were making cultural jokes, but there was one comedian that poked fun of cultural differences of South Africa and the rest of the world... It was interesting how they were able to joke about racial issues (which I formerly thought were sensitive in this country). Whether people agree with what was being said is another matter, of course. Nonetheless, it was nice to see South African humor, a little more of the local scene here.

And speaking of local, when we went out for dinner after, I had a rather adventurous dining expereince. We went to a grill bar and they served "Chocolate Chilli Chicken on the grill," served with mashed potatoes. Proteins, carbs and desserts all on one plate!