"Just a break" was the title of our last blog in March of this year. That 'just' eventually became 7 months.
In the fall of 2018, we traveled through Nepal and Myanmar for 2 months to see on which country we would like to place our focus in providing employment opportunities and training. After two intense months in these new worlds, for us, we decided to go to Myanmar where we spent another month at the beginning of this year.
As you could read in the previous blogs, we were excited about all the opportunities that we saw in Myanmar and doors that opened for us. However, we decided to take a break after we came back, because after a few days Judy completely lost all enthusiasm for such a huge step, while Albert still felt the urge to move to Asia. You can imagine that this was not easy for either of us - suddenly two very different desires!
Boy, what do you do in such a case...? Although we have a pretty good marriage, we have come across all the emotions you can imagine! Some of them were even new for us to experience :-) - from anger, disappointment, and incomprehension, to empathy, understanding, and ultimately resignation.
Together we made the choice that we would not go – you cannot take such a step when you are not fully aligned! We have spoken with many people about the situation, and we also asked a few to ask us direct questions about the 'Why' of the entire plan and the 'Why' of the doubts. We discovered, in greater depth, that although we are one, we both have our own character, personality, emotions, and strengths. We knew it before, but now we looked deeper into our own characters and backgrounds. Such as ... the 'Global IT Manager' at the office versus the 'Child and Foster Child Manager' at home. Two completely different worlds. To be a better team together in the future we needed a little more preparation, and we've taken that time over the past few months. In the meantime, Albert continued to apply for jobs because of the need to get bread back on the shelf.
In the summer, Judy started to develop positive feelings for Myanmar again. Albert's job interviews at a company in Brabant continued, but after a lot of talking, thinking, and weighing we decided to go to Myanmar again!
Now, after a month, we have emailed all our contacts there, and we have sent a small set of funds to the men from Taisun. This is so that they can get started on collecting wood and grass in the forest for the roofs of the traditional Chin houses (this is the only time of the year they can collect some of the materials).
It is nice to receive pictures of them, of their meetings, and of the tree trunks that they have already collected. They are really looking forward to our arrival and to a better future with a fair income enabling them to offer their children better opportunities. That's our goal!
Next month we will go to Myanmar again for a whole month to make further agreements, talk to old contacts, make new contacts, set up a private limited company, draft contracts, and so on…
We will keep you updated on all developments on this blog from November onwards.
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