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Archive for the ‘Seychelles’ Category

Fame in Czech

Posted in Adoption Advocacy, Expat Living, Seychelles on May 21, 2007| 5 Comments »

Man! Am I tired.

In addition to doing the got-two-little-kids-running-my-tail-off boogie that takes up so much of every day, writing a couple of thousand words that need to string together in some sort of interesting sense, getting a few of loads of laundry done, and giving the puppy a bath, I’ve just finished three hours sweating on the veranda with a chubby Czech guy who speaks no English, but wanted to know all there is to know about me.

I had well beyond my fifteen minutes long ago, having been on TV often in my younger years in the US and the UK, and on radio with the BBC and here with my own show. The cafe Mark and I ran for half a decade plus got coverage on travel programs in Europe every year, and back in January, an interview I’d given on adoption in Seychelles aired on CNN.

I’m not shy, and I usually have something to say … stop the phony gasps, please; I know you’re not one bit shocked … so I tend to okay interviews when I know the topic and feel I’m adding something to a conversation somewhere that’s worth my time.

I have been interviewed for non-English publications, but today was the first time questions came at me, one after the other, without a single recognizable word.

We spoke through an interpreter, and I have developed a new-found appreciation for those politicos who spend hours and days with interpreters poised like parrots on shoulders yapping away in simultaneous translations. It’s exhausting.

No matter how well grasped the idea that I wasn’t going to catch a word, eye contact was important … and polite … so the conversation had me feeling like I was living an ever-looping scene from “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?”.

Having someone who wasn’t understanding anything I said, much less getting my jokes, nodding and smiling and and giving that ‘You’re doin’ great!’ look while I was trying to explain some of the ins and outs of life as an expat and what it’s like being a mom again at fifty-something was disconcerting, to say the least.

Add to that a poopy Cj stinking up the joint and Sam trying to wrangle an extra dose of cookies and milk and the puppy making off with every chewable item she can sink her razor-sharps into, and the picture of the afternoon is close to complete.

The interview was for a book on women living strange lives … or something. You know; girl meets boy, moves to tropical island, adopts kids … that sort of stuff. I was told I could be inspiring to women in the Czech Republic.

Okay. Perhaps they need an example of nuts?

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The power rodent is off his wheel AGAIN

Posted in Island life, Seychelles on May 17, 2007| 2 Comments »

A person would be forgiven for thinking that eleven-plus years of life on a dinky tropical island would have me prepared for the little inconveniences that interrupt the flow of productivity on a regular basis. After all, we have all this sunshine and these fabulous to-die-for beaches where warm, azure waters gently kiss the shore — blah, blah, blah — so some sort of a trade-off seems more than fair. And, heck!, when things get stressful we should just grab the snorkel gear and go … shouldn’t we?

Bollocks.

I have work to do, and the damned electricity has been cut off all day. Finally, finally, after seven hours the power rodent has managed to find his way back on to his wheel and he’s commenced plodding away at his normal barely adequate pace, but something about being unpowered for most of the day has the Internet in my neck of the woods dead in the water … azure and warm though it may be.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that I spent the entire morning trying to convince a two-year-old that it wasn’t my fault that she couldn’t watch “Grease” for the nine-kazillionth time … she goes joyfully ballistic EVERY TIME the balloons drop at the end of the dance contest scene and loves to sing along with Stockard Channing … neither fan nor aircon could stir the sticky heat and three loads of laundry were not getting any cleaner.

I really should chuck it all and head for the beach on days like this, shouldn’t I?

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The Bloody French

Posted in Entitled to opinions, Seychelles on May 15, 2007| 4 Comments »

As a follow on to posts about the recent elections here in Seychelles, I came across this article from August, right after the presidential election, from an angle that is SO typical of the French perspective.

Yes, the election observers were happy enough with the above-boardness of the polling and found nothing to criticize in the way the voting was held … blah, blah, blah … but the French who’d been sent to watch the proceedings were totally pissed off by the fact that the French language, “had been under-utilized in both the campaign and polling”.

The call was made in a statement by the representatives of the 53-nation bloc that gave a positive assessment of the polls but did not elaborate on how much French was used in the campaign or by electoral officials.

Can we guess that a big deal was not made in the general statement because only five of the observers were French and no one else could give a flying escargot how much French was used?

And why should they? The ballots are nothing but names next to photos, so where does language come into the process anyway?

A bit here about the names … we had some good ones, as usual for Seychelles, running for office … Waven William was my personal favorite, with Elise Channel Somebody, a man, a close second. My district’s winner’s first name is Wilby, which had me wondering if he has a brother called Wontby.

Complaining about, ” … anecdotal evidence suggesting that most speeches at rallies, printed campaign posters and election material were almost entirely in Creole with a smattering of English … ” is nothing more than a classic case of les raisins sont trop verts.

People here don’t like to speak French. They speak Creole, and when they run out of words … it being a word-poor tongue with few shades of gray … they like English. They like English films and English music.

Most Seychellois CAN speak French, they simply most often choose not to, a fact that annoys the French to no end.

The French, you see, have never been able to come to terms with the reality that has for the last hundred years or so, and increasingly, seen their language fade as English beomes the … shall I say it? … lingua franca of the global community.

They’re not giving up, though. Through a network of “La Francophonie” cells world-wide, they keep plugging away at stuffing French, if not down throats, then certainly at least into the mouths of as many people as they can as often as they’re allowed.

Not only are there Francophonie centers in former colonies like Seychelles, there’s even one in Sacramento, so they’re pretty darned pervasive, and all are determined to defend and protect the French language against the onslaught of English, no matter what.

Running under a motto that translates to “equality, complementarity, and solidarity”… a damned good example of why the language is losing favor … the modern version of Francophonie started in 1970 as a small club of Northern French-speaking countries. They’ve thrown their net wide, however, and now include … somewhat desperately, if you ask me … nations like Lithuania where 1% of the population can speak French and Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony that just happens to be surrounded by French-speaking countries.

So determined are the French to convince former colonies that moving along to a language their people prefer is not a good idea, their Embassy supports one of the three private schools here in Seychelles, the all French-speaking French School. The Brits certainly aren’t pushing their language to that extent, if at all; they don’t have to, as cultural popularity does it for them.

I used to do a radio show here on the only FM station in the country … Paradise FM … and had two standing rules on my show: nothing by Cher, and no French rap. In my book, or on my show, there’s no reason for either.

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Seychelles Election Results

Posted in Seychelles on May 14, 2007| 1 Comment »

Okay, I don’t have all the numbers in front of me, but that really doesn’t matter. The meat in the burger is that nothing has changed. Yes, there are a few new names and faces, but the proportions of SPPF and SNP stay exactly the same in the National Assembly … 23 seats for the SPPF and 11 for the SNP, including the unelected “proportional representation” seats.

SNP lost in two districts they’d previously held, and won in two that had been SPPF. (Bernard Georges won by a margin of 4 votes in Les Mammelles, so it was, as it always is, a case of every vote counting.)

In my village, Baie Lazare, the SNP candidate lost by close to 300 votes, with the breakdown something like 53% to 47% The biggest SPPF win was Praslin, where they got 75%.

The turnout was less than for the presidential election in July, but still over 75%, which is pretty darned good compaired to many countries. There were more spoiled ballots, most likely protest votes, than before.

The polling went calmly, and there was no violence. The obligatory driving around the island by winners waving flags happened on Sunday, and there were no problems there, either, as far as I’ve been able to determine.

This is probably a good place for me to start my campaign to get “none of the above” on every ballot in the world. If “none of the above” gets the most votes, the powers that be MUST go out and find new people or new ideas or whatever is being voted on until they come up with something or someone people really WANT to vote for. It seems totally undemocratic to have options dictated the way they are now, and if there was a way for the people to actually check a box that said, “We’re not happy with the choices you’ve given us,” then perhaps the smorgasbord on offer would get a whole lot more appetizing from the get-go.

I’m not talking here about Seychelles … in fact I’m thinking much more about how many times I voted in the States by grudgingly ticking alongside what I sorely hoped was the lesser of two evils. The few times I was excited about a candidate stand out because that happened so rarely.

Just a thought that’s been rolling around my head for the past, oh, 40 years or so.

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Election Day in Seychelles on Birth Mothers Day

Posted in Adoption, Seychelles on May 12, 2007| 1 Comment »

Things were calm at the polls, and aside from fairly long queues waiting for the stations to open at 7am, there were no crowds, just a steady stream throughout the day according to news reports. Early estimates predict a turnout of between 75% and 80%, but that won’t be official until late tonight when the winners are announced. I’ll be sound asleep, and more than willing to wait for the news until sometime tomorrow.

By the way, tomorrow is not Mother’s Day here, but just the same I’m wishing everyone who calls themselves a mom a lovely day.

Somewhere along the line, today has been appointed Birth Mothers Day in parts of the world … well, the US, at least … so I have spent sometime thinking about the women who brought Sam and Cj into the world. I hope they are well and that their lives are as happy and healthy as can be, and I thank them.

All in all, an interesting Saturday.

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Cooling off in Seychelles

Posted in Island life, Seychelles on May 10, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The news in Creole is on in the other room, prompting me to mull for a moment the election that will be held here on Mahé on Saturday.

Tonight’s coverage includes stories about voting that took place today. The citizens of Silhouette voted, as did people in essential services who’ll be working on Saturday … police, hospital workers and Air Seychelles employees who’ll be out of the country … who had a special voting station set up for them at English River, and apparently the turnout was good.

Last election saw more than 90% of eligible voters mark their ballots in the district I live in, and close to that everywhere else. Makes the 30% or less that bother in many US elections look pretty pathetic.

It really is all over but the shouting, campaign-wise, as we’re now in the “cooling off period”, a week of peace and quiet when anyone caught electioneering gets time in jail and a fine.

Such a fine idea! None of the last-minute hollering in hopes of changing minds, or pulling rabbits out of hats just before the polls open. Plus, it’s a whole week of time to digest without having new stuff stuffed down gullets in attempts to get people to choke.

And there’s none of this starting-years-in-advance stuff, either. This campaign lasted exactly 17 days. Seventeen days was plenty of time for all candidates to say their piece on TV and radio, for hats and t-shirts and umbrellas in party colors to be passed out, for rallies to rally and for as much debate as was going to happen to happen.

But this is a small country, and most people have known which way they’d be voting even before candidates were announced, so long, drawn out campaigns would probably only annoy the citizenry and inflame tempers.

International observers have arrived in the country, and everyone is ready.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

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Out of the loop:Paris Hilton is a person? Go figya …

Posted in Celebs, Seychelles, The USA from the outside in on May 7, 2007| 3 Comments »

I am so out of the loop that the loop doesn’t even look like a loop any longer … it’s more like a spiral my eyes can’t follow very long before they start to water and cross.

I’ve not lived in the US since 1993, and a lot has happened in America in the intervening years.

Politics are almost unrecognizable to me, for example. I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around the fact that an election went wonky and that the “decider commander guy” has been running the show for quite a while now. And my home state, the land I remember as Jerry Brown country, now takes orders from Arnold. That’s just too strange.

I haven’t seen any one of the past three years’-worth of Oscar winners and can no longer do the NYT crossword puzzles. Who am I trying to kid? I can’t do the TV Guide crossword any more. I have never seen an “Idol” show, or Reality TV of any kind … well, not since Candid Camera. I have no idea who anchors network newscasts, and although I do know Rush Limbaugh … he used to be a loud-mouth fat jerk in Sacramento, so we bumped into each other (shuddering yuck) often … but have no clue what an Imus is or sounds like.

Since it’s a small island in the Indian Ocean I live on and not Uranus, there are whiffs of pop culture that occasionally drift in, and certain times of the year we even get Larry King Live here … and what better smorgasbord of celebrity is there on offer than Larry’s? … but just hearing a name yacking about themselves for the half-hour before CNN switches to the BBC mid-way through whatever I’m trying to absorb does not necessarily convey context, and it’s context I’m so definitely lacking.

For example: Who the hell is Paris Hilton, and why do even I know her name? I get that she’s blond and rich, but I don’t understand why anyone cares.

I suppose I could pass for the celebrity litmus test … If Sandra’s heard of you, you must be famous … just don’t ask me to have an idea about who you are or what you do.

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Elections are coming, so why is it so quiet around here?

Posted in Seychelles on May 2, 2007| Leave a Comment »

I don’t get it.

We’re coming up to another election here in Seychelles, but I don’t see new roads going in left and right, the shops aren’t stacked with items not seen for months … in fact the usual shortages are still short and there’s been not a drop of the second necessary ingredient for a G&T in longer than anyone can recall, much to the chagrin of parched Brits … and only one party is throwing parties.

What gives?

Could it be that because it’s seats on the National Assembly up for grabs, not the presidency, no one’s feeling the same pressure to perform ahead of the polls?

There’s no doubt that the feeling is local, as districts are small and everyone knows everyone, candidates being no exception, and has since childood. There won’t be much in the way of surprise coming from anyone running for office, and this vote may be more personal … although politics are always personal in Seychelles. Always.

The opposition deciding to forego the waving of the green at speech-ladened rallies by the dozen is particularly puzzling, as that sort of rah-rah has seemed so very popular with leaders and followers in run-ups to past elections.

Could it be that their decision to walk out and stay out of the legislature a few months back has even them wondering how to address asking folks to put them back in those chairs every Tuesday evening?

Most people are going to be happy when it’s all over but the shouting. And there will be shouting because there always is … Creole is not whispered … and some portion of the population will not be happy with results.

Very soon after the hoopla, however, we’ll be back to politics as usual … greens will be green (A poor choice of color, in my book, equating with envy as it does, but no one asked me.), and reds will put away their laker dan laker umbrellas and cherry-on-the-top-like baseball caps, and that will be that.

No matter what, some will kvetch that life is hard on this island where not one person goes hungry, everyone has a roof over their head, education and healthcare are free, women enjoy complete equality, and freedom of religion is guaranteed … and this in Africa. There will be some gnashing and wailing and general grousing.

Before too long, though, someone will buy someone a beer, and the conversation will return to the usual two topics: fish and the weather.

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Small world eats Thai food on veranda

Posted in Island life, Seychelles on May 1, 2007| 2 Comments »

Just had guests leave after a fab Thai dinner lovingly prepared by my dear husband … Tom Ka Gai, Kang Keo Wan, pork satay, fried eggplant. The man can cook! … and am pausing for a thought about how interesting it is to live with the diversity I have in my life.

A table of five adults and three kids … the adults were two Australian Jews, brother and sister, with the brother living here with his Seychellois wife and one-year-old son, and the sister a resident in Qatar … Mark, half Brit, half Seychellois … me, American born and bred, but now also holding a Seychelles passport… and our two kids, Cambodian born with citizenship here and in Britain, which means they are part of Europe.

The world is small, and I’m so pleased to have my nose rubbed in that fact almost daily.

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Dads and Daughters

Posted in Family, Island life on April 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Like many dads, Mark has always assumed that he and his son are destined to pal around, to do guy things, to hang out together in that father/son way that, although it doesn’t include tossing a baseball back and forth in the back yard here … there being no baseballs and Mark not having a clue how to pitch one if it suddenly dropped out of the sky … is a familiar theme all over the world.

Mark was thirty-six when Sam came home, so not nearly as deserving of the older parent tiara as I was at the time, but still no spring chicken. He’d had a long time to observe other dad/kid relationships and decide what he’d like, and what he could take a pass on. Most of his visions of father-son-ing it at that stage involved fish in one way or another, with visions of quiet hours passed side-by-side in his little boat, then more time together as great meals would be prepared from the bounty they would haul home.

To a certain extent, that does happen. Sam enjoys fishing … although he wants to do it in the lagoon … and he loves bobbing around in the sea with Dad. He’s also big on adventures, and Dad is almost as much fun on those as Gay is.

For the most part, however, Mark’s interests are not Sam’s. He has no interest in going out in the boat, can only feign interest in cooking for short spurts, and would rather sit and draw for hours than hammer and saw and that sort of manly stuff that keeps Mark happily under the house and covered in sawdust for much of any given weekend.

It could easily be said that Sam is more like me than like his dad.

Cj, on the other hand … well, she’s a girl after her father’s heart. Peas in a pod, they are. Both have the calm temperament of those who will always choose smiling over frowning and acquiescence over argument. Nothing sounds like more fun to the two of them than mucking about in the wood shavings or spending ages in the kitchen together chopping, stirring, tasting.

And that’s another thing they share … they LOVE their food! Sam’s always been a good eater, but even his willingness to try anything didn’t prepare us for Cj’s total relish of anything … relish or no.

Yep. She’s just like her father is so many ways.

Now, if I can keep her thinking that washing dishes is a hoot and a half …

The shot is Cj and Mark having some father/daughter moments in the kitchen.Washing Dishes

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