The Eve of Independence Day

When I first arrived I spotted one of these creatures plus a scraggly cat. I decided that this blog needed pictures of Guest House creatures. Before I could act the cat disappeared and the lizard(?) was only seen slithering into a drainage ditch. Finally this morning he/she posed nicely - so here you are.

Today I rehearsed a salon. (I have spent weeks looking at women's hair cuts - a real challenge when over 50% of the women are veiled and another large percent look like they cut their own hair.) I got a recommendation from the MPA Graduation queen for the night (an econ faculty member). I was astonished when as I sat with a head full of soap suds I got a chair massage! I plan to go back next week for cut and coloring - we'll see how it goes since they speak virtually no English, but they sure take their time.

I am almost done the sustainability article. I promised the Chinese dialect group two short articles - one on US NGOs and one on collaboration. You might ask what I was thinking. The man I am working with should be a Dean, i.e., he has a vision and lays it out so that you can't say no. Yesterday I met with my major contact and the man who will translate the survey. He heads a Chinese education group. They both understood the purpose of the survey and how it will be beneficial to Chinese dialect groups. We worked on the unit of analysis, survey population, and distribution questions. All the conversation will improve the effort markedly. I should end up with a very interesting data set. I think that the grand plan is to start with the dialect groups and then other Chinese groups.

Two meetings, two meals, both representing different Chinese cuisines. I am getting spoiled while I am getting educated.

Tomorrow is Independence Day - pretty quiet (last year was the 50th anniversary of Malaysia and I think that they blow the budget. One of the websites noted that without government $ not much interest in celebrations, but there are lots of sales. Ramadhan starts tomorrow night - more on that later.

FYI - I web-streamed Obama - it is great to be watching events like that in real time in the morning instead of staying up late. I was stunned by McCain's choice. The news here was on the PM's budget - the TV stations spent three hours broadcasting the budget presentation and the news paper spent as many pages. Taxes are being cut, infrastructure being improved, and a variety of subsidies. It is a deficit budget - which suggests that this government is more political than responsible.