We all read L’ express which has the motto: Sur, Fiable et Precis. Lexpress.mu, the redesigned website has some elements of Web 2.0. This is encouraging! I follow http://twitter.com/lexpressmu for real-time news update.

Hats off to the nice Digital Photography work. Below are some of my favourite pics from the website:

I love the Music of these guys, as well as of Eric Triton

Ahhh...the world cup..if only I could had the chance to lift it and shout: We (L'equipe d'Italy) are the Champions!!

eihhh...beaute fatale - Miss Mauritius 2009

This event was instantly made online via Web 2.0

Toyota

and you, what are your favourite pics?

Hey ! Thanks to wordpress.com for the nice Snowing Feature on the blog. This is amongst one of the reasons why I prefer to have my blog hosted on WordPress.com. The guys there, sometimes do amazing stuff!

Here’s the Pic of the Day!

Which one is mine, amongst the Three??

by Stephanie Hanson

My step-mother has led quite an interesting life, including several years of living in Mauritius, a small island off the east coast of Africa. Her tales of Mauritius are so far from the simple life she now leads with my father, like the state dinners she attended, with servants in livery standing behind the chairs of almost every guest. I love these stories so much that when we studied Francophone countries in high school, I picked this tiny African nation.

Flashing back to the present, I recently went on a photo safari around Old Town Alexandria, here in Virginia. Not an exotic locale, but I did introduce my friends to my favorite tea-shop there, a tiny local business called Old Town Coffee, Tea, and Spice. It is a tiny, cramped, dark place just oozing with character, and almost every tea that you can think of.

I hadn’t planned on purchasing anything at all, but who can walk past all that delicious smelling tea and resist? I ended up bringing home two teas, one a hot cinnamon black tea that reminded me of red hot candies. Clearly a popular tea, it was one of the largest jars on the shelf, right at eye level.

On the other hand, I almost missed the tiny jar on the top shelf. I saw the name while flipping through their tea list, sorted by origin. Mauritius. That exotic name jumped out at me, and I looked up, intrigued. I had never heard of tea being grown in Mauritius, Kenya being the African country most famous for its tea production. I told the clerk that I had to have a quarter pound, although I was dubious of the quality. Even more so when he pulled the jar off the shelf and I saw that the leaves were finely ground like Irish Breakfast.

But then he gave me a whiff. Vanilla. And real vanilla, none of that artificial flavoring. Yet, this is an unscented black tea, so how could that be? The desirable orchid vine that vanilla grows on is allowed to twine around the tea plants, imparting its unique flavor to the leaves as they grow. Now I was really intrigued, and a quarter pound came home with me, carefully separated from the bag of cinnamon tea.

So now the question is, how does the tea actually taste? The vanilla flavor is very light and subtle, as would be expected. As for the tea itself, it is very tannic and bold, similar to Irish Breakfast. Because of the small leaf size, you must be very careful not to over-steep. While it may not be the most amazing tea I have ever had, it certainly is a unique addition to the collection.

Check out Stephanie’s blog, The Tea Scoop, for more on her passion for tea!

Day III Part II

Mei walked back into Tee’s room, who had now changed into an orange sari. She looked angry.

“It’s started hasn’t it Mei? Why aren’t the rest of you out with Mei and Adam taking pictures of Ba? GO! Take loads of pictures! Stop standing around” she snapped.

Mei was a bit hurt she hadn’t even got a friendly hello, and had to tell herself it was because Bridezilla and stress were finally making an appearance. The other three seemed to take it personally though, and trudged out of Tee’s room following Mei to the main part of the blessing area. Mei had to sit down though, and let Adam take responsibility of taking the pictures. She felt a dull pain in her back. Surely she wasn’t going to get a visit from Aunt Flo two weeks early? She prayed to anyone listening in her head to stop this from happening and had to play the waiting game to see if they were answered.

Adam walked upstairs to the eating area, and began to take pictures from a birds-eye view. Mei watched and waved. She had the quirky habit of always waving and trying to get into the background of pictures. She always managed to amuse herself by the reactions the photographs got once people had realised she was there waving.

Nerissa seemed stressed out that she had to take additional pictures, so she gave the camera to Chen, who looked paler than usual. “My stomach feels odd”

“Maybe it’s because we only had fruit for breakfast? Go into the kitchen and ask for food? I’ll come with you if you like?” Mei patted Chen on the shoulder. It was all she could do. She was in so much pain herself. Her dull pain felt like someone was having a party on her spine now.

A young girl dressed in red with a tray on her head walked through the crowd that had formed around Ba. He had just walked away after being blessed with small flowers thrown at him. The girl walked to the family’s shrine and bent down. She placed the tray on the ground and everyone closed in around her. A man asked Mei if she knew what was going on, then went on to explain that they were blessing the couple as Tee’s mother Amelia was moved to the tray while being told to place an offering. A candle was then lit as other women went along and did the same thing.

Mei took Adam’s hand and they walked towards the kitchen. Dan had told them to just ask the ladies for food, and their wish would be commanded. Adam asked, and at once felt weird. “I don’t want to be putting them out”. He especially felt that way because the women were giving him supposed strange looks and were talking in hushed tones to each other. Mei was about to feel the same when she was pushed down on to a chair by the old woman that Adam had danced with the night before. Chen appeared at the door way and sat down next to Mei. “If you eat you might feel better” Mei said as she passed Chen a plate.

A mountain of rice as well as four different types of curried food arrived promptly at the table. Chen and Adam received extra chilli as the obligatory Coke and bottled water were poured out too. They ate heartily, with Chen taking another portion for herself. She then excused herself to the toilet and said she was going to go back into Tee’s room. Dan and Janet passed by then, they seemed to have become best friends instantly. They laughed while they teased each other and Nerissa followed behind on their way to Tee’s room. Mei wanted to see what was happening upstairs though. As she left the kitchen area, she was shocked. The main area was packed! Around two hundred people were sitting down, and another three hundred were expected! Mei and Adam fought their way upstairs, to where one table was placed to the side. On top were the small spicy potato foods and samosas from the previous day, as well as other sweets. Mei took a bite of what she thought was a vegetarian sausage. It was a sweet. She grimaced and plopped it on to Adam’s plate. The rest of the food on the table were sweets.

Adam was offered Mauritian whiskey and beer, but declined due to the heat and Mei’s questioning. Mei hadn’t seen the others in a while, and so walked to Tee’s room. There was a massive crowd in all the corridors though, so they decided to just sit down in the kitchen. On their journey, they peered into a window, and saw that Tee was now being blessed in the same way as Ba was. As the room was tiny with limited ventilation though, it was incredibly hot. Mei guessed this since all the women in the room were wiping sweat from their faces, and the fact that there was a medium sized fire in front of Tee to do with her purification. Whenever Adam took a picture of Tee, he had to put his arm into the room to get a good angle. The heat was immense. Nerissa, Janet and Chen all spotted Adam and Mei staring at Tee at the window and took pictures of them. Mei waved at Chen, but she was sitting down looking uncomfortable. Janet and Nerissa looked like they had an ordeal to go through, having to take Tee’s photographs for her as well.

The blessing of Tee took around forty minutes, with Dan bringing a fan into the room yet again. Tee was sitting on the floor listening to instructions from a holy man. Her step father, mother and grandfather all blessed her, but her nine year old sister didn’t want to. Her tiny body was fatigued from the long flight and limited rest she had just experienced and wanted to sleep. She had no idea what was going on, and why she wasn’t allowed to go out and play. Dan snuck up on Mei and scared her. She hit him playfully and he told them to go in to the room because some of the women had played their part and were leaving.

Mei and Adam shuffled into the room. Tee held a leaf with fire on it in her hand. She circled it round a few times and gave it back to the holy man. One of Ba’s female relatives was sitting next to her, whispering what was going on.

“All this just because she wants to get married” Janet said in an audible whisper.

Chen, Adam and Mei all stared at each other. Did she just say that? Janet carried on taking photos of Tee while the others were in total shock. What was the point of flying all the way to Mauritius if she was just going to make comments like that? Janet and Nerissa were supposed to be Tee’s best friends. Even though Chen seemed to get paler by the second, she shook her head in disgust. The heat got too much, and Janet gave Tee’s camera to Chen and left the room.

After the holy man had blessed and purified Tee, she was helped up on to a small stool. She was in slight pain after having been on the floor for so long. Married women were then invited to bless her. They were easily identifiable by the orange line they had drawn in their partings. Tee’s hands were pulled in front of her and positioned to hold rice. On top of this, a gold bangle was placed in the middle of it. The women picked up rice in the middle of the bangle, holding some in both hands and tapping them on Tee’s head, shoulders, knees and hands. After this, the rice was removed from Tee’s hands and the same women applied turmeric to her face and shoulders. Chen misheard the instructions and kept asking how many times they had to bless Tee. “Three times” replied Mei.

“But I saw that woman do it five times!” hissed Chen

“It doesn’t matter anyway! We’re not married!”

“What does that have to do with it” snapped Chen

“For God’s sakes Chen, we don’t have to bless her because we aren’t married! Calm the hell down!” Mei’s temper was rising. Chen never listened.

Tee’s face was scrunched up. She was trying not to laugh that her face had turned yellow due to some of the womens’ over zealous purifying attempts with the turmeric. She smiled and laughed with them all, and then left the room to wash her face. She was now not allowed to leave that room unless she was assisted, lest she saw Ba wondering around. If Tee was a local, she would have had her own house to stay in. This was plainly not the case though, and so the girls vowed to keep her company. Everyone cleared out of the room so that the sofa and chairs could be placed back in. Only Chen, Nerissa and Janet could fit in though, and so Mei and Adam went outside again.

A few more hundred people had arrived now. It was Ba’s turn for the turmeric blessing on stage. This time, all the married men were up blessing him as his mother sat by him. It took all of her might to push through the thronging crowd with most people staring at the ‘exotic’ English people. Mei stood near the entrance next to an extremely skinny girl and Helen, while Adam took pictures of Ba and his relatives.

“Have you been to Mauritius before?” the skinny girl asked Mei.

“Oh no. It’s very nice and hot though!”

“Have you been to an Indian wedding before?”

“Nope!”

“It’s very long! My name is Keira by the way. What Is yours?”

“Mei.”

“Hello! Helen and I have to stand here and greet everyone. Namaste, Namaste all day! Everyone keeps coming in! We even have to say Namaste to people we don’t even like!” Helen nodded in agreement.

Adam came over and was promptly introduced to Keira. They all nattered for a bit, and Mei tried saying Namaste to people who looked bemused as they said it back to her. Mei’s back pain then decided to pop up again.

“Hey man! You two wanna go for a walk! I’ll take you for a walk!” Shan had come from outside

Adam started to follow Shan while Helen scowled after him. Mei wanted Adam to stay with her. She knew she was being unreasonable, but her back really hurt, and she didn’t want to go back into Tee’s room just yet. Everyone was so quiet there! Tee was also busy saying ‘hello’ to everyone who wanted to meet the future bride too.

Mei chased after Adam and tried to hint that she didn’t want him to go for a walk.

“It’s dark Ad.”

“It’s only a short walk!”

He wasn’t getting the hint. Mei tried a few more times, then tried to guilt trip him,

“Oh okay. I’ll just stay here then and wait for you when you go off and leave me here”

“Okay Mei. See you later!”

“Come on you guys!” Shan called from outside.

Why wasn’t Adam understanding that Mei wanted him to stay? She tutted and turned round.

“Mei! Look, it’s all right I’ll stay!”

Unfortunately, it was in Mei’s nature to change her mind at will.

“No, no. It’s fine, you go with Shan and I’ll find Tee” she smiled warmly at him. She wanted him to have fun.

Adam was sure he was going to stay to make Mei happy however, which was interrupted every so often with Shan asking him to hurry up. Mei could not believe that this was going to happen in Mauritius after only one day. She tried to keep her cool while Adam lost his. The argument ended with Adam walking away in a huff and Shan trying to calm him down.

OH.MY.GOD was all Mei could think. She could have turned green from embarrassment. She rushed inside holding back her tears smiling at everyone who made eye contact with her. An elderly man handed her a yoghurt and she nodded in thanks and went to the kitchen. Here, she met Angelica, an eight year old girl who took an instant liking to her. While Mei tried to answer all her questions without telling her to go away, Adam appeared. She cringed at the thought of what he had said to Shan. She only felt anger towards him at this point. She pretended to be in an in-depth conversation with Angelica. “Please Mei?”

After establishing what each others favourite colours and animals were, as children do, Angelica ran away. Now Mei was faced with Adam. She saw Tee’s room and ran for the door and shut it in Adam’s face. Chen looked awful. “You okay Chen?” Chen nodded at Mei. Nerissa and Janet had gone to find food. Dan seemed quiet without Janet to talk to.

Adam walked into the room after a few seconds and sat next to Mei who promptly moved next to Tee’s step dad Mark and Chen. Janet and Nerissa came back with piles of food and sat down. Mei was given a goody bag by Vin of sweets from upstairs. Adam stared at Mei throughout making puppy-dog eyes trying to apologise. Mei was having none of it. She was in pain, grumpy, embarrassed and just wanted to have a good time. Was it that hard? She stayed for an hour in the room, and left to get some water. Adam dutifully followed her and spent a good ten minutes apologising. Mei broke and accepted it and asked Adam to do a multitude of things for her which he did without complaint. They walked back into Tee’s room which had emptied considerably. Dan had gone to get food, while Tee’s family had gone to sort her younger sister Tina out who had had a tantrum after having had no sleep.

“Oh! Could someone please find Dan for me, I need to get my phone from Ba’s room!” Tee asked.

Everyone went silent.

“I’ve been doing everything!” Nerissa said nicely. She really was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

“I took all the pictures and I’ve just sat down!” Janet said matter of factly.

“Fine! I’ll go! I’m really ill though” Chen said faintly. “I’ll go with you” said Mei.

No one cared that Chen was ill. She looked thoroughly annoyed. She asked Dan’s brother Paul if he had seen him, while Chen asked a few other people where Dan was. No one knew. They came back and told Tee she had to wait until they found him. She didn’t look impressed, but half smiled so that she didn’t seem annoyed. “Can I do anything for you Chen?” Mei asked. Chen shook her head and swallowed some water. “Everything hurts”. Mei had no idea what to do, nor did Chen.

They stayed with Tee for a few hours talking and eating bits and pieces. Mei questioned Adam what he said to Shan. Apparently nothing, just that he had gotten angry. Mei didn’t know whether to believe him. She just hoped that he wouldn’t be a drama queen any more.

“It’s really hot in here Chen, do you want to go for a walk with me and Adam?”

“It’s okay, I’ll stay here. I need to go to the loo anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Chen nodded again and filled up her glass with more water. She didn’t want anyone to be crowding around her.

The main area was a stark contrast to what it was like a mere hour ago. Only fifty people were there, and a band had been set up. The tourist guide’s brother roughly grabbed Mei by the wrist and shouted FIRE!!! at her face. She responded by screaming back at him and dancing. She laughed profusely, he seemed like fun. Vin got Adam to dance too, with Dan running away to stop Adam pulling him in too. They danced for twenty minutes, and then the band with the crazy lead singer took a break for fifteen minutes.

“Oh! Boooo!”

“They’re just taking a break!” sniggered Helen.

Mei loved dancing with these people! They were so much fun! Once the band had come back, everyone started shouting out “SEGA! SEGA! SEGA!”

“It is a Mauritian dance! I shall teach you!” Vin told Adam and Mei to put their hands on their hips, and to move it very intricately as if it had a million points to it. All the Mauritians did this with ease, even the ‘Fire’ man! Mei watched Adam do it awkwardly and imagined she didn’t look much better herself. It was like playing with a tiny hula hoop. The music was fun though! Mei wondered how many calories she had burnt after dancing to the music. She couldn’t stop moving! It was amazing. She pretended she was running, as that was what everyone else seemed to be doing. Obviously not, but the girl needed help! All the middle-aged men loved Adam and made merry with him while patting him on the back for trying.

Mei needed to stop though. An hour of non stop dancing was killing her feet! She sat down next to Dan, while being joined by Adam and two other men. One asked Adam something in French. Adam had no clue as to what he was saying and so just smiled.

“You dance?” he asked Adam.

“Later” Adam smiled.

The man said something in French and Adam continued to smile.

“Why are you answering me if you can’t speak French?”

A silence ensued as Adam said ‘What?’ a lot of times to everyone. Dan said something in French as well as the other man.

“Why are you speaking to me if you can’t speak French?”

“You asked me if I wanted to dance, and so I said later” Adam said, the smile wiped from his face.

Dan quickly said something in French and the man gave Adam a dirty look and turned around.

Adam looked totally clueless. Mei was flustered. Adam could stand up for himself well normally, what was he doing now! Dan told him not to worry, and before the music started again, informed Mei that Chen was really ill. Mei walked back to Tee’s room, and found the girls’ sitting outside in deathly silence.

“Chen, you okay?”

“I’m going to stay here tonight. I feel awful. I just had a paracetamol”

“Can I get anything for you? Are we staying here tonight too?”

Janet just shrugged her shoulders and glared at Mei.

“There’s nothing I can do for you?”

“No. I’m just going to sleep in a minute.”

Tee looked tired as well. “You four are going to stay at Richard’s house tonight. It’s down the road. Just ask his father when you want to go and he’ll take you. He’s staying here for a while tonight, so don’t worry about going late.”

Mei nodded and stared at Chen. She was staring at the floor and looked like death.

“Um.. Well.. I’ll go and dance then?” Nerissa and Janet stared at her intently for a moment longer, before Mei went down the stairs to dance with everyone else. Why was Janet being so rude? Just because she had to stay at a different house tonight! Mei felt selfish leaving Chen there, but Tee had said they were going to bed soon.

Dancing went on until the very early hours of the next day. Tee turned round and saw Janet looking daggers at her while whispering to Nerissa. Mei walked up to them and Dan said that Nerissa and Janet wanted to go.

“They can go then!” Mei chuckled. “Why are they waiting for us! They just have to find Richard’s Dad!”

Dan gave a smile as he had no idea what to say.

“Are we going then people!” Mei sang.

Janet shrugged her shoulders and said she was tired.

“I guess that’s a yes then?” Mei still sang. With another shrug of her shoulders Mei went off to say goodbye to Chen and Tee, who were playing with her computer on the floor. “Bye bye! Chen, you still alive?”

Chen nodded and said she just wanted to sleep. She was already in her pyjamas and drinking yet more dissolvable paracetamol.”See you tomorrow you two!”

They all said their goodbye’s and found Richard and his father. Dan spoke to Janet on the way to Richard’s house, which took all of one minute to walk to. Richard’s father showed them where the shower was and excused himself as he went back to Ba’s house for more dancing. Dan teased Janet a bit more and left too. In their room, were two double beds. One looked better than the other, and Mei could see Janet eyeing it up like a tasty snack.

“Adam and I will take the one by the window” Mei didn’t want to start an argument so just took the lumpy bed. Janet dumped her stuff and Nerissa’s on the nicer bed and got ready to sleep. Mei nodded to herself and got ready for bed in the bathroom.

“Is it okay if I just sleep in my boxers?” asked Adam.

Mei could not stop laughing, “Of course not! Janet will probably think you wanted to mount me in the night!”

“As if anyone could be that immature!”

Mei didn’t want Adam to be hot in the night, but she really did think that Janet and Nerissa would think that because a couple were sharing a bed, it would mean that ‘night time fun’ would take place. Once the lights were out, Mei was tossing, turning, tutting and moaning that it was too hot. She realised the squeak of the bed and her moaning would sound like something else, so whenever she did moan she did it louder so they could hear she was talking about the heat.

Mei could not sleep at all. Adam was sweating like a fat man and kept running to the toilet to take his inhaler. Mei assumed the other two were asleep, and hoped that they would not be woken up by his running around. As she finally drifted off to sleep, she could feel her whole body glowing with heat. No air conditioning in the room,and closed windows due to the mosquitoes meant that it was going to be a very long night for them all.

Mei’s hands stunk. So logically she sniffed them. Yup. They did stink. She opened her eyes and was greeting by her palms screaming at her in darkest brown. Even the orange of her arms had changed to a medium brown. Mei was impressed, no one else’s henna seemed to have morphed into such a deep colour.

There was a loud bang on the door, “are you up yet?” asked Chen.

“Yeah!” they both lied. They could hear the frying of eggs outside and were either late waking up, or everyone else had decided to wake up at the crack of dawn. The former was true as the clock read 11am.

“Morning!” Mei only got a return from Chen and awkward smiles from Nerissa and Janet. Mei wanted to laugh at how childish they were being, but she was too excited about Mauritius to let two idiots get in her way!

“Do you want a fried egg?” Nerissa asked.

“No thanks! I’ll just have the fruit!” Mei took a kiwi fruit and an orange to eat, steering clear of the apples. The day before, Adam had eaten one and then showcased his dramatic talents. It was as if he had eaten a human turd covered in vomit. Everyone else was eating them with no problem though, so Mei reasoned that he was going mad, or turning into Janet. Mei cut Chen’s fruit for her, then her own. She didn’t particularly like kiwi, but she wanted more to eat than an orange! As Adam walked in the room, he began grumbling about not liking kiwi fruit. Mei gave him a look to get him to stop complaining about every single thing, which he understood at once. Why were men so affected by man flu?

After feeding her pyjamas fruit juice more than her mouth, Mei flung herself into the shower before anyone else could. She would have easily got in first though, since there was never really any response from the others. She got changed into blue short shorts and a nearly see-through pom pom tunic finished off with a towel turban for her hair. Nothing had changed as she walked back into the living area, everyone was still around the table staring at empty plates, however Adam was watching TV with a Lemsip in his hand.

“Okay I’m finished! Who’s next!” Mei was greeted by silence, which was followed by more silence.

“Fine, I’ll go” Adam downed his Lemsip and went into the shower with mild annoyance. Mei was annoyed too, why couldn’t these girls make a decision! Weird. Mei was enjoying her holiday, and wanted to go back to Ba’s house to meet new people and try new foods!

“Ba texted me and said he’d be here at 2, so shall we get ready at 1 then?”

Chen didn’t know whether to wear the black or the blue dress, and didn’t really want to ask Nerissa and Janet their opinions, since they were too wrapped up in their own worlds.

“I’m going to get changed when I’m there, I don’t want to get sweaty in my dress” said Nerissa

“Yeah, my stuff is at Ba’s house. You should bring your passport to Ba’s house Mei, so that it’s safe” Janet directed this to the chair instead of Mei. Obviously Mei looked like a chair that day.

So, it transpired that only Mei, Adam and Chen were getting ready in the apartment. That was fine. Chen needed a hair-dryer after her shower so went into her room and asked Janet if she could borrow hers. Janet rolled her eyes, looked around, sighed and told Chen to “hold on”. Chen ‘held on’ for about a minute when finally Janet said, “yeah you can.”

Chen power walked to Mei’s room, “You will never guess what just happened!”

“What?”

“I just asked Janet if I could borrow her hair-dryer and she took about a minute after sighing to say I could!”

Mei cackled, “well, you did just ask if you could borrow her hair-dryer! That was a bit rude!” and cackled some more. Mei pondered why Janet was acting this way, but put it down to the heat. It made Mei act crazy sometimes too! Chen wasn’t impressed though, she found Adam and told him the same, which was answered with a grumble. Adam was calming down overtly it seemed! As long as no one got intimidated by him it was fine! He was not a large man, but he hated it when anyone acted like a prize idiot.

Chen plugged Janet’s hair-dryer in, used it in Mei’s room. She also turned her straighteners on so that she could sort of Mei’s hair. Mei was already regretting her decision to wear her hair long today. The heat was not her friend, and she could already imagine it sticking to her face and back no matter how little she moved. Both Mei and Chen straightened each others hair, after which Chen went back into her room to change. Mei was wearing a long black dress with red and teal flowers on them. It looked wonderful, but not on her. She had put on about three stones after losing her job and she thought she looked like a black hole, but bigger.

“Wow Mei! You look gorgeous!” Adam said sincerely while squeezing her.

Mei looked uncomfortable. How could anyone think that this was anything less than scary. She turned her nose up at herself and combed her hair. She was going to be faced with skinny Chen sooner or later, but as long as she didn’t look in a mirror she would be okay. Right on cue, Chen walked in with her revealing light blue dress and a grin on her face. “Oooo!” they said simultaneously. Chen twirled Mei’s hair and did the same with hers while she sorted out her face. Many pictures were taken of the two, and then the camera-man put on his suit and wondered if he could get another Lemsip for later.

2pm rolled by and no one arrived. Mei could see Janet was getting highly frustrated. They were fifteen minutes late now. This was fine, as Mei and Chen were still running around poking their faces to see if they looked acceptable for public exposure.

“Can one of you guys ring Ba and ask where they are?!” Janet droned

“They’re only fifteen minutes late! It’ll be fine” Mei replied with a wink

“I think we should get a taxi. They’re late. They’ve probably forgotten about us. We need to ring them”

“We don’t need a taxi silly! What’s the point” Mei hoped that Janet wasn’t serious. Mei had ignited something inside Adam though,

“LOOK. We don’t need a taxi Okay?! They said they’d be here at a certain time and they’re late. Don’t be so stupid” Ah, it was awkward silence time already.

Chen wanted to shout and agree with Adam, but she laughed silently to herself and Mei could have sworn she mouthed the word ‘madam’ at her. Mei wanted to keep everyone happy, so agreed to ring Ba.

“He said Shan would be here in twenty minutes with another cousin. They’re picking up Tee’s parents from the airport.”

Mei got a brisk nod in return and an upside down smile from Janet. Not even a thank you! Mei still persuaded herself that it was the heat that was making Janet cranky. She was glad when their door was knocked twenty minutes later by Shan and another of Ba’s relatives. Adam, Mei, Janet and Chen got into Shan’s car, while Nerissa went into the car in front with Tee’s parents and sister.

The journey was yet again in silence. Shan spoke to Adam, and Adam only. He was the type of man who viewed women as second class and only useful for looking good and producing babies. Mei and Chen took pictures of themselves at the back of the car, and Chen nearly lost an eye as Mei kept on pointing at everything she saw in excitement. Janet sat next to Chen in silence staring out the window.

As they all walked into the wedding tent, Mei and Chen felt incredibly over dressed compared to the other girls in their group. Yet again, people just stared. “Why are they staring?!” Chen asked defensively. Mei explained her theory, but Chen hated it when people stared at her. “Get used to it woman!” Mei chuckled. Mei wasn’t keen on getting stared at either, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. They all said hello to Ba’s family and Tee and went to sit in the outside bit of the house, all covered in the tent of course. There were now around two hundred chairs covered with white seat covers tied with golden ribbons. Josh walked in and noticed the four girls and Adam. “Wow! You two look great!” he smiled at Chen and Mei while shaking Adam’s hand. Adam disappeared to get into another suit because it was too hot, while the girls were ushered into the kitchen to eat. Chen got excited about this and ate everything she could get her hands on.

Mei was impressed that herself and Chen got compliments on their appearances, while Nerissa and Janet hadn’t. Janet had changed into a purple and white sari, while Nerissa opted to stay in a vest top and extremely short skirt showing off an awful lot of skin.

“Everyone keeps on looking at you Nerissa! It’s not fair! You have such long legs!” Janet commented

“It’s not my fault! I can’t hide them!” replied Nerissa

“Even Josh was chatting you up! You get all the attention!”

Nerissa smiled while Mei had a quizzical look on her face. When was Josh chatting Nerissa up? Had she missed out on a vital piece of gossip! The person Josh spoke to most was Adam, with a few snippets of conversation to all the girls. Did that mean he was flirting with them all? Mei wanted to comment, but let the twelve years old talk amongst themselves. Chen was too busy eating to notice what was going on.

When their meal was over, they wanted to hang out with Tee, but she was busy getting prepared for the first part of the purification and blessing ceremony. Chen, Nerissa and Janet decided to go on a walk, leaving Adam and Mei to themselves.

“That was nice of them!” Mei said as she held Adam’s hand and walked out to the white chairs again. She sat herself down and watched a holy man prepare the mini stage for Ba’s blessing later on in the day. Little children kept on running over to Mei to ask her her name and how old she was. They ran away straight away, “Ah, she’ll bring back more! She’ll tell the others that we’re not scary folk and we’ll have many tiny friends!”

Adam loved that Mei was always so optimistic about meeting new people. The tourist guide they had met last night arrived and boomed hello at them both, followed by his brother, a shorter version of himself. Ba’s mother came round with Coke for Mei and Adam and smiled as she wandered back into the house. A very cute baby was being held by a man with a chiselled jaw. He asked Mei and Adam the usual questions about how they were finding Mauritius and if they had been to an Indian wedding before.

“You, you look Irish. Are you from Ireland?” He questioned Mei.

“Nope! England, but my Dad is from Wales!”

“You look Irish though, or Polish. I used to live in Ireland so I know”

“No no, Welsh and Chinese -Irish? – No Wel-” Mei gave up, she was obviously Irish and she didn’t know it.

Nicole motioned for Mei and Adam to come up the stairs into her room, as everyone had congregated there with Tee. “I’m Irish!” Mei proudly told Chen. “What? I don’t understand..?” Mei explained her story to Chen, and thought how angry Chen would get if she was called another race. Chen hadn’t understood that these people were just trying to be friendly, not racist or rude!

Tee’s henna had set by now, and was dressed in a purple sari. Louise was doing her make up, while her adoring fans took photographs of her. The room was incredibly small and crowded. It felt like a sauna, but brightly decorated. Mei took a few pictures and then left the room. As she walked outside, a blessing ceremony with Ba had begun to take place. She called for Adam to bring her camera and started to take pictures of a holy man chanting at Ba. Ba was kneeling on the mini stage and winked at Adam. The purification process had started.

Day II Part II

The silence made the journey seem even longer than it was. Mei wanted to say so much more, but resisted as she knew her questions would always be answered by silence. She felt the back of her dress sticking to Chen’s knees as the humidity of the car reached its peak. Before the dresses were changed into a different colour, Ba pulled in to a massive marquee with a few men wandering in and out. As Mei got out of the car and walked into the marquee she was dumb struck. The whole of Ba’s house was covered in a massive tent. The colour scheme was blue, gold and cream with white fairy lights twinkling everywhere. They were draped on trees and the ceiling of the tent. It was like nothing they had seen before. Mei immediately wanted this for her future wedding, whenever that would be!

Ba walked everyone up some concrete stairs to the roof of the house which had been converted into an eating area. This was still in the process of being built, but was a large area in which to fit at least twenty large round tables in. Ba told everyone that Tee was waiting for them. To get to Tee though, they had to walk through a room which was filled with elderly women who were singing and chanting. Naturally, everyone was nervous and refused to be the first one into the room. Annoyed that everyone was refusing to budge, Ba stated “It’s the tradition that all the girls have to go in first”. Mei laughed at his poor attempt to make herself and the others walk in first, so with a roll of her eyes walked in and was greeted with twenty pairs of eyes staring at her. She smiled with her teeth and nodded in respect to them. Tee’s voice welcomed them in as they approached her room.

Tee was sitting on a brown sofa with Ba’s sister Louise, who was putting henna on to Tee’s arms and feet, but the chore was taking an exceptionally long time as Tee kept on moving, and the designs were intricately detailed. Before Mei could stare for any longer, Ba called them all out of Louise’s room. “This is my mother!” A short woman hugged Chen, Nerissa, Janet, Mei and Adam and mimed the eating gesture towards them. They shuffled into a busy kitchen and sat down by a plastic table filled with flies and empty dishes.

“What was strong boy’s name again?” asked Mei

“Dan, but I think they were lying about how his name is pronounced.” replied Nerissa “His Indian name sounds like fish…and that Shan guy..his Indian name sounds like shit!”

Mei was surprised at Nerissa’s ignorance. Had she not realised that names weren’t going to be the English norm here? She wondered what the Mauritians thought of the name Nerissa, and if it sounded like anything ‘weird’ in their language. No one replied to Nerissa’s speech, so she just smiled awkwardly and made comments about how it was uncomfortable that everyone was staring at her. Nerissa was right in this respect. People were staring at her, but not just her. A few children were staring unashamedly at the five of them. Mei believed it was because they had never seen a ‘white’ person before, especially as some of the children were so young and lived in Southern Mauritius, where not many tourists ventured.

Ba’s mother brought out a huge bowl of rice and placed it in front of everyone, forgetting to give Adam a spoon. After laughing to herself about this, she fetched him one and brought out lentil curry, spinach and curried kidney beans.

“For three days, eat no meat. Then Monday can eat meat! I order 20 pounds chicken!” Ba’s father told them, “Bon appétit!”

Mei was fine with this, as long as the food tasted this good she didn’t care about not having any meat. Chen and Adam inhaled their food and grabbed another portion.

“Oh my God Chen! You eat so much!” Janet griped.

Chen just stared at Janet and helped herself to more. She didn’t care at all. She had lost nearly three stones and would eat what she jolly well liked on holiday! Mei smirked and carried on eating as quickly as a snail. Janet looked Chen up and down and gave her a filthy look. Mei wanted to comment that Janet was much bigger than Chen, but decided to hold her tongue. She had no idea why Janet was acting so superior, as Nerissa had scooped another serving for herself without any judgement.

“Coca?” Ba’s mother asked, as she carried in three bottles of coke. There seemed to be a never-ending supply of the brown liquid.

As the plates were cleared away, Ba bounded into the room, “Mei, this is my cousin Helen, she can do your henna for you!”

A fairly large girl with a friendly face walked into the kitchen and said she would do Mei’s henna after she had finished with the queue of others who were waiting for her. Mei smiled and sipped her Coke. The five of them sat around waiting for a while, not moving at all. Mei suggested they walk around and nose around the different rooms and to see the chanting women, but Janet wanted to stay put. Forty minutes later, Mei kept on darting into another room to check if Helen had finished the henna for the others. Unfortunately she hadn’t so Mei forcefully asked everyone to go to Tee’s room because she’d be bored on her own. She hadn’t met for it to come out that forcefully, but she wanted to move around rather than staying put looking out-of-place.

All the chairs were scraped under the table and off they went to see Tee. As they entered the room, the heat gave them all an unfriendly welcome. The opened window didn’t help at all. On the ceiling were pink and gold balloons stuck on by cellotape at the bulb part. Some balloons had shrivelled up in a comical way, being unused to being stuck in such a fashion. Dan, who seemed to be the general whipping boy dragged in six chairs and a fan for the room. Everyone uncomfortably sat down, not saying anything. Tee wondered why no one was talking, but Mei started soon enough. She started to complain about not having her henna done. She was immensely jealous that everyone else had henna done, and her hands were still naked and white.

“Apparently, an old tradition says that the longer and darker the henna stays on for, the more your husband will love you” Tee told them.

“Ooo” Chen, Nerissa and Janet said as they compared their brown and orange hands.

Small talk filled the room for twenty minutes as for some reason everyone had run out of things to say. Thankfully, Helen walked in and smiled at Mei. Louise moved to the other side of the sofa and motioned Mei to sit next to Tee to get her henna done. Mei plonked herself down and held out her hands. She watched a younger girl doing the henna of her friend, while repeatedly making mistakes. Mei hoped that they wouldn’t stain her hands, regardless if the mistakes were being rubbed off or not. Helen worked quickly on Mei’s hand with an elaborate design of flowers and dots, one of which looked like an elephant! Helen swirled the flowers on to both of Mei’s fourth fingers and smiled at Mei. Mei wasn’t sure if this was friendly or a judgement that she was getting this done. Mei told herself to stop being so paranoid and before beginning a simple conversation with Helen, found that her mouth was being stuffed by spicy potatoes and samosas by some of the Aunties. Of course, cameras were at the ready for this. Tee went through the same as well, due to her hands being wet too. As Helen moved on to Mei’s right hand, her left hand was already beginning to crack. Janet moaned that Chen had been too impatient and had began to peel her henna off almost immediately the day before. This would have been fine, but instead of a simple sentence, Janet continued for a long while.

As Helen finished Mei’s henna, Mei looked at Chen and Nerissa’s hands and wished all her fingers had been decorated too. Mei thanked Henna maybe a few too many times and showed off her artwork to Chen. Chen had to tell Mei that she didn’t have the same as herself and the others because her design was so much more intricate and it would look messy if there was too much art on her fingers. Mei agreed, but still wanted it! Chen fed Mei some samosas then laughed at Mei’s inability to do anything with her wet hands.

“Hi, I’m Josh” a thin boy wearing glasses carrying Pearoni (Pear juice) and beer said behind Mei. Mei nearly jumped, what was wrong with her peripheral vision! “Beer?” he asked Adam. He opened the beer bottle with the lid of the Pearoni. “Wow!” exclaimed Adam, “You HAVE to teach me how to do that!” Josh poured the frothy beer into a see through pink plastic cup and it disappeared down his throat in an instance. He moved Dan out of his chair and sat himself near to Nerissa and Adam. Dan hovered around and got himself another chair from outside.

Josh could speak English fairly fluently, so they all chatted about their visit to Mauritius and the upcoming nuptials. Suddenly, the chanting had changed into something much louder in the other room. Being too nosey for life, Mei got up and peered into the other room followed by Adam and Chen. The old women now had instruments such as drums and an assortment of Indian instruments. A few were dancing in the middle and called for them to dance with them. Chen and Mei squealed back into Tee’s room and shut the door. No way were they dancing so early on! Mei was in two minds about dancing, but being with shy people for so long had turned her shy it seemed! Chen high-fived Mei when she wasn’t paying attention and guffawed. Mei thought her henna was going to be ruined, but because of the heat and the amount of time spent talking, all the henna had dried and cracked into hard black blobs. A few black dots had fallen on to the floor, leaving orange circles on Mei’s hands.

Mei couldn’t stand the heat in the room after a couple of hours. She dragged Adam round the house full circle until they were on the other side of the ‘dancing’ room. As soon as they sat down, Mei wanted to get up again. She had the feeling that they would definitely be pulled up to dance if they were sat so close to the music. She was right. Adam was dragged first, and a loud cheer was emitted as the first white boy started to dance with an old woman. Mei could not stop hooting with laughter, then up she went to another cheer! Adam looked like he was high on drugs, he was just grinning inanely at the old woman as she sung in French to his nodding, angular dancing. “HI I’M VIN!” the boy who pulled Mei up introduced himself. He was oozing with confidence, so Mei just followed his movements. She decided to leave Adam and the old woman alone, he seemed rather ecstatic to be up there. With all the additional noise, Ba’s youngest sister Nicole was roused from her room. “YOU GUYS! COME HERE COME HERE!” she shouted into Louise’s room. Chen, Nerissa, Janet, Tee and Ba’s heads popped out from around the corner, followed by their cameras. The old women beckoned them to dance, but they shook their heads and laughed at Adam and Mei. After the first dance, the first old woman held out a golden urn towards Adam. What did she want? Some English-speaking Mauritians shouted out “money!”. Of course Adam had to gesture he had none, which created the whole room to erupt in laughter. Ba’s hand appeared with 50 rupees which he gave to Adam. Ba looked glad that Adam and Mei had joined in with the festivities, and found it even funnier Adam had no money to give.

Mei and Adam stayed up for a few dances then sat back down. They were both dripping with sweat. Vin and Helen laughed, “Good dancing!” Helen had come out of her shell instantly after seeing that Mei and Adam were prepared to get involved in all the customs, no matter how ridiculous they looked. “Why are your friends not dancing?” Helen asked. “Shy” came the unison answer. Mei was dragged up yet again. She was the only one in the middle of the ‘dance floor’ with the old woman. She had to start the dancing. Mei did a dance with her hands that she had seen before, wanting to be more confident but failing. Feeling extremely self conscious after two dances, Mei pulled up Helen to dance with her. Vin got Adam up again, and instructed him to “DANCE WITH MY MOTHER!” Mei was having so much fun with these people! She wondered why the others weren’t coming out to dance rather than being stuck in a room complaining about the heat.

Sitting down yet again after the dancing, Mei was given a doll and was told to dance with it. She did so, but danced with the doll as if it was a piece of plastic, throwing it in the air and jiggling it about. Though they laughed, the doll was passed on to a more ‘mature’ figure to do a motherly dance. All the younger generation laughed at Mei’s wonderful dance moves before they were called to the main area of the wedding that was tented; the outside of the house.

Everyone apart from Tee and Ba were there talking to Vin’s father. A man with a large nose and belly bellowed “HELLO!” to Adam and Mei.

It transpired that he was a Mauritian tour guide, and he soon struck up a conversation with Mei about Malaysia. Ba’s father came round with Coke to drink and asked if anyone wanted some cake.

“Yes please!” Chen nearly shouted. Ba’s father disappeared again, and Dan joined in the circle sitting next to Janet. Josh started to talk to Nerissa a lot because he hadn’t had a chance to before, while Mei and Adam carried on speaking to the tourist guide. More children kept on running to stare at the group and giggle at them. Mei smiled and waved at them which caused them to giggle even more before running away. A stray dog came over to sniff Janet and Mei shrinked back. She didn’t like dogs very much, but it seemed Janet didn’t like them even more. She started to shriek and cause a scene while Mei thought it was a bit too much.

Time went on, with Mei and Adam walking back to watch the old women pretending to be old men, and Vin in a woman’s sari acting coy and flirtatiously. Mei was on a high, this was nothing like she had expected! Once the old women had been danced out, they both walked back into Tee’s room. Everyone looked incredibly bored, apart from Tee who looked tired and a bit annoyed at Ba who had accidently smudged her henna.

“We’re going back now you guys” Tee stood up and motioned them outside. They all piled into Ba’s car again after saying their goodbyes, with Adam and Mei getting kissed on the cheeks by the old ladies followed by a friendly laugh. Mei sat on Chen’s lap again, while Tee sat on Janet’s lap as she wanted to provide Ba with company on their journey back. With Tee there, Mei knew there would be conversation, and music since she had her iTouch with her. The cheesy music began at once as Ba sped along the roads as if he was competing in Formula One. A medley of George Michael and everything else of that genre were played and sung along to loudly. Ba made loads of jokes about the singing talents of Tee and Mei and rammed the music up higher to drown them up. Chen joined in, while Janet and Nerissa sung along silently.

“Want to hear them scream?” asked Ba to Adam.

Without waiting for an answer, he swerved sharply towards his exit on the roundabout. Right on queue, all the girls at the back screamed and laughed while carrying on singing nonetheless. As the sing-a-long drew to a close at the front of the house, the dog started to bark again. Janet worried about cockroaches arriving in the apartment again as goodbyes were exchanged.

Up the stairs they walked while talking about the night. Nerissa and Janet went instantly into their rooms as Mei, Chen and Adam went around adjusting the air conditioning and making sure the lights were all off. As Chen walked into her room she complained that it was too cold, but of course, the other two weren’t having any of it. “It’s fine the way it is” gurned Janet. Mei was glad she wasn’t sharing with them. She turned her air conditioning to 21 degrees, but was told by Adam it was too cold. After pouting for a while, she got her way. She hated the heat!

Chen ran into Mei and Adam’s room, “OH MY GOD! I completely forgot! Ba’s dad didn’t bring back any cake for me!” then left.

Both doors were finally closed as the bathroom activities ceased, and Adam and Mei spoke about their dancing antics and how enjoyable, if embarrassing it was. They hoped that the following days would be this much fun! Hopefully Chen would dance with them too, even though she did look a bit on the ill side. With the lights turned off, Mei and Adam slowly went to sleep, the air conditioning buzzing softly in the background.

Day II Part I

After bobbing on Adam’s shoulder for the final duration of their flight, Mei woke up with a start. Surely they must be there by now. She checked the flight schedule and clapped to herself that there was only 5 minutes until landing! She wanted to exclaim loudly and do a little dance too, but a few people were staring at her clapping already. Adam fastened his seat belt and tucked his tray back into the seat. Touch down was soon. Mauritius was soon. Mass excitement was soon! Mei opened the blinds on her window and peered outside. “Wow Adam! Look look!” She had never realised that the island would look so magical. You could see all the different beaches, mountains and contours of the island. It looked like a postcard, but real! “Mei, I can’t see through your head.” said Adam. Once Mei had moved her head, Adam got to see the magnificence of the island. The clear skies and the brilliance of the sun light filled them both with awe. This was about a million times better than the grey painting of England that they had left behind. Actual colour! Mei didn’t even think London looked this bright at its sunniest. The colours were different here, glossier. This of course, made Mei even more impatient to get off the plane.

Her wish was commanded, and as the plane touched down, she was intrigued by the run way. Instead of being pure grey and building orientated, there were palm trees, grass AND flowers either side of the tarmac. It seemed almost cruel that someone had planted an airport and runway on such a wonderful landscape. Mei had no time to keep staring though, it was time to actually get out. She anticipated the humidity and the heat with apprehension and excitement. Mei was more of a winter girl, more a self conscious thing than anything else. She preferred to put on more layers of clothes rather than take them off in public. She had the feeling that she would have no choice this time though, and cringed a bit at the thought. Adam must have read her mind, “Mei, don’t be silly. I wouldn’t let you get that fat..yum yum!” Mei crinkled her nose. She never believed Adam when he said those sorts of things, but she quickly turned it into a quick smile to pretend she had accepted the compliment.

Mei wanted to get out and jump around the country, however she did not know there would be an hours wait to actually get out of the airport. You wouldn’t have thought that, as the airport in comparison to say Gatwick or Heathrow, was like a house. Small and simple with bamboo and marble, Mei and Adam waited in queue to get their passports stamped. Adam was particularly excited about this as he had never had a stamp in his passport before. They were a hell of a long way from the front, as it transpired that two medical forms had to be filled out before entering the country. Mei thought back to how easy it was to get into England, then realised that Mauritius was so much more picturesque that no wonder they were stricter about who and what illnesses they let in!

While queuing, neither Mei nor Adam had any clue how long they would be. They did not guess that the answer would be nearly two hours. Some passengers had forgotten what hotel they were staying at, and so the Mauritian officials were ringing up everyone possible to find out the answers. There were many frequent audible tuts as the queue progressed. Many had started to fill out the forms in the queue so that they could get stamped and leave as soon as possible. Some however, decided to do it at the immigration control desks, much to the heavy annoyance of the entire queue. Mei and Adam were thankful that they had Tee and Ba’s wedding invitation on them, meaning they could fill out the information of where they were staying at once. “Do you have a cough?” read Mei, as Adam struggled to hold in his obvious wheeziness from his cold. “I’ll just tick yes”..”Hmm, well, you better say that you had the cold two weeks ago and not now!” replied Mei. It was apparent to her that there would be a lot of questioning about his cold, but was thankful they had not visited India or anywhere malaria based in the past six months. The small print informed her that they would have needed a blood test within five days to check for malaria. Wow she thought, this sort of control was pretty good! It made entering England look as easy as blinking, no wonder the government was having such problems!

Lying on Adam’s chest while standing up did not seem to speed up time, and Mei loudly sighed. There were now four people in front of her. The man in front made a snide comment about people not using common sense, which of course meant that Adam had someone to talk, no..complain with. Mei shut it out, she was somewhat embarrassed, even though she agreed. Unless of course, the people in the queue really did want to stay there forever, which was the reason why they decided not to fill out their two cards. Adam worried that Mei would lose her eyeballs if she kept rolling them so dramatically, but felt his blood pressure going up as the couple at the desk “forgot” how long they were staying for. Mei looked like a zombie, totally uninterested and a bit ‘eurgh’. Mei didn’t travel well in a fashion sense. All those pretty girls wandering around after a 12 hour flight with perfect make up and stature just wasn’t her. She wondered how bad her skin was in the daylight, and hoped Adam wouldn’t notice the perfect brigade behind them with well-groomed hair, and not a fake eyelash out-of-place. Before getting even more self conscious, they were one person away from getting a stamp in their passports! Thankfully the man in front knew his name and where he was going, so was stamped at once. Mei and Adam got out pretty quickly as well, apart from the mini dilemma that Mei’s passport wouldn’t scan properly at first.

Relief filled the couple as they took the elevator option of going down stairs to collect their baggage. As the lift doors open, Mei and Adam saw yet another barrier preventing them from meeting Tee and Ba. Mei panicked and thought that they would have given up waiting and left. Adam tried to reassure her that they would obviously not just leave, but Mei began worrying. Being the last two to get through immigration, there was the final medical card to give up. Mei passed through without a glitch, but of course, Adam was questioned about his cough. Thank God Adam used Mei’s excuse that he was just recovering from two weeks ago. Even with this, the authorities demanded Ba’s telephone number and watched Adam for a while to see if he would show how ill he really was. Adam was going slightly pink from trying to suppress the cough that so desperately wanted to leave. After pursing his lips and staring for a while longer, the authority man took Adam’s medical card and let them both through.

Mei’s excitement was indescribable now that they were “free”. Their baggage was easy to find as they were the only two remaining, and so finally made their way to the outside of the airport, into Mauritius. Mei’s worry turned into panic yet again as Tee or Ba could not be seen no matter how far they walked. Once outside, the humidity hit them while Mei’s panic mode was turning into fright. “There’s Ba!” exclaimed Adam. Mei’s fright left as soon as it had come, this girl was fickle. She wondered if Chen, Janet or Nerissa were waiting too, but then thought it was ridiculous.

Chen, Janet and Nerissa had flown out a day before. It would have been easier to all have flown out on the same day, but Nerissa had taken a disliking to Mei ten years ago for no apparent reason, and so refused to have anything to do with her. Chen and Janet thought this was ridiculous, but Nerissa won in the end.

Mei was curious to see if Tee had given those three a different villa to herself and Adam, because one of the ‘rules’ for coming to Tee’s wedding, was that Adam and Mei had to sleep elsewhere. This had obviously caused a huge hoo-ha back in the summer, but again, Nerissa won.Ba helped wheel Mei’s heavy luggage up to Tee waiting in her car, while Adam took in his surroundings. He was awe-struck. “Hi! I’m Shan” A large six foot tall man stuck his hand out for Mei to shake, while a boy of about thirteen did the same with Adam. Shan looked like the Mauritian version of one of Mei’s flat mates back at university, the similarity was uncanny! Shan then shook Adam’s hand, while the boy shook Mei’s while Ba and Tee decided where they were going. “Okay, Shan and I are going to get the flowers, and you four are going back to the villa! See you later, and ring me when you’re ready!” Ba and Shan jumped into a car and sped off, while Mei asked, “Hey, where are our bags?” Tee laughed, ” Ba and Dan put them in my boot, let’s go!” Mei wondered if this actually took place, her observational skills weren’t obviously up to MI5 standards just yet.

Tee drove Mei, Adam and Dan off to their villa and passed by small stalls selling convenience items, more palm trees and lots and lots of grass. Mei felt like she was living in a post card, the environment was stunning. As they left the tiny airport, banana trees and sugar cane plants passed by in a flash on either side. ” This steering wheel is too high!” complained Tee. “NO NO NO!” Tee shouted, as Dan tried to adjust the steering wheel for her while driving. Adam and Mei laughed, obviously Dan didn’t seem to think anything was wrong about this. Not because he was only thirteen, but because everything was so much more relaxed in Mauritius. The humidity reminded Mei of Malaysia, and of course this reminded her of mosquito’s. Mei was always bitten but was sure she had never seen a mosquito before. Or if she had, had no idea what they looked like ‘in person’.

“Hopefully Janet will be up to let us in since I gave her the key” Tee said without taking her eyes off the road. Mei thought it was great that Tee had the confidence to just drive in a foreign country without prior experience there. There was no need to worry about insurance either, as the vehicle was insured instead of the person in Mauritius.”Janet?! Eh? Are we staying them then?” exclaimed Mei. Surely Nerissa wouldn’t stand for this!”Yeah, you guys are all staying together in this villa for a few days….why? Have you got a problem with that?”"No problem! Just a bit shocked!” Mei worried again that Tee thought she had a problem with Nerissa. Which was sort of the case after the summer of hearing what was ‘wrong’ with her from Janet through Chen.

Tee turned down three tiny streets and got to a villa, and beeped her horn rapidly. “I hope they’re all up!” After waiting a whole second, Tee horned again. This time, Janet turned up, followed by Chen and Nerissa.

“MEEEEEEEEEI!” Shouted Chen while waving violently. All three wore shorts and vest tops. Mei felt self-conscious in her leggings and t-shirt with her jumper on her lap. She needed to shower and change from her winter costume. While Tee reversed into the driveway, Mei noticed that only Chen was saying hello. Mei didn’t expect anything else though, she didn’t even expect Nerissa to come down to welcome them. Chen was also basically Mei’s girlfriend too, they were the same person it seemed!

As they got out of the car, a dog from next door started barking threateningly. Mei shuddered. She hated dogs. “Don’t worry, that dog always barks. It kept us up all night! Stupid dog…” Chen obviously wasn’t a fan of its night time singing. Tee opened the boot, while Adam took his suitcase out, Dan carried Mei’s heavy baggage up two flights of stairs into the villa with ease. “Wow! Strong boy!” Mei and Chen said simultaneously and laughed. “What?! You two are so rude!” exclaimed Janet. Mei and Chen gave each other a look, “What do you mean rude? He’s strong. What else are we supposed to call him!” Chen giggled at Mei and continued walking up the stairs behind her. She always admired how frank Mei could be, but sometimes got embarrassed when she told strangers off.

“Right! This is the living room, there’s the kitchen behind it, that is the girls’ room, that’s the bathroom and that is your room, with Adam.” Tee gave the worst ever showing of the apartment and sat down.”Do you guys want a drink?” Chen offered.”Yes please! I definitely need to shower! I smell like the devil!” Mei was sweaty and tired. Her leggings were sticking to her like magnets.”OH MY GOD! Last night there was the biggest cockroach ever, and Janet had to spray it loads of times before it died!” cried Chen.”Yeah, I was just washing my hands, and Nerissa and Chen started screaming outside so I had to go and see what was happening!” whined Janet.

Mei shuddered. Giant cockroaches did not sound fun. Everyone sat down in the open plan living room and an awkward silence ensued. Mei decided to ask Nerissa how she was and admired the henna everyone else had on their arms and hands. Nerissa shifted uncomfortably and answered Mei’s questions. It was painfully obvious she wasn’t keen on her, but Mei carried on speaking to her. Nerissa was a bit of a weed and had already upset Tee by being a pain about Mei. Mei could not be bothered to have an awkward holiday and so planned to be civil toward Nerissa, while of course feeling pleased that she could have so much power over Nerissa. Mei just could not understand why Nerissa would behave in such a way at her best friend’s wedding! However, Mei could see that Nerissa was actually trying her best, so as not to seem the bad person.

After exhausting all her small talk skills, Mei went to have a shower. The bathroom was extremely warm, and Mei had to check around that there weren’t any cockroaches ready to pounce. She heard Chen and Tee outside pretending to scream that one had crawled in through the gap, but just mock screamed and got into the shower. The whole thing was tiled, apart from frosted glass on one side facing the toilet. As the water hit her skin she felt fresh in an instance. She did not have that grungy unwashed feeling anymore, and was excited to put on her pink summer dress! Her second summer of the year, she never knew that she could become so excited about summer, a season that wasn’t enjoyable for her at all.

After showering, Mei ran for her room and locked the door. She put on her dress and wrapped her hair up into a turban and padded out into the living room. Everyone was silent now, reading the subtitles to an Indian soap opera. “Good shower Mei?” asked Adam. “Yup!” Adam nodded and went for his turn in the shower. “So, what are everyone’s plans for today then?” Mei asked. “Well, me and the girls are going out to get jewellery. You and Adam can stay here and get some rest.” Mei would have quite liked to have gone too, but then thought it was best that she caught up on some sleep. There was to be a party at Ba’s house filled with singing and praying from the older generations about the upcoming two day Hindu wedding. The girls caught up on the day before and their separate flights while sipping their cold bottled water. Mei started to paint her toe nails emerald green, whilst being careful not to flash the others. She was jealous of Chen and Nerissa’s skinny figures, but vowed not to care on this holiday. She reasoned that there was no point in being upset about her size now, she was here, and she was going to have as much fun as she could.

Adam got out of the shower and put on his shorts and turned the air con on in their room. “Right good shower!” he came out smiling and looked fresh. At once, Tee told everyone to get their shoes on because she wanted to take them on a walk. Mei put on her flip-flops, while Janet, Nerissa and Chen put on wedges and fashion sandals. Mei couldn’t be bothered for that effort for just a walk. As they left the house, Janet got into a flap about where she had put her key, while everyone else just ignored her and walked out. The heat hit Mei like a warm blanket. Wildlife made noise as they went about their business, and a light wind blew large trees slightly. Tee gave the command of “Left left right!” hoping that everyone else would remember how to get to their destination. Nerissa made an effort to stay away from Mei and Adam, while everyone else barr Janet crowded around them. Mei pointed out everything she saw to anyone who cared to listen. There were houses painted brightly, mango’s growing from tree’s, a perfect skyline and stray dogs roaming around. There was even a tiny shack selling roti (a type of flat bread) at a pittance of a price. Mei found it hard to imagine they would get much business, since they were based in the middle of no where, but they seemed to be making a living somehow and Mei just wanted to stand and watch. Tee and Dan pushed Mei on, “Only one more right to go!” Adam wondered where they were off to, but then was hit with the awesomeness of the greatest beach he had ever seen in his life. White sands with a clear crystal sea and a brilliant blue sky. Adam wanted to remember this moment forever.

“I wanna go in the sea!” Mei squealed, “Chen, you’re not allowed remember! I’ll tell your mum if you do!” she joked.

Chen had very strict chinese parents, who informed her that in no situation whatsoever was she allowed to go near or in the sea. Chen couldn’t swim at all, but Mei had told her that everyone else could so she’d be fine. Chen didn’t care anyway as she bounded after Mei who was already dipping her toes into the water.

“Oooo! Everyone come in! It’s amazing! I want to go in deeper! Can I go back and get my swimming stuff?”

“Mei, we’ve got to go shopping! We can stay for five minutes!” replied Tee.

Even though Mei was a bit disappointed, she realised that they’d be able to go and relax there for ages after the four day wedding had ended. Mei got the distinct feeling that she was the only one enjoying wading in the water, but carried on regardless. After a few photo shots and paddling around, Tee impatiently told everyone they had to leave. The group left the soft sand and did the hot sand run to a ledge to put on their flip-flops and sandals. They had all acquired a new pair of sand shoes, from where the sand had stuck to their still wet feet. Two men started talking to them all, trying to sell their wares. Tee told everyone to ignore them and to make sure that they didn’t follow them back to their villa. Mei thought it funny that in all countries there was always someone there who tried to sell their wares, but in the most creepy and threatening way.

Thankfully, the two men didn’t follow them as they walked back. Mei and Chen attempted to talk to Dan, but he was more interested in talking to Janet. He seemed a bit shy with bad English, so Mei and Chen assumed that he didn’t understand them well. On the walk back, Tee, Chen and Mei started to sing Disney songs while Adam smiled to himself. He thought it was funny that the Disney karaoke had followed them all the way to Mauritius. On arrival at the front gate, the girls and Dan said their goodbye’s while Mei and Adam retired themselves to the bedroom.

Mei had turned the air conditioning and the fan on, much to Adam’s annoyance. “It’s either one or the other”, but before the words were even out of his mouth, he knew it was a losing battle to try and get Mei to change her mind. “But I’m hoootttttt” Mei made sad eyes at Adam as he closed the door.

“Have you locked the door Ad? I don’t want them to walk in and see my pants!”

“Yes the door is locked, and why would they see your pants?”

“Because! I’m wearing a dress! Who knows what’s going to happen when I fall asleep!”

Adam nodded and pretended to not be confused. He found Mei endearing, but sometimes had no idea what was going on in her head. They lay down separately from each other because of the immense heat. Suddenly, the door opened itself. Mei nearly had a heart attack, and Adam was soon to follow.

“It’s just because you’ve just opened the window as well Mei!” Adam wasn’t scared by the door opening, instead he was scared because Mei had sat bolt upright in the fastest time possible.

Mei quickly settled down, and decided that she was able to lay on Adam’s chest because the air conditioning would soon enough cool her down. Mei fell asleep with next door’s dog barking and random cars passing by. Three hours later a loud banging noise awoke both of them. Adam instantly got the door keys and went downstairs to let everyone in. Mei rubbed her eyes and put in her contact lenses. She couldn’t sleep with everyone else awake, she might miss something exciting!

“We have to get ready and Tee said she’d come and pick us up in two hours” Janet informed everyone while going to her room.

Chen showed Mei the jewellery she had bought for a dirt cheap price and then the two gossiped about her flight with Janet and Nerissa. Apparently, Chen wasn’t impressed at the way Nerissa and Janet didn’t include her in the journey to Heathrow airport and how she couldn’t get to sleep and so was majorly tired and a bit peaky. Chen and Mei could talk for ages, and so by the time every bit of nonsense was exchanged between the two, everyone was ready. Chen had no idea what to wear, she was asking everyone their opinions, and then changed her mind.

“Wear the one that doesn’t show your chest!” Mei added helpfully. Chen looked disappointed at this, but opted for an orangey looking dress and brown wedges.

“You’re not wearing that are you Adam?” asked Chen.

“What’s wrong with it? …. FINE. I’ll change then.”

Adam was annoyed as he walked to his room.

“Is Adam annoyed at me?” Chen whispered to Mei

“No. He’s just grumpy because he’s ill and tired. Don’t worry about him!”

As soon as Mei had said that, she walked into their room and had a go at Adam. Why was he always so grumpy? Why couldn’t he just be happy?

“I’m sorry Mei. I didn’t mean it, I’m just tired and I have no idea what to wear.”

Mei wondered why Adam was acting in this way, and then realised he hadn’t had any Lemsip or his inhaler, so was probably in hell. She slinked back into the living area with a leopard print summer dress and glittery jelly shoes. Chen approved of her dress and brought out three magazines for everyone to read. Adam walked out of the room in jeans and a shirt and attempted a playful smile at Chen.

Hours passed, and no one had been to collect them. “Ring Tee and ask her where she is! She’s late!” moaned Janet.

Chen rung and was told that someone would be there to pick them up in half an hour. Apparently wires were crossed, and Ba thought that Tee had told them to ring when they were ready, but Tee had instead told them that someone would be there. Mei was reminded of the airport conversation with Ba and realised that they should have rung, but had totally forgotten. Janet moaned a bit more about having to wait, while everyone else just carried on reading. Janet jumped at every single sound she heard, hoping that it was the car to pick them up.

A horn sounded just as the magazines were beginning to get boring. Nerissa and Janet got up so quickly, you’d have thought they had ants in their pants. All the windows and doors were locked, to prevent any cockroaches or additional mosquitos from getting into the apartment. Ba apologised for the miscommunication, but everyone told him not to worry, especially Janet, which was odd. There wasn’t enough space in the car, so Chen asked Mei to sit on her lap.

“I’ve put on all the weight in the world though!” worried Mei.

“Just sit on my lap!” instructed Chen.

They all got into the car and Ba sped along to his house. Even though he was going incredibly quickly, Mei was amazed at how on the ball he was about other cars on the road. The car was absolutely silent. Mei tried to start off a few conversations, but no one seemed to be reciprocating. She ended up just staring at the scenery and buildings as they flashed past her in a blur.

Day I

Wake up. Panic about packing only being 60% done. Eat breakfast. Watch TV. Realise suitcase isn’t going to pack itself. Panic. Shout at parents. Panic. Shout at Adam. Sit on bed. Read Book. Panic. Finally start packing. Get side-tracked by glitter. Get told off by Adam. Shout at Adam. Pack. Calm down. Finish packing. Hug grandma goodbye. Get on underground. Eat a sausage roll. Burp. Laugh at burp. Frown at Adam’s burp. Get on train to Gatwick. Get on coach to Gatwick airport. Panic about online boarding passes. Relief that 19kg bag isn’t 20kg. Mention packing six pairs of shoes. Sit around. Eat chilli con carne with a tiny knife. Adam rings his parents. Buy book. Online check in ticket is questioned continuously. Panic. Bags X-rayed. Adam and I x-rayed. Sit around. Buy Whiskey for Tee and Ba. Get bored. Do Sudoku. Sit down by departure gate. Read newspaper. Be bored. Complain about being bored. Be bored. Do Sudoku. Get on plane.

Finally! Mei and Adam were on the first of two planes to Mauritius! They were flying economy class to Dubai, and then on to Mauritius! Two six-hour flights with Emirates in the middle of English Winter towards Mauritian heat! Not that bad, but Mei worried about her boredom levels. The plane reminded her of the ones she used for her travels to Malaysia. Especially the entertainment on offer! An individual screen that had thousands of films, TV programmes and games, all at the swipe of a finger! Mei concluded with herself that there would be no sleeping on this trip!

No passengers or luggage were missing, so the plane surprisingly took off on time. The next two hours were filled with Adam watching “(500) days of summer” and Mei flicking through “(500) days of summer”, “Family Guy”, “The Simpsons” and “Third Rock from the Sun”. Mei really had to sort out her patience issues. While her mind wandered yet again, the cabin staff gave out hot towels, snacks and drinks. Free food! Mei had forgotten all about plane food! She vowed not to drink that much, she hated the toilets and was always scared of the stories where people had flushed the airline toilet and had their rectum sucked out. Mei’s mind wandered yet again, she had forgotten all about sorting out her attention span and patience. She had good reason to of course. The menus for lunch were being distributed. Chicken curry with rice was the first plane meal of the journey. Exciting stuff! Mei waited impatiently for the food to be wheeled around to her area. She grabbed it gratefully and was excited at what she saw. Who knew that a bread roll, crackers, butter, cheese, curry, a tub of water and a box of fruits would get a person so happy. Simple minds…

After Adam’s film and food had been taken away, Mei realised with disdain that there was another four hours left. She was in her own world while eating her food, stealing some of Adam’s crackers when he wasn’t looking. She knew she was going to put on more weight, but food wasn’t why! It was obviously because her body hated her. Why would food make her put on weight! She chuckled to herself and stole some cheese from Adam. He wouldn’t need it. He was skinny already. Mei loved her logic.

Before Mei knew what she was doing, she was on her third drink of the flight. Oh Crumbs! They were only small though she thought. It would be possible to hold it in from escaping for another three and a half hours. Hopefully. As she started to watch “The Jungle Book” she went into a deep sleep. The sounds of Mowgli and Baloo conversing lulled her back into reality. Surely as the film was ending it would only be minutes before they landed! No such luck. Adam informed Mei that there was another one and half hours left of flight time. The pain in Mei’s bladder was unbearable. She HAD to go to the toilet. Mei shuffled to the toilet with barely opened eyes, she was far too tired to open them properly. In her half-awake state, she tried and tried again to open the door without any luck. She asked a random passenger to open the door for her, not caring about her appearance or how inept she looked. This was it. This was the moment that she had been dreading. She thought of hovering, but what if the toilet flush was motion activated! She would be sucked into an embarrassing conundrum. Just before an intense mental debate took place, she saw a flush handle. Hurrah! She could go to the toilet properly! Once she was done, the same ordeal of not being able to use the door properly took place. Finally getting out, she rushed back to Adam so as not to see the stares of people who were ALL obviously thinking “There goes that girl that doesn’t know how to open a toilet door…”

Adam was getting stuck into a film about fighting, guns and criminal activity. Typical! He always watched the same sort of film, while instantaneously, “The Sword in the Stone” made an appearance on Mei’s screen before you could even say ‘hypocrite’. She soon tired of this film though, and tapped on the ‘Flight Information’ section. Apparently, they were to land 20 minutes ago, but they were the 16th aeroplane in a queue waiting to land. The screen showed that the plane was just circling around and around in the sky while waiting its turn to land. Mei didn’t even know planes did this, “I thought they just hovered in the sky” she said to Adam. “No.” was his short reply. He was obviously in no mood for Mei talking incessantly, and for once, she realised this. “Twenty one minutes! It’s gone up! Why is the time changing Adam! ARRRGGGHH!” Adam smiled and continued watching his film. He was incredibly patient, and some wondered how he could cope with Mei’s random outbursts and continual chatter.

Twenty three minutes passed before the captain made the announcement that the plane would finally be landing in Dubai. Mei found it weird that her body clock was still adjusted to 7pm British time, while in Dubai it was 11pm and their next flight wouldn’t be taking off until 3am local time. As the plane finally touched down on to the runway, Mei pressed her face up to the window to see what Dubai airport had to offer at night. It was magnificent! Much better than any in England, and this was only the outside of the airport!

Upon entering Dubai airport, both Mei and Adam were stunned. Fountains, palm trees, shops, travellators and charging points everywhere! With two hours to kill, they both sat inside a swanky looking restaurant. This did not last long however. The waiter informed them that for two Cokes, it would be at least £15. Being tired and grumpy, Adam informed the waiter “Well, we’ll just go somewhere else. Come on Mei, we’re going elsewhere.” Mei told off Adam for being so rude to the waiter, but Adam was having none of it. “£15! It’s disgusting!……” This went on for a while, but Mei just blanked it all out. She couldn’t believe that Adam could have been so rude. Well, she could believe it, but her mind seemed to have altered after the flight and the change of time zone. She let it go however, when they found a Costa doing coke for £1.50 each. Still expensive for a can, but better than £15! Mei rattled on about nothing in particular, while Adam sat and listened while interjecting about the pain in his knee and his wheeziness.

After two hours of talking and Sudoku’ing, the time had come to get on to their second and final plane to Mauritius. Mei was starting to get excited! Adam however, the more logical and restrained of the two, nodded his head and smiled. Walking to their seats, Mei was pleased to find the same touch screens that she had found so fascinating on the first flight, as well as the thought of the breakfast plane food that was to follow shortly.

A delay of around forty minutes occurred before the flight took off this time though. There were two missing passengers. No problem thought Mei, she could catch up on her Disney films and peruse the breakfast menu. Adam frequently showed Mei his findings in the duty-free magazine of the airline, “Ostrich skin pens! $800!” Mei thought they didn’t look anything different to any other pens, but what did she know, she wasn’t crapping out money every second to afford such things.

As the two missing passengers finally remembered they had a plane to catch, one of Mei’s favourite parts of a flight took place. Apart from the food, she loved the feeling of the plane when it took off or landed. She enjoyed being in a dangerous situation while being safe at the same time, it was indescribable. Like watching a horror movie, while knowing it wasn’t real. (Hopefully!) As the plane became less diagonal, the cabin crew brought round a bizarre breakfast consisting of egg, curried chicken and lamb, spinach, a croissant, crackers, jam and butter. It was bizarre in the way that Mei had never had curry for breakfast before. Airline food was airline food though, and so Mei loved it! Adam was falling asleep, so this gave Mei ample opportunity to eat basically everything of his apart from the egg.

After consuming more or less two breakfasts, Mei started to watch yet another Disney film and went directly to sleep. When she woke up, she hoped that she was just about to land in Mauritius. Though on doing so she realised Seychelles was nearly two hours away from Mauritius. Damn! Mei pondered what Disney film to watch next, when the cabin crew came around with orange juice. Mei said no. Well, in her head she said no, but found herself seconds later gulping down yet another drink! Watching Disney was thirsty work it seemed! She rationalised with herself that she’d be able to hold it in for two hours.

Perhaps there was something in the food and drink, but Mei fell asleep yet again on Adam. She dozed in and out of conciousness, noticing that Adam was holding her head up on his shoulder. Before napping again, she imagined a comical birds eye view of her boyfriend holding up her head while it bobbed up and down in dreams and grinned.

As I sit writing this I am wrapped in my duvet with the heating on. Its still cold.

So I am pretending that I am back sitting on this balcony in Mauritius, watching the exotic sun set over the sea. Its a balmy 24 degrees, with a warm breeze whispering through the tropical foliage. The waves are crashing gently on the shore, a calming, soothing noise. Brilliantly coloured tropical birds are singing and music is playing softly somewhere in the back ground. As I sit on the balcony with my husband, a glass of champagne in hand I think how wonderful it is, how warm, relaxing, peaceful and perfect.

Wish you were here too?!!

British colony of MAURITIUS

stamp: 60 cents

year: 1954

bird : pigeon / Dodo – Raphus cucullatus

On November 5th 2009, the press office of the department of justice, equality, and law reform stated as the main and only reasons of the new visa requirement for citizens of Mauritius from January 1st 2010 was : ” There are currently over 5000 Mauritian nationals registered with the Garda National Immigration Bureau, mostly as students“.

On November 20th 2009, the minister of justice, equality and law reform confirmed this information by issuing the same statement in written answers to the Dail.

On November 23th 2009, the press office of the department of justice, equality, and law reform finally responded to a query of November 11th 2009 asking for a breakdown by stamps of citizens of Mauritius registered with GNIB :

Stamp 1 : 71, Stamp 1A : 28, Stamp 2 : 3641, Stamp 3 : 51, Stamp 4 : 125, Stamp 4EUFam : 56 and Stamp 5 : 1

The total number of citiziens of Mauritius registered with GNIB is 3980 so well under “over 5000“. On Kildastreet.com, a poll is still organized to vote on the written answer to the Dail of the question 285 : “Does this answer the above question ?”  Again, Definitely not!

The press office of the department of justice, equality and law reform didn’t respond to e-mail for comment on this difference in numbers.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new global version of Amazon’s Kindle for Christmas, be aware that there are still quite a few places that the global version will NOT work.  I was disappointed to find that the new version still will not work in my country.

Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.   I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in (below).

It’s also interesting to note the PATTERN of groups of countries where the Kindle doesn’t work–some countries probably lack satellite coverage or delivery systems, while others probably don’t WANT readers to be able to download whatever they want by satellite.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,  Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S.,  Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009) the following countries:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan,  Yemen.

A video competition is now being organised by the NGO We Love Mauritius on themes related to sustainable development.

Read more on the ComStudies blog at:
http://comstudies.wordpress.com/

Maris Kassabian 10

Just 3 days.

Are we interested?

Due to the range of self interest groups there are a number of alternative interpretations of the scientific evidence. During the last few days we have seen the results of the Commonwealth meeting in Trinidad and Tobago – a wholehearted yes to global action on issues to do with climate change. Of course the commonweath of countries include many small island states who are immediately in danger due to a rise in sea levels. Some active polluters would also like to put a different spin on science,suggesting that temperatures are actually going down and the fuss is just political not scientific. Our job is to cut through the obvious bias and find out as much as we can before coming to some conclusions.

Commonwealth nations representing one-third of the world’s population threw their weight on Saturday behind accelerating efforts to clinch an “operationally binding” U.N. climate deal in Copenhagen next month.

Leaders of the 53-nation Commonwealth meeting in Trinidad and Tobago used their summit to bolster a diplomatic offensive seeking wide consensus on how to fight global warmingbefore December 7-18 U.N. climate talks in the Danish capital.

“The clock is ticking to Copenhagen … we believe that the political goodwill and resolve exists to secure a comprehensive agreement at Copenhagen,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told a news conference in Port of Spain.

The Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration pledged the group’s backing for Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen in his efforts to secure wide attendance and commitment from world leaders at the Copenhagen climate talks.

“We pledge our continued support to the leaders-driven process … to deliver a comprehensive, substantial and operationally binding agreement in Copenhagen leading towards a full legally binding outcome no later than 2010,” the Port of Spain declaration said.

Tackling the thorny issue of funding for poor nations’ efforts to fight climate change and global warming, developed countries in the Commonwealth led by Britain backed an initiative to establish a Copenhagen Launch Fund, starting in 2010 and building to $10 billion (6 billion pounds) annually by 2012.

Reflecting debate that has dogged the road to Copenhagen, developing states said much more money needed to be committed by rich nations to help poorer countries counter global warming and adapt to the pollution-reducing requirements of a climate deal.

Will Cop15  be a case of missed opportunities by leaders who should know better?

Get daily updates from earthwire e.g.

Climate pledges ‘not enough for deal’, says EU
EurActiv | 30 Nov 2009
Pledges made so far by governments to cut greenhouse gases are not enough for an effective pact to fight climate change, European Commission President Jos’ Manuel Barroso said on Sunday (29 November).
EU Emission Trading Scheme | Climate ChangeSouth Africa: Zuma Calls for Binding Emission Reduction Targets
AllAfrica.com | 30 Nov 2009
President Jacob Zuma has during a bilateral meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for world leaders to commit to legally binding emission reduction targets at the upcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen.
Climate Change and Development | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change

Did the Kyoto protocol make a difference?

The debate is hotting up…

Check the youtube channel on Cop15

and the youth climate debate

Perhaps we need to keep an open mind and start learning more about what the issues are for us personally, for our local environment,for our country and last but not least, the planet and all those who will need to live on the planet for the foreseeable future.

Rodrigues -Indian Ocean

While working on Rodrigues island (Mauritius) I was discussing with some young people about their hopes and fears for the future. We were doing this as part of a larger research study where several countries were sharing ideas about what concerned young people about their future and what action should be taken. Out of all the places only primary school students from Rodrigues said they were concerned about rising sea levels. Of course they were the only ones who lived near sea level and who lived on an island small enough to be totally engulfed by an increase in seal level.

Ten years later,and more news is coming out about Pacific islanders and Maldive inhabitants anxiously watching their coasts disappear and desperately asking the world’ s polluters to give them a break.

3 days to get accustomed to some of the climate change jargon before the talking begins again. Whatever the reality of the situation , to do nothing should not be an option for any of us. We can learn more , understand more,ask difficult questions and perhaps take some action. During the next two weeks I will try like many others to ensure that more information is available.

Lets start with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

[UNEP's Work > Science > Climate Change Science Compendium ]

Climate Change Science Compendium

UNEP’s Climate Change Science Compendium is an annual snapshot of how the science has been evolving since the publication of the IPCC’s landmark fourth assessment.

One of the many sobering conclusions is that:

“ The growth in carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industry has exceeded even the most fossil-fuel intensive scenario developed by the IPCC at the end of the 1990s. Global emissions were growing by 1.1 percent each year from 1990-1999 and this accelerated to 3.5 percent per year from 2000-2007.”

Click on the images below to read the chapters’ abstracts or click here to download the full report.

earth systems

earths ecosystems

earth's ice

earth's oceans

eco management

Transfer of climate technologies

This report contains ideas and proposals on the elements contained in paragraph 1 of the Bali Action Plan, focusing on technology. It was originally submitted by UNEP to the UNFCCC in December 2008 as an input to the deliberations of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) under the title “Thoughts Concerning Technical Assistance and Capacity Building to Support the Transfer of Climate Technologies: Possible activities and their potential impact.

Indigenous voices speak:

And what about “the Truth about Climate Change”:

and some animation…

From the COP 15 website:

Some predictions from the Ministry of Climate and Energy of Denmark

Predicting the consequences of global warming is one of the really difficult tasks for the world’s climate researchers. Firstly, because the natural processes that cause precipitation, storms, increases in sea level and other expected effects of global warming are dependent on many different factors. Secondly, because it is difficult to predict the size of the emissions of greenhouse gases in the coming decades, as this is determined to a great extent by political decisions and technological breakthroughs.

Many of the effects of global warming have been well-documented, and observations from real life are very much consistent with earlier predictions. It is the precise extent that is difficult to predict. Among the effects that can be predicted are:

More droughts and more flooding:

When the weather gets warmer, evaporation from both land and sea increases. This can cause drought in areas of the world where the increased evaporation is not compensated for by more precipitation. The extra water vapor in the atmosphere has to fall again as extra precipitation, which can cause flooding other places in the world.

Less ice and snow:

Glaciers are shrinking rapidly at present. The trend is for the ice to melt faster than estimated in the IPCC’s latest report. In areas that are dependent on melt water from mountain areas, this can cause drought and a lack of drinking water. According to the IPCC, up to a sixth of the world’s population lives in areas that will be affected by this.

More extreme weather incidents:

The warmer climate will most probably cause more heatwaves, more cases of heavy rainfall and also possibly an increase in the number and/or severity of storms.

Rising sea level:

The sea level rises for two reasons. Partly because of the melting ice and snow, and partly because of the thermal expansion of the sea. Thermal expansion takes a long time, but even an increase in temperature of two degrees Celsius is expected, in due time, to cause a rise in the water level of almost a metre.

In order to get an idea of the extent of the consequences, researchers typically work with scenarios that show various possible developments. Other scenarios are being described by people such as economists and planners:

Ranging from business as usual to “a real deal”, Björn Stigson, President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, sees six very different possible outcomes of the UN conference on climate change to be held in Copenhagen this December.

Mr. Stigson’s views, first presented earlier this summer, are highlighted as an expert group under the US National Academies of Sciences releases a new video on the process ahead. His six scenarios are:

1. “A real deal”: the US and China provide the driver for a new, ambitious and comprehensive agreement.

2. “Business as usual”: the various countries follow current national targets.

3. A limited deal: headed by for example the Group of Eight (G8) a deal outside the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is found.

4. A mere prolonging of the present agreement, the Kyoto Protocol.

5. A stretching of the Copenhagen conference (COP15) into 2010.

6. “Window dressing”: a grand declaration but no real deal.

As the only non-American, Björn Stigson is a member of the expert group “America’s Climate Choices” under the US National Academies of Sciences.

APC

GreeningIT – APC on ICTs, Climate Change & Environmental Sustainability

As a network promoting local community sustainable development, promoting the development and use of ICTs has been always closely linked with issues related to environmental sustainability. APC members have been implementing projects ranging from monitoring environmental degradation, to natural disaster and accident reporting, to the use of ICTs in managing energy resources more efficiently to research on low-power computing, alternative energy sources and e-waste management in developing countries. In 2008 these efforts led to a new APC-wide GreeningIT initiative that aims to address two critical challenges: How national ICT policy environments address ICTs, environmental sustainability and climate change; and How ICTs can be used more sustainably by ICTD practitioners, civil society organisations and service providers?

MuriloHidekiAshiguti 11

Recently, we have witnessed the rise of many .mu Websites. This is encouraging!

The current Mauritian Web Directory is on the Orange.mu Portal: www.orange.mu/WebDirectory/. However, we are all familiar with the term #OrangeMauritius #FAIL

Some of the current Mauritian Directories:

• www.moris.us (Mauritius Twitter Directory)
• mauritiusbloglist.blogspot.com (Mauritius Blog List)
• www.mauritiusblogtracker.com

and some NEW .mu websites:

• www.newsnow.mu
• www.levraijournal.mu
• www.ilebay.mu
• www.restaurants.mu
• www.funradio.mu
• www.rtss.ac.mu
• www.forum-maurice.mu

The Mission Statement of Mauirtius Web Directory (which shall be updated and published annually)

1. To have an updated profile of all websites for the Mauritian Market (sort of digg.com)
2. To have a reviewing system on the websites
3. To be Open Web , users register and post their website profile. Of course a moderation team should be here…
4. Profile of All Internet Professionals in Mauritius and promote Social Networking amongst them

That’s it… What do you think of this new idea: www.mauritiuswebdirectory.mu???

This is a very intersting news story from the U.S. Africa Command about how they teamed up with 35 stakeholders from Mauritius and Seychelles to participate in an East Africa Region Spill Preparedness and Response workshop this past June. 

To read this article click here or visit http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=3096&lang=1