Paris, France 1st April 2009
Dear Friends
The sun is shining brightly outside. It is 5 pm and the temperature is 16 C. (60 F)
I see people walking around in their Tee Shirts; winter seems a memory already, even though just a few days ago, the temperature was below Zero C!
The cafes are busy; people are already sitting out on the pavements.
You feel you are in Paris...clear skies and quiet for a big city.
Leaving Havana to come to live half the time in Paris might have sounded like a dream for any Cuban, but to me it took me a very long time to adjust to the fact that I will not be able to have Cuba as often as I wished. When foreigners come into Miami airport, a strangely accented Spanish welcomes them: Bienvenidos Miami and las playas... welcome to Miami and the beaches... But many a Cuban, who has tried for years to get out, is crying deeply in his heart, for he knows what it is like to immigrate and give up all what is good about Cuba. It must be the same for most immigrants.
I have lived in 8 countries, this being the 9th. I have never emigrated, but this time I have felt sadness of leaving Cuba ( not forever, I do go back, but the sense of joy of just knowing I live in Cuba, is gone and it has taken me two years to adjust to that fact!..In that way I am like an immigrant from Cuba to France..!)
Paris is a wonderful place to be, people are very welcoming, I am yet to have any bad experience, apart from the annoying French regulations about opening a bank account! Food is a central part of living here, which suits me fine.
If you can believe it, this is my lunch today...
Risotto saumon with bean sprouts
Crepe with cream and chocolate
Banana, a bottle of Perrier
Not a fancy restaurant. The lunch was good.
Walked around under the sun a little bit, smiled a few people, stopped at the bakery near home to buy a baguette…
Being aware of the need to communicate, I am always looking for ways to be in touch with my friends. Today I found a way to connect to skype through fring using my ipod touch. So whenever I am near any WI fi spots, I can call you, text you or send you an email... isn’t that nice?
Enjoy the month of April, I shall be here half this month... but I am excited about the month of May, when I will return to my Asian Home, Kuala Lumpur and visit the country of my heart and memory of my father, Burma.
June in Cuba, July will be an exciting time to show MunChing around the Indian Reservations including attending the HoCank Pow Wow, August might be a nice setting to discuss Symbolic Healing with my friend Jorge Luis in Buenos Aires as well as attend the Omaha Pow Wow, September will see back in KL, possibly visit Phnom Penh or Borobudur!
When is my brother Ricardo bringing his son Shmulik to meet me? I will miss my other brother Elliott’s daughter’s Bat Mitzvah, sorry. To my three mothers, I will see all three of you within the next few months! To my Havana friends, we can spend time talking our hearts out, with the help of some Cuba libre or mojito... and my first lunch inKL would be at the Hotel Mandarin Oriental, followed by a facial/manicure/pedicure...
In between all these, I do plan to see patients, write a project about Peer to Peer Model (successful in Cambodia, possibly import it into USA and Malaysia?., Burma?), begin the skeleton of a book on Symbolic Healing with my friend Jorge Luis in Buenos Aires..
The Blue House is open to all of you, at any time you wish! My good friends in the Reservation will make sure you are comfortable!
