For the whole of last week, I parked motherhood aside temporarily to don on my working clothes again. For a salary I could not resist, Iogic tells me the temporary separation with my family is worth it.
For this assignment, I had to fly 7 hours to the island of Mauritius - home to the extinct Dodo birds long ago. It turned out to be an amazing learning experience for me.
Lesson #1 - You don't have to be rich to have the sea view.
As we travelled along the coast from our hotel to office and back everyday, we noticed alot of poorly and uglily built houses fronting the beach. My boss commented that in Singapore, if you lived by the sea, you are very rich. The taxi driver replied that in Mauritius, if you live by the sea, you are poor. And it would appeared so. Before I ventured into the city of Port Louis, my impression of Mauritius was almost skewed from what I see everyday during the taxi ride. Mauritius has lots of mountains and beautiful coasts but the villages we passed by, they are not beautiful. Poorly built stone houses lined the narrow and windy road. Some were built in the middle of a plot of land surrounded by rubbish.
Lesson #2 - You don't need to be rich to be generous.
Despite the not so comfortable living conditions, the Mauritian people are the warmest and most easy-going people I've come across. The bartenders and waiters of our hotel are so likeable and they make you feel right at home. The taxi driver who fetches us everyday, he's a simple and contented fellow. The office staff who fixed us our tea and coffee everyday, they serve with such dedication and humility it puts the 5-star hotel staff to shame. Even the management people who engaged our services, they showed their hospitality and made sure all our needs were taken care of and that we were comfortable. People go out of their way to make you feel welcome and they never make you feel like you're imposing on them.
Lesson #3 - Mauritius: A Blend of East and West, Black and White
Mauritius has a multi-cultural society. 55% are Indians with minorities of Chinese, Africans and Europeans. Conquered by the English and French before, Mauritians speak English and French fluently. In fact, skin colour aside, Mauritians are Europeans in the core. Their style of greeting is the 'cheek to cheek kiss' that you get in France. Their food - it's like a blend between curry and stew. And they take it either with basmati rice or french loaves. Very interesting blend of culture.
Lesson #4 - Hindi movies are very entertaining.
I seldom watch Bollywood or Hindi movies. But over the last 6 nights, stuck at a beachside hotel, with only local TV programmes in French or Hindi, I watched quite a few Hindi dramas and movies only because they had English subtitles. Well I must say they make pretty good entertainment. There's this Hindi serial that played for 30mins everyday at 7pm. The lead actress was caught in a love triangle between 2 husbands and we were hooked to find out in the next episode which husband will sit with her at the 'pooja'. I also caught 'Nameste London' one night and hmm, some of these Bollywood Indian actresses are so gorgeous and the Indian guys are quite hunky....
Lesson #5 - Health is Wealth
One of my colleague who came with me fell very ill on the 5th day with food poisoning. He was so sick that he couldn't eat anything for the next 2 days despite a local doctor seeing him. He endured the 10 hours flight home and had to be wheelchaired out of the aircraft upon arrival. He landed in hospital for a bad case of bacterial infection. We had all our meals together for the whole week so I wondered what it was he ate that caused him to be so sick. I suspect it could be the cut fruits he ate which I'd avoided. On hind sight, when overseas, it is safer to stick with fully cooked food and whole fruits like bananas or whole apples. Some raw food could contain bacteria invisible to the naked eye.
All in all, it was a good trip. Though I wish the hotel had no ants and more English programmes, I've gained a lot of experience with my work and made friends with a few Mauritians. But after 7 days, enough. I want to be back home to hold my 2 boys again.
