My son Alex has a favourite expression - 'For Everything A Reason' and last night I put his theory to the test.
I had a mishap, which in hindsight could have been a lot worse, but thankfully, I am OK and able to relate the story.

After spending the afternoon at an event run by the Women's Organisations Network of Myanmar and MPs from the national parliament, I caught a bus home for part of the journey.

It was a stormy night with heavy rain and thunder with lightning. As I got off the bus at a major road intersection, I immediately was up to my ankles in standing water. Much worse was to come...!

I crossed the busy road and made my way home along the main street which has irregular lighting. At night in the driving rain, you have to choose between walking in the road with the oncoming lights of cars or navigate the uneven pavement.

At one point, a car was parked on the road side and so I walked on what I thought was the pavement. Disaster!!!. I stepped into a water channel which in places runs parallel to the pavement and road. The flowing water came up to my chest and for a second or two I was completely disorientated as to what had happened. I pulled myself back onto the pavement and a young couple who had seen the incident checked if I was OK.

I was completely wet through with filthy water including the bag I was carrying and my umbrella was smashed.The torrential rain continued to fall and I could see the flashes of cars lights and hear the incessant sound of car horns. At that particular moment I just exclaimed "What the f*** am I doing here!" And thought, why can't I just be like everyone else in their 60s and spend a couple of weeks on Spain or France in a nice villa with a pool.

It's strange how quickly your mind moves on from the incident and my thoughts turned to the practicalities of getting all my clothes off and jumping into a nice foamy bath or under a hot shower. I then remembered I only have a cold bucket of water in my flat! In my situation last night, a bucket of cold water has never felt so good

I always bounce back very quickly from setbacks and can see the funny side too.
A couple of beers later, I reflected on Alex expression 'for everything a reason' and thought about what had happened.

There are real dangers here which I need to be wary of - it's only taxis home now if it is heavy rain and dark.

This is a very poor country with huge problems but the people are strong, resourceful and resilient. My minor incident is nothing compared to one of my young women colleagues who this week has been in a nasty road traffic accident and an earthquake in Nay Pyi Daw and didn't miss a minute of work or make any fuss.

This is good learning for me about the tough lives many people have here in this part of the world. I realize how lucky I am to live in the developed world with so much that it is easy to take for granted.


Thank you Alex - 'For Everything A Reason' X