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Our Home in Myanmar: Four years in Yangon
Myanmar - shrouded in mystery, misunderstood and isolated for half a century.
After a whirlwind romance in Bangladesh, Australian journalist Jessica Mudditt and her Bangladeshi husband Sherpa arrive in Yangon in 2012 - just as the military junta is beginning to relax its ironclad grip on power. It is a high-risk atmosphere; a life riddled with chaos and confusion as much as it is with wonder and excitement.
Jessica joins a small team of old-hand expat editors at The Myanmar Times, whose Burmese editor is still languishing in prison. Whether she is covering a speech by Aung San Suu Kyi, getting dangerously close to cobras, directing cover shoots with Burmese models, or scaling Bagan's thousand-year-old temples, Jessica is entranced and challenged by a country undergoing rapid change.
But as the historic elections of 2015 draw near, it becomes evident that the road to democracy is full of twists, turns and false starts. The couple is blindsided when a rise in militant Buddhism takes a personal turn and challenges their belief that they have found a home in Myanmar.
After a whirlwind romance in Bangladesh, Australian journalist Jessica Mudditt and her Bangladeshi husband Sherpa arrive in Yangon in 2012 - just as the military junta is beginning to relax its ironclad grip on power. It is a high-risk atmosphere; a life riddled with chaos and confusion as much as it is with wonder and excitement.
Jessica joins a small team of old-hand expat editors at The Myanmar Times, whose Burmese editor is still languishing in prison. Whether she is covering a speech by Aung San Suu Kyi, getting dangerously close to cobras, directing cover shoots with Burmese models, or scaling Bagan's thousand-year-old temples, Jessica is entranced and challenged by a country undergoing rapid change.
But as the historic elections of 2015 draw near, it becomes evident that the road to democracy is full of twists, turns and false starts. The couple is blindsided when a rise in militant Buddhism takes a personal turn and challenges their belief that they have found a home in Myanmar.
- GenresNonfictionAsia
314 pages, Paperback
Published March 5, 2021
31 people are currently reading
609 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Mudditt
2 books37 followersJessica Mudditt is the author of two travel memoirs, Our Home in Myanmar and Once Around the Sun.
She is also the founder of hybrid publisher Hembury Books. Established in 2023, Hembury Books strives to delight authors of all genres.
She is a former journalist and her bylines appeared in The Economist, BBC, CNN, GQ, The Telegraph and Marie Claire.
She spent seven years reporting from Bangladesh and Myanmar, before returning to Australia in 2016.
She is also the founder of hybrid publisher Hembury Books. Established in 2023, Hembury Books strives to delight authors of all genres.
She is a former journalist and her bylines appeared in The Economist, BBC, CNN, GQ, The Telegraph and Marie Claire.
She spent seven years reporting from Bangladesh and Myanmar, before returning to Australia in 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
October 15, 2021
A fascinating insight into MYANMAR
Jessica, an Australian journalist, and her husband, a Bangladeshi called Sherpa – also a journalist – spent four years in Myanmar from 2012 to 2016. It was a great and ‘historic’ time to be there as the country began to open up to Western ideas before it plunged its way back into the horrors of the persecution of the Rohingya population of Rakhine state. It was very far from being a free country, but there were signs… Jessica joined the English language The Myanmar Times as a sub editor before being promoted to a more senior position as features editor. She eventually fell out with management and moved on to being a freelance working for several local and regional publications. Sherpa secured the editorship of a business publication, handy because of the instability of Jessica’s own income. She travelled extensively around Myanmar, and experienced several amazing places and events. Did you, for example, know that the is a temple complex in Myanmar – many times the size of Angkor Wat in Cambodia – which is almost deserted and free of visitors? She also heard Aung San Suu Kyi speak and witnessed two visits to the country by President Obama. For a while Jessica worked as a trade envoy at the British Embassy, and then – again as a journalist – for a state controlled (and much censored) newspaper. It was an exciting life… She lived through the 2015 general election when the National League for Democracy won an overwhelming parliamentary majority. But then it all began to go seriously wrong… Militant Buddhism was on the rise, and Sherpa did not feel safe. He was not religious, but he was Bangladeshi – and many of his fellow countrymen were Moslems. He was ‘tarred’ with the same brush. His work permit was not renewed and the couple had to leave the country at pace and head back to Australia.
Our Home in Myanmar is a very illuminating book. Since reading it, I have thought again about some of the experiences that Jessica recounts. Some are amusing, some are merely strange, but many are much more sinister. People were arrested on the most flimsy of charges, and then spent years awaiting a corrupt trial. Corruption was everywhere as was political censorship. The process of obtaining a work visa was an unpredictable lottery. Jessica and Sherpa believed they would make their long term home in Myanmar, they loved the country and the people, but it was not to be. Myanmar flirted for a few years with the idea of democracy and limited freedoms – but has now headed right back whence it came. The brutal crack down of earlier this year was pretty predictable.
Our Home in Myanmar is highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn a little more about this fascinating and contradictory country.
Jessica, an Australian journalist, and her husband, a Bangladeshi called Sherpa – also a journalist – spent four years in Myanmar from 2012 to 2016. It was a great and ‘historic’ time to be there as the country began to open up to Western ideas before it plunged its way back into the horrors of the persecution of the Rohingya population of Rakhine state. It was very far from being a free country, but there were signs… Jessica joined the English language The Myanmar Times as a sub editor before being promoted to a more senior position as features editor. She eventually fell out with management and moved on to being a freelance working for several local and regional publications. Sherpa secured the editorship of a business publication, handy because of the instability of Jessica’s own income. She travelled extensively around Myanmar, and experienced several amazing places and events. Did you, for example, know that the is a temple complex in Myanmar – many times the size of Angkor Wat in Cambodia – which is almost deserted and free of visitors? She also heard Aung San Suu Kyi speak and witnessed two visits to the country by President Obama. For a while Jessica worked as a trade envoy at the British Embassy, and then – again as a journalist – for a state controlled (and much censored) newspaper. It was an exciting life… She lived through the 2015 general election when the National League for Democracy won an overwhelming parliamentary majority. But then it all began to go seriously wrong… Militant Buddhism was on the rise, and Sherpa did not feel safe. He was not religious, but he was Bangladeshi – and many of his fellow countrymen were Moslems. He was ‘tarred’ with the same brush. His work permit was not renewed and the couple had to leave the country at pace and head back to Australia.
Our Home in Myanmar is a very illuminating book. Since reading it, I have thought again about some of the experiences that Jessica recounts. Some are amusing, some are merely strange, but many are much more sinister. People were arrested on the most flimsy of charges, and then spent years awaiting a corrupt trial. Corruption was everywhere as was political censorship. The process of obtaining a work visa was an unpredictable lottery. Jessica and Sherpa believed they would make their long term home in Myanmar, they loved the country and the people, but it was not to be. Myanmar flirted for a few years with the idea of democracy and limited freedoms – but has now headed right back whence it came. The brutal crack down of earlier this year was pretty predictable.
Our Home in Myanmar is highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn a little more about this fascinating and contradictory country.
April 13, 2023
having lived and being involved in volunteer work for 3 years that Jessica writes about, I've been flooded with memories of a few of the same people, many places and the experiences of life in Yangon during its days of more openness and freedom.
December 4, 2021
Thank you to Goodreads giveaways for the opportunity to read this book. I didn’t know much at all about Myanmar (Burma), before reading this book. The book was written by a journalist and was very interesting and informative, without being dry. The author wove her personal experiences and observations, some humorous and even absurd, with background on the country, and it’s history. It is sad to see the struggle for democracy in so many places in the world losing ground. Mynanmar is a country that enjoyed a brief period of hope and progress, and embraced democracy, but has recently returned to a military dictatorship. A very timely account.
January 5, 2022
I purchased this at Jessica’s book launch at AIIA. I’ve always been fascinated by Myanmar, but knew little about it. This book really opened my eyes to the highs and lows of this unique country. Jessica is a fantastic writer and the book has excellent flow, urging you to keep turning the page.
October 21, 2022
English version below…
အရင်တပတ်ထဲက ရက်တရက်မှာ ကံကော်ဝတ်ရည်FM ဆိုပြီး ဖွဲ့ထားတဲ့ ဂရုထဲကို ကိုဟေမာန်က အီးဘုတ် လင့်တခု ချလာပေးတယ်။ ကိုယ်က မနေ့မနက်က ဖွင့်ကြည့်မိတယ်။ စာအုပ်နာမည်က ရန်ကုန်မြို့မှာ လေးနှစ်တာတဲ့။ ဘာသာပြန်စာအုပ်။ မူရင်း စာအုပ်နာမည်က Our home in Myanmar - Four years in Yangon။ စာအုပ်ရေးသူက Jessica Mudditt သူက မြန်မာပြည်ကို သတင်းထောက် အလုပ်လုပ်ဖို့ ၂၀၁၂ ခုနှစ်မှာ ရောက်လာခဲ့တယ်။ မြန်မာတိုင်မ်းမှာ အလုပ်ဝင်တယ်။ အဲဒီကနေ အလွတ်တမ်း သတင်းသမားလုပ်တယ်။ အယ်ဒီတာ လုပ်တယ်။ ကိုယ်ပိုင် ဘလော့ရေးတယ်။ နောက်တော့ အစိုးရ အပြောင်းအလဲမှာ New Light of Myanmar မှာ အလုပ်ဝင်တယ်။
ဦးသိန်းစိန်အစိုးရကို တွေ့ခဲ့တယ်။ အိုဘားမား လာလည်တဲ့ နှစ်ကြိမ်လုံး မြန်မာပြည်မှာ ရှိနေပြီး တကြိမ်မှာတော့ ကိုယ်တိုင်တွေ့ခဲ့ရတယ်။ ပထမအကြိမ် ရွေးကောက်ပွဲကိုလည်း ကြုံခဲ့တယ်။ အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည် အစိုးရကိုလည်း တွေ့ခဲ့သေးတယ်။
ထောက်လှမ်းရေးတွေ နေရာတကာရှိနေရာက ပွင့်လင်းမြင်သာလာတယ်လို့ ဆိုတဲ့ အခြေအနေ အထိကို တွေ့ခဲ့ဖူးတာ။ (ပွင့်လင်း မြင်သာလာတယ်လို့ ဆိုတဲ့ဆိုတာက အမှန်တကယ် ပွင့်လင်း မြင်သာတာ မဟုတ်ခဲ့လို့)။
မြန်မာပြည်ကို နောက်ခံထားပြီး ရေးထားတဲ့ စာအုပ်တော်တော်များများ ရှိတာပဲ။ ဒီစာအုပ်ကတော့ ကိုယ်အကြိုက်ဆုံးစာအုပ်တွေထဲက တအုပ်ဖြစ်လာတယ်။ လက်က မချပစ်နိုင်နိုင် ဆက်တိုက်ဖတ်သွားမိတယ်။
သူရေးပြခဲ့တဲ့ အတိတ်က မြန်မာပြည်ဆီကို စိတ်ကူးနဲ့ ပြန်ရောက်ရတယ်။ ၂၀၁၂ ကိုယ် ရခိုင်မှာရှိနေခဲ့တယ်။ ၂၀၁၃ ၂၀၁၄… မုံရွာဘက်မှာ… အဲဒီနောက် ရန်ကုန် ပြန်ရောက်တယ်။ ATM စက်တွေ မရှိသေးခင်မှာ ဒီစက်တွေ မရှိနေတာဟာ… နိုင်ငံတကာနဲ့ ချိတ်ဆက်တဲ့ ဘဏ်စနစ်တွေ မရှိနေတာဟာ.. ပြင်ပ ကမ္ဘာနဲ့ ဆက်သွယ်ခွင့်မရှိတာဟာ… နိုင်ငံထဲကို လာတဲ့သူတွေ ဗီဇာ ခက်ခဲတာဟာ.. အိမ်လခကို တနှစ်စာ ကြိုပေးရတာဟာ.. ကိုယ်တို့အတွက် အဆန်းတကြယ်မဟုတ်ဘူး။ ဖြစ်နေကျ သာမန် ကိစ္စတွေပဲ။
ပြင်ပကမ္ဘာက ရောက်လာတဲ့ သူတွေအတွက်တော့ ကိုယ်တို့ဟာ ရှေးခေတ်မှာ ကျန်ရစ်နေခဲ့ကြတဲ့သူတွေ။ ဖုန်းတွေ လူတိုင်း မကိုင်နိုင်ဘူး။ လက်ဖက်ရည်ဆိုင်မှာ အချိန်အကြာကြီးထိုင် လမ်းမကို ငေးနေဖို့ အချိန်တွေ အများကြီးရှိတယ်။ လစာနည်းနည်းလေး ပေးပြီး တရက်လုံး၊ တညလုံး အလုပ်ခိုင်းထားလည်း သူက အလုပ်ရှင်ပဲလေလို့ မြင်ပေးတတ်တယ်။
တယောက်ယောက်ကို မတရားလုပ်လည်း သိရက်နဲ့ ကာကွယ်ပေးရကောင်းမှန်း မသိဘူး။ ATM က ပိုက်ဆံလိမ်ထုတ်ပါတယ် ဆိုတဲ့ အစိုးရသတင်းစာမှာ ရေးထားတဲ့ အကြောင်းကို တကယ်လို့ ကိုယ်ထင်ခဲ့တယ်။ ဟုတ်ရဲ့လားလို့ မေးခွန်း ပြန်မထုတ်တတ်ခဲ့ဘူး။ ခုဂျက်စီကာ ရေးပြတော့မှ ဒါဟာ မတရားခံရတဲ့ ကိစ္စပါလားဆိုတာ သိလာတယ်။
“မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ တရားမျှတမှု မရှိဘူး” တဲ့…
ဂျက်စီကာ ဒီစာအုပ်ရေးနေတုန်းမှာ အာဏာသိမ်းမှု ဖြစ်သွားတယ်။ မြန်မာဘာသာပြန်ကို ပြည်တွင်းမှာ ပုံနှိပ်ထုတ်ဝေဖို့ အခက်အခဲတွေ ဖြစ်သွားတယ်။ အခုတော့ မြန်မာဘာသာနဲ့ စာအုပ်ကို e-book လင့်ရပြီး ကိုယ်ဖတ်ခွင့်ရခဲ့တယ်။
ခရီးသွား အက်ဆေးတွေ ရေးတဲ့ ကိုယ်အတွက် ဒီစာအုပ်က အတုယူဖို့ ကောင်းနေတယ်။ သတင်းသမား တယောက်ရေးထားတာ ဖြစ်တဲ့အတွက် အချက်အလက်ထည့်ထားတာ သိပ်ကောင်းတယ်။ အချက်အလက်တွေကို ပျင်းဖို့ ကောင်းအောင် ထည့်ထားတာမျိုးမဟုတ်ပဲ ချိတ်ဆက်ထားတာက လှနေတယ်။
၁၉လမ်း၊ လမ်း၅၀ ဘား၊ Gekko ဘား တွေ အကြောင်း ဖတ်ရတော့ အတိတ်က လွမ်းစရာတွေကို ပြန်သတိရပြန်ရော။
ကိုယ် အိမ်ပြန်ချင်တယ်။ ….
E-book link
https://www.facebook.com/530260069/po...
One day in last week, in a messager group, named Kan Kaw Wuyee FM a friend (Ko Hay Man) drop a link. Kan Kaw Wu Yee is the name of one publishing group, we are in the group as we all link somehow with the publisher. Some of us are writer, translator, also book reviewers. I opened the link next day, found out that this is for an e-book called “Our Home in Myanmar – four years in Yangon” by Jessica Mudditt. The book was translated to Burmese. Jessica arrive to Myanmar in 2012 to work as Journalist, she worked in Myanmar times, worked as freelance also as Editor. She has her own blog too, then during the change of military government to democrat government she started working in New Light of Myanmar.
She saw U Thein Sein as president, she was in Yangon on both visit of Obama to Myanmar, in second visit she met him in person. How existing! She witness the first election. Also got chance to see the government lead by Aung San Su Kyi too.
She saw all the changes from the dictatorship… big brother is watching you stage to the almost transparence stage. Yes.. almost.. because we never reach to real trenchancy. We have a lot of book which take Myanmar as background, this one become one of my favorite immediately. I can’t stop reading… finished in 2 days.
Because of the story, my mind fly back to the past.. to Myanmar.. to Myanmar in the past. In 2012 I was in Rakhine, witness the conflict. In 2013 to 2014, was in Moywar, dry zone, then get back to Yangon.
That time we do not have ATM machine… no banking system link with international banking system… no connection to outside world… visa to Myanmar is super difficult… has to pay the yearly rent for the house or offices… all those things are normal for us, normal for me. Nothing to question about. But for outsider who come from another country . this is not the case.
For foreigner (we do not call them expat, we called them foreigner) we are the people who live in the past. We do not have mobile phone, we have hundreds or thousand hours to sit in teashop and looking at the people passing by. We just accept the situation that boss give you few dollars, ask you to work several hour… we think that he has this right, because he is the boss.
We do not know that we have to stand for the people who is in the unfair situation… Once.. there was a news about some foreigners who withdraw huge amount of money from ATM with fake ATM card. I think that was true story, never think to think twice. Now, from this book.. this news has another side of story.
“There is no justices in Myanmar”
While Jassica is writing this book, there was the coup d’etat in Myanmar. They faced difficulty to publish Burmese printed version in country. Now, I got chance to read it in e-book.
Me.. the travel essays writer, this book is good example. As the writer is the journalist, the way she put the information is amazing, not boring… the link between life and information is beautiful.
After reading about 19th street, 50th street bar and Gekko bar… I got nostalgia.
..
I wanna go back home…
#maekwyi
#မယ်ကျွိ
#Jessica_Mudditt
#Ourhomeinmyanmar
အရင်တပတ်ထဲက ရက်တရက်မှာ ကံကော်ဝတ်ရည်FM ဆိုပြီး ဖွဲ့ထားတဲ့ ဂရုထဲကို ကိုဟေမာန်က အီးဘုတ် လင့်တခု ချလာပေးတယ်။ ကိုယ်က မနေ့မနက်က ဖွင့်ကြည့်မိတယ်။ စာအုပ်နာမည်က ရန်ကုန်မြို့မှာ လေးနှစ်တာတဲ့။ ဘာသာပြန်စာအုပ်။ မူရင်း စာအုပ်နာမည်က Our home in Myanmar - Four years in Yangon။ စာအုပ်ရေးသူက Jessica Mudditt သူက မြန်မာပြည်ကို သတင်းထောက် အလုပ်လုပ်ဖို့ ၂၀၁၂ ခုနှစ်မှာ ရောက်လာခဲ့တယ်။ မြန်မာတိုင်မ်းမှာ အလုပ်ဝင်တယ်။ အဲဒီကနေ အလွတ်တမ်း သတင်းသမားလုပ်တယ်။ အယ်ဒီတာ လုပ်တယ်။ ကိုယ်ပိုင် ဘလော့ရေးတယ်။ နောက်တော့ အစိုးရ အပြောင်းအလဲမှာ New Light of Myanmar မှာ အလုပ်ဝင်တယ်။
ဦးသိန်းစိန်အစိုးရကို တွေ့ခဲ့တယ်။ အိုဘားမား လာလည်တဲ့ နှစ်ကြိမ်လုံး မြန်မာပြည်မှာ ရှိနေပြီး တကြိမ်မှာတော့ ကိုယ်တိုင်တွေ့ခဲ့ရတယ်။ ပထမအကြိမ် ရွေးကောက်ပွဲကိုလည်း ကြုံခဲ့တယ်။ အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည် အစိုးရကိုလည်း တွေ့ခဲ့သေးတယ်။
ထောက်လှမ်းရေးတွေ နေရာတကာရှိနေရာက ပွင့်လင်းမြင်သာလာတယ်လို့ ဆိုတဲ့ အခြေအနေ အထိကို တွေ့ခဲ့ဖူးတာ။ (ပွင့်လင်း မြင်သာလာတယ်လို့ ဆိုတဲ့ဆိုတာက အမှန်တကယ် ပွင့်လင်း မြင်သာတာ မဟုတ်ခဲ့လို့)။
မြန်မာပြည်ကို နောက်ခံထားပြီး ရေးထားတဲ့ စာအုပ်တော်တော်များများ ရှိတာပဲ။ ဒီစာအုပ်ကတော့ ကိုယ်အကြိုက်ဆုံးစာအုပ်တွေထဲက တအုပ်ဖြစ်လာတယ်။ လက်က မချပစ်နိုင်နိုင် ဆက်တိုက်ဖတ်သွားမိတယ်။
သူရေးပြခဲ့တဲ့ အတိတ်က မြန်မာပြည်ဆီကို စိတ်ကူးနဲ့ ပြန်ရောက်ရတယ်။ ၂၀၁၂ ကိုယ် ရခိုင်မှာရှိနေခဲ့တယ်။ ၂၀၁၃ ၂၀၁၄… မုံရွာဘက်မှာ… အဲဒီနောက် ရန်ကုန် ပြန်ရောက်တယ်။ ATM စက်တွေ မရှိသေးခင်မှာ ဒီစက်တွေ မရှိနေတာဟာ… နိုင်ငံတကာနဲ့ ချိတ်ဆက်တဲ့ ဘဏ်စနစ်တွေ မရှိနေတာဟာ.. ပြင်ပ ကမ္ဘာနဲ့ ဆက်သွယ်ခွင့်မရှိတာဟာ… နိုင်ငံထဲကို လာတဲ့သူတွေ ဗီဇာ ခက်ခဲတာဟာ.. အိမ်လခကို တနှစ်စာ ကြိုပေးရတာဟာ.. ကိုယ်တို့အတွက် အဆန်းတကြယ်မဟုတ်ဘူး။ ဖြစ်နေကျ သာမန် ကိစ္စတွေပဲ။
ပြင်ပကမ္ဘာက ရောက်လာတဲ့ သူတွေအတွက်တော့ ကိုယ်တို့ဟာ ရှေးခေတ်မှာ ကျန်ရစ်နေခဲ့ကြတဲ့သူတွေ။ ဖုန်းတွေ လူတိုင်း မကိုင်နိုင်ဘူး။ လက်ဖက်ရည်ဆိုင်မှာ အချိန်အကြာကြီးထိုင် လမ်းမကို ငေးနေဖို့ အချိန်တွေ အများကြီးရှိတယ်။ လစာနည်းနည်းလေး ပေးပြီး တရက်လုံး၊ တညလုံး အလုပ်ခိုင်းထားလည်း သူက အလုပ်ရှင်ပဲလေလို့ မြင်ပေးတတ်တယ်။
တယောက်ယောက်ကို မတရားလုပ်လည်း သိရက်နဲ့ ကာကွယ်ပေးရကောင်းမှန်း မသိဘူး။ ATM က ပိုက်ဆံလိမ်ထုတ်ပါတယ် ဆိုတဲ့ အစိုးရသတင်းစာမှာ ရေးထားတဲ့ အကြောင်းကို တကယ်လို့ ကိုယ်ထင်ခဲ့တယ်။ ဟုတ်ရဲ့လားလို့ မေးခွန်း ပြန်မထုတ်တတ်ခဲ့ဘူး။ ခုဂျက်စီကာ ရေးပြတော့မှ ဒါဟာ မတရားခံရတဲ့ ကိစ္စပါလားဆိုတာ သိလာတယ်။
“မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ တရားမျှတမှု မရှိဘူး” တဲ့…
ဂျက်စီကာ ဒီစာအုပ်ရေးနေတုန်းမှာ အာဏာသိမ်းမှု ဖြစ်သွားတယ်။ မြန်မာဘာသာပြန်ကို ပြည်တွင်းမှာ ပုံနှိပ်ထုတ်ဝေဖို့ အခက်အခဲတွေ ဖြစ်သွားတယ်။ အခုတော့ မြန်မာဘာသာနဲ့ စာအုပ်ကို e-book လင့်ရပြီး ကိုယ်ဖတ်ခွင့်ရခဲ့တယ်။
ခရီးသွား အက်ဆေးတွေ ရေးတဲ့ ကိုယ်အတွက် ဒီစာအုပ်က အတုယူဖို့ ကောင်းနေတယ်။ သတင်းသမား တယောက်ရေးထားတာ ဖြစ်တဲ့အတွက် အချက်အလက်ထည့်ထားတာ သိပ်ကောင်းတယ်။ အချက်အလက်တွေကို ပျင်းဖို့ ကောင်းအောင် ထည့်ထားတာမျိုးမဟုတ်ပဲ ချိတ်ဆက်ထားတာက လှနေတယ်။
၁၉လမ်း၊ လမ်း၅၀ ဘား၊ Gekko ဘား တွေ အကြောင်း ဖတ်ရတော့ အတိတ်က လွမ်းစရာတွေကို ပြန်သတိရပြန်ရော။
ကိုယ် အိမ်ပြန်ချင်တယ်။ ….
E-book link
https://www.facebook.com/530260069/po...
One day in last week, in a messager group, named Kan Kaw Wuyee FM a friend (Ko Hay Man) drop a link. Kan Kaw Wu Yee is the name of one publishing group, we are in the group as we all link somehow with the publisher. Some of us are writer, translator, also book reviewers. I opened the link next day, found out that this is for an e-book called “Our Home in Myanmar – four years in Yangon” by Jessica Mudditt. The book was translated to Burmese. Jessica arrive to Myanmar in 2012 to work as Journalist, she worked in Myanmar times, worked as freelance also as Editor. She has her own blog too, then during the change of military government to democrat government she started working in New Light of Myanmar.
She saw U Thein Sein as president, she was in Yangon on both visit of Obama to Myanmar, in second visit she met him in person. How existing! She witness the first election. Also got chance to see the government lead by Aung San Su Kyi too.
She saw all the changes from the dictatorship… big brother is watching you stage to the almost transparence stage. Yes.. almost.. because we never reach to real trenchancy. We have a lot of book which take Myanmar as background, this one become one of my favorite immediately. I can’t stop reading… finished in 2 days.
Because of the story, my mind fly back to the past.. to Myanmar.. to Myanmar in the past. In 2012 I was in Rakhine, witness the conflict. In 2013 to 2014, was in Moywar, dry zone, then get back to Yangon.
That time we do not have ATM machine… no banking system link with international banking system… no connection to outside world… visa to Myanmar is super difficult… has to pay the yearly rent for the house or offices… all those things are normal for us, normal for me. Nothing to question about. But for outsider who come from another country . this is not the case.
For foreigner (we do not call them expat, we called them foreigner) we are the people who live in the past. We do not have mobile phone, we have hundreds or thousand hours to sit in teashop and looking at the people passing by. We just accept the situation that boss give you few dollars, ask you to work several hour… we think that he has this right, because he is the boss.
We do not know that we have to stand for the people who is in the unfair situation… Once.. there was a news about some foreigners who withdraw huge amount of money from ATM with fake ATM card. I think that was true story, never think to think twice. Now, from this book.. this news has another side of story.
“There is no justices in Myanmar”
While Jassica is writing this book, there was the coup d’etat in Myanmar. They faced difficulty to publish Burmese printed version in country. Now, I got chance to read it in e-book.
Me.. the travel essays writer, this book is good example. As the writer is the journalist, the way she put the information is amazing, not boring… the link between life and information is beautiful.
After reading about 19th street, 50th street bar and Gekko bar… I got nostalgia.
..
I wanna go back home…
#maekwyi
#မယ်ကျွိ
#Jessica_Mudditt
#Ourhomeinmyanmar
September 5, 2022
I really appreciated Jessica Mudditt's book about the four years that she lived in Yangon, Myanmar with her Bangladeshi spouse Sherpa. There were so many colorful stories that illustrated why they stayed but also emphatic reasons why they eventually left. Her book provided great insight into the life of an expat journalist with her blend of freelance assignments and various positions at Burmese newspapers as well as a few brief adjacent career options. She had so much to say about her four years, so many stories to share. I'm delighted that she chose to sit down to recount the highlights.
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December 21, 2021Praise for Our Home in Myanmar
“An honest, detailed, and well-structured account of the personal and political.” – KIRKUS REVIEWS
"This book captures an extraordinary period in Myanmar’s tragically short-lived transition to democracy, when, for a few years, hope replaced fear. There is no shortage of academic and think-tank analysis of the incomplete transition, but this is the first book in English to recount what it felt like to live through that ecstatic period. Mudditt was there when hope and freedoms reached their imperfect peak." - AUSTRALIA'S FORMER AMBASSADOR TO MYANMAR, NICHOLAS COPPEL, IN AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW
“Our Home in Myanmar is a delightful read, both an accessible introduction to Myanmar and a candid behind-the-scenes look at journalism in a developing country.” JOHN GRANT ROSS, BOOKISH ASIA
"Anyone interested in Southeast Asia should read this perceptive and illuminating book." KEITH LYONS, BORDERLESS MAGAZINE
“A beautifully paced, enlightening and empathetic account of what it took to get by in this beguiling, but sadly blighted land.” JAMES PETERS, BETTER READ THAN DEAD
"Jessica Mudditt deftly brings home the absurdity, humour, danger and enchantment of life in Myanmar in a time of change." JEREMY FERNANDEZ, ABC SYDNEY NEWS ANCHOR
"It's a terrific memoir of a place and time unknown to many Australians. Very much recommended!" WENDY HARMER, ABC RADIO
“An honest, detailed, and well-structured account of the personal and political.” – KIRKUS REVIEWS
"This book captures an extraordinary period in Myanmar’s tragically short-lived transition to democracy, when, for a few years, hope replaced fear. There is no shortage of academic and think-tank analysis of the incomplete transition, but this is the first book in English to recount what it felt like to live through that ecstatic period. Mudditt was there when hope and freedoms reached their imperfect peak." - AUSTRALIA'S FORMER AMBASSADOR TO MYANMAR, NICHOLAS COPPEL, IN AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW
“Our Home in Myanmar is a delightful read, both an accessible introduction to Myanmar and a candid behind-the-scenes look at journalism in a developing country.” JOHN GRANT ROSS, BOOKISH ASIA
"Anyone interested in Southeast Asia should read this perceptive and illuminating book." KEITH LYONS, BORDERLESS MAGAZINE
“A beautifully paced, enlightening and empathetic account of what it took to get by in this beguiling, but sadly blighted land.” JAMES PETERS, BETTER READ THAN DEAD
"Jessica Mudditt deftly brings home the absurdity, humour, danger and enchantment of life in Myanmar in a time of change." JEREMY FERNANDEZ, ABC SYDNEY NEWS ANCHOR
"It's a terrific memoir of a place and time unknown to many Australians. Very much recommended!" WENDY HARMER, ABC RADIO
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March 5, 2022Jessica, a journalist, moved to Myanmar with her new Bangladeshi husband in 2012. This book details the four years they spent there, navigating the Burmese culture, and having first hand experience of the political regime in power and the lead up to the elections in 2015.
For a long time I have wanted to travel to Myanmar, and sadly that is likely to not be possible anytime soon, even if covid wasn’t an issue, due to the political situation in the country. However, through Jessica’s memoir, I was able to learn so much about the country and experience the culture through her eyes. Nothing beats a first hand account of experiencing a culture, and Jessica writes in such a way that you feel like you are there with her, experiencing the joys and frustrations of navigating a foreign culture.
Thanks to @jessica_mudditt for reaching out and asking if I’d like to read her book - I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about Myanmar - or who just loves reading enjoyable memoirs!
For a long time I have wanted to travel to Myanmar, and sadly that is likely to not be possible anytime soon, even if covid wasn’t an issue, due to the political situation in the country. However, through Jessica’s memoir, I was able to learn so much about the country and experience the culture through her eyes. Nothing beats a first hand account of experiencing a culture, and Jessica writes in such a way that you feel like you are there with her, experiencing the joys and frustrations of navigating a foreign culture.
Thanks to @jessica_mudditt for reaching out and asking if I’d like to read her book - I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about Myanmar - or who just loves reading enjoyable memoirs!
May 23, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed Jessica's book about her time living in Myanmar. She covers four critical years in Myanmar's political history, a turning point in the country's relations with the world - and among its own diverse (and divided) populations. I also found myself waxing nostalgic as I read over vignettes of 50th Street Bar, the Hash House Harriers running club, her visa woes (all too familiar), trip to Mawlamyine (probably my favorite city in Myanmar), and side trips to Inle Lake and incredible Bagan. Her observations about Myanmar's fitful democratic transition, which ultimately failed under the coup of February 2021, remain insightful and poignant. A tragedy that looking back her years in Myanmar were some of the brightest in recent memory.
October 22, 2021
I picked this book up as I have heard about Myanmar in the news often, so I was delighted to read of an Australian journalist's experience of living and working there. I connected being an ex-pat, knowing what it is like to face visa issues and find a life in a new place. Her writing had me turning pages, delighted in the sights and smells and ups and downs of living in one place in South East Asia. The interweaving of a personal story and the countries history added to the book.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
January 31, 2022
Amazing Adventure for Ex-Pats
Great travel adventure and awesome description of the country and the various temples. If looking for a site to make your destination, the restrictions might make this one a little squeamish but, as a story, what a treat.
Great travel adventure and awesome description of the country and the various temples. If looking for a site to make your destination, the restrictions might make this one a little squeamish but, as a story, what a treat.
February 24, 2022
Enjoy reading the author Jessica Mudditt's experience in Myanmar before the military coup in 2021.
February 15, 2023
It was with some trepidation that I picked up Jesscica Muddit's "Our Home in Myanmar", being a little underwhelmed with expat tales over the years. However, what a pleasant surprise. This is a real page-turner! The writing style is colourful and fluid. Mudditt effortlessly brings to life the pitfalls and perks of living as a foreign journalist in Myanmar [Burma]. From bureaucracy to beetlenut juice, she tells it like it is. Mudditt also weaves in much of the fabric of recent Burmese history from an unbiased perspective. Yes, this book is highly recommended for anyone connected with Myanmar or for expats and wanna-be expats in general.
January 3, 2022
This is an interesting snapshot of contemporary Myanmar in a time and place of political change from the viewpoint of a young journalist and her husband. It’s a nice read about expat life in a difficult and unpredictable terrain. Life is lived on very different levels - the expats and locals both have their challenges, one with privilege and the other without. It’s a hard place to plan a future. Recommended.
July 7, 2022
The author does a brilliant job combining the personal - her life in Myanmar - with the political - the state of a country's politics at a critical moment in its history. Mudditt brings it off with great effect. You feel the frustrations the author experiences with a system that has been set up to block people's freedom. This is a great treatise on totalitarianism, a very good personal account of a young couple in a strange land and a great piece of travel writing.
May 8, 2022
Foreign Struggles
The trial and tribulations of one newspaper writer as she struggles to find her way in Myanmar. From moving around the cities, dealing with various governmental agencies, and having a bunch of different jobs. This story examines Myanmar through the eyes of an outsider that is accustomed to living a free and different life.
#GoodreadsGiveaway
The trial and tribulations of one newspaper writer as she struggles to find her way in Myanmar. From moving around the cities, dealing with various governmental agencies, and having a bunch of different jobs. This story examines Myanmar through the eyes of an outsider that is accustomed to living a free and different life.
#GoodreadsGiveaway
January 9, 2022
Fascinating insight into the political and cultural upheavals in Myanmar from an expat/journalist POV. Very interesting.
April 27, 2022
I was shook...
Last night I finished "our home in Myanmar" by Jessica Mudditt at around half 1 in the am...
A book hasn't made me feel so emotional in a long time...
I don't know exactly why but something inside me cracked...
I wiped away the tears and went out into the garden...
The moon was full and it was pretty silent even for the night time...
And I just stood in the garden for a good 15 minutes taking it all in and then I went back inside and didn't really sleep until 4 in the am...
I haven't been so shaken and so impacted by a book in a very very long time... It was beautiful.
Our life in Myanmar by Jessica muddit is an autobiography. It takes place between 2012 and 2016 when she lived in Myanmar with her Bangladeshi husband working as a journalist.
I had only heard glimpses of the situation in Burma/Myanmar... And I'm still shaken...
In the last 2 days of reading this book I feel like my eyes have been torn open... I've learnt so so much about so many things... I've had a 40 minute discussion about the book with my dad and I slept with the book in my arms like a teddy bear last night...
As someone who tries to avoid reading non fiction at all costs ... This book was just something else...
It felt like I was sitting around the kitchen table in the night time listening to Jessica speak about Myanmar... It felt a lot like story time.. I absolutely love the authors writing... I love this book so so much and honestly... I highly recommend you read it too!
It was absolutely beautiful..
Thank you so so so much Jessica Mudditt for sending me a copy .. I quite honestly hadn't imagined I would be so blown away...
Blog: www.mylifestyleprojects.com
Last night I finished "our home in Myanmar" by Jessica Mudditt at around half 1 in the am...
A book hasn't made me feel so emotional in a long time...
I don't know exactly why but something inside me cracked...
I wiped away the tears and went out into the garden...
The moon was full and it was pretty silent even for the night time...
And I just stood in the garden for a good 15 minutes taking it all in and then I went back inside and didn't really sleep until 4 in the am...
I haven't been so shaken and so impacted by a book in a very very long time... It was beautiful.
Our life in Myanmar by Jessica muddit is an autobiography. It takes place between 2012 and 2016 when she lived in Myanmar with her Bangladeshi husband working as a journalist.
I had only heard glimpses of the situation in Burma/Myanmar... And I'm still shaken...
In the last 2 days of reading this book I feel like my eyes have been torn open... I've learnt so so much about so many things... I've had a 40 minute discussion about the book with my dad and I slept with the book in my arms like a teddy bear last night...
As someone who tries to avoid reading non fiction at all costs ... This book was just something else...
It felt like I was sitting around the kitchen table in the night time listening to Jessica speak about Myanmar... It felt a lot like story time.. I absolutely love the authors writing... I love this book so so much and honestly... I highly recommend you read it too!
It was absolutely beautiful..
Thank you so so so much Jessica Mudditt for sending me a copy .. I quite honestly hadn't imagined I would be so blown away...
Blog: www.mylifestyleprojects.com
December 21, 2021
This was a Goodreads winner. It was a different journey and adventure to open one’s eyes.
September 25, 2021
This book is very well written and quite interesting., especially in light of what has happened after in Myanmar after she left and especially this year. The author is very candid about what she shares. The only things she shared that I would rather not have known about was her smoking and drinking (which often seemed to be excessive). She said very little negative things about people. She and her husband seemed to have a great relationship. I appreciated that she came to love the people and culture of Myanmar and was hopeful for the country's future, , though she was honest about some of the ways life was difficult there..
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
November 7, 2021
Aussie journalist Jessica Mudditt and her Bangladeshi husband Sherpa went where angels usually fear to tread when they headed to Myanmar, a.k.a. Burma to live and work. With historic elections looming, Jess is determined to become acquainted with the country and its people firsthand and to write about it. “Our Home in Myanmar” is her memoir of their four-year tenure living in Yangon (Rangoon) and is a thoroughly engaging way for the reader to learn a bit of the country’s political history, as well as what daily life is like for members of the expatriate community in a military dictatorship.
The Myanmar system of obtaining visas is shambolic, and legal means of transferring funds in or out of the country are non-existent (just like ATMs). Language is another problem for Jess when she conducts interviews for her articles - Sherpa has a gift for languages, but Jess struggles to learn Burmese, despite her best intentions. Yet somehow, they overcome these and other problems, like suitable housing and secure jobs. Eventually they have the opportunity to visit people and places beyond the city and even manage to be in attendance for the visit of the American President Barack Obama.
When the longed-for national elections finally roll around, everyone is convinced Aung San Suu Kyi will win, but the question remains if she will be permitted to govern. With human rights abuses impacting many of Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups, all hope rests on the nation’s most beloved political figure to change things for the better; but can she - or will she?
Despite being someone who has loved travelling in Southeast Asia in the past, I have to admit that Myanmar would be one of the last places where I’d want to spend much time, apart from the tourist highlights. Jessica and Sherpa should be admired for their tenacity to witness history unfolding, and for playing their own parts in it. As a result, we have Jess’s very entertaining (and occasionally horrifying) account to keep us armchair adventurers enthralled.
[I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.]
The Myanmar system of obtaining visas is shambolic, and legal means of transferring funds in or out of the country are non-existent (just like ATMs). Language is another problem for Jess when she conducts interviews for her articles - Sherpa has a gift for languages, but Jess struggles to learn Burmese, despite her best intentions. Yet somehow, they overcome these and other problems, like suitable housing and secure jobs. Eventually they have the opportunity to visit people and places beyond the city and even manage to be in attendance for the visit of the American President Barack Obama.
When the longed-for national elections finally roll around, everyone is convinced Aung San Suu Kyi will win, but the question remains if she will be permitted to govern. With human rights abuses impacting many of Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups, all hope rests on the nation’s most beloved political figure to change things for the better; but can she - or will she?
Despite being someone who has loved travelling in Southeast Asia in the past, I have to admit that Myanmar would be one of the last places where I’d want to spend much time, apart from the tourist highlights. Jessica and Sherpa should be admired for their tenacity to witness history unfolding, and for playing their own parts in it. As a result, we have Jess’s very entertaining (and occasionally horrifying) account to keep us armchair adventurers enthralled.
[I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.]
November 8, 2021
Before reading this book, I knew nothing about Myanmar (Burma) except that it was somewhere in Southeast Asia. I learned a bit about this conservative Buddhist county’s history, politics, and culture, but I found this a distressing read. I learned of terrible things that I would rather not know about.
You might enjoy this if you like adventurous memoirs and learning about foreign countries. However, be aware that there are many depictions of bigotry, intolerance, cruelty, and torture.
I received a free review copy through BookSirens, and I volunteered to leave this honest review.
You might enjoy this if you like adventurous memoirs and learning about foreign countries. However, be aware that there are many depictions of bigotry, intolerance, cruelty, and torture.
I received a free review copy through BookSirens, and I volunteered to leave this honest review.
July 30, 2022
Honest, insightful and well-told. A rare account of contemporary expat life in Burma/Myanmar, a country with a fascinating history and culture that has lived through a political tragedy for many years. Mudditt, an Australian journalist who lived in Yangon between 2012 and 2016, brings into focus the lives and warmth of the Burmese people, the challenges of navigating official bureaucracy, the lingering racism and xenophobia that continues to plague society, and the intriguing world of journalism and diplomacy in Myanmar in the 2010s. Mixing the personal and political, this memoir will appeal to anyone with an interest in the country and its people.
September 10, 2021
This book brought back so many memories of our two weeks in Myanmar in 2016. As indicated by the author I had no idea I was seeing a very small window in which Myanmar was a little free. The experience of an expat and being a journalist was fascinating. If you are interested in Asia, ever lived in Asia as an expat or visited Myanmar read this book
September 4, 2021
I really appreciate the way Jessica Mudditt made the history and politics of Myanmar tangible, as I didn't know anything about the country prior to reading this book. It was easy to get immersed into her retelling of her experience. Explanations of politics can quickly be dry and boring to read but here they were engaging and easy to follow.
A very interesting and informative read!
(I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.)
A very interesting and informative read!
(I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.)
June 22, 2021
Excellent portrayal of a truly unique country
I have travelled to Myanmar many times. It was very interesting to hear the perspective of an expat who lived there during that period of time as opposed to my experiences as a tourist. My first visit was in 1999 so I saw amazing changes between then and my last visit in 2016. So many things made me laugh as I read her account of daily life and the quirky.things.that make it a truly unique country. I am so sad to see what is happening there now. My heart and prayers are with the people there that have become my very dear friends.
I have travelled to Myanmar many times. It was very interesting to hear the perspective of an expat who lived there during that period of time as opposed to my experiences as a tourist. My first visit was in 1999 so I saw amazing changes between then and my last visit in 2016. So many things made me laugh as I read her account of daily life and the quirky.things.that make it a truly unique country. I am so sad to see what is happening there now. My heart and prayers are with the people there that have become my very dear friends.
August 8, 2021
Thanks to Booksirens for this ARC.
Wow, what a fascinating memoir! I love reading about people experiencing other countries but Myanmar is not a place a lot of people seem to go to. The information about the politics, media, racism, and prison situation were truly fascinating. I hope the author writes more books maybe covering her time in Bangladesh and earlier travels and journalist endeavors at the start of her career.
Wow, what a fascinating memoir! I love reading about people experiencing other countries but Myanmar is not a place a lot of people seem to go to. The information about the politics, media, racism, and prison situation were truly fascinating. I hope the author writes more books maybe covering her time in Bangladesh and earlier travels and journalist endeavors at the start of her career.
August 30, 2021
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I've been wanting to visit Myanmar for years. This was a wonderful first hand account that made me feel like I was there.
September 27, 2024
Reviews shared by Hembury Books, publisher of Our Home In Myanmar:
Biography par excellence
Jessica Muddit has managed to write a very good combination work - it's an autobiography, but could easily be seen as travel writing or a serious depiction of Myanmar at a critical political juncture. It centres on a young couple trying to make a home in a country which beguiles them. And yet while often beguiled, they are just as often frustrated by an archaic system which throws constant hurdles in their path. Corruption and injustice trickle down to everything, which gives the story an edge, embracing both the personal and the political. It also says a lot about the people of Myanmar, who despite all, strive their best to be free.
Adam Courtenay
This book tells the story of a truly unique period of Myanmar's recent history through the author's time spent living and working in the country. Jessica Mudditt does a terrific job of weaving her personal history with the situation in the country which is made all the more poignant by what is taking place there today. Her reflections on peace, freedom, media and people's desires for a better life are a compelling story of a country and people that have suffered so much and deserve so much better. Highly recommended.
Amazon reviewer.
Biography par excellence
Jessica Muddit has managed to write a very good combination work - it's an autobiography, but could easily be seen as travel writing or a serious depiction of Myanmar at a critical political juncture. It centres on a young couple trying to make a home in a country which beguiles them. And yet while often beguiled, they are just as often frustrated by an archaic system which throws constant hurdles in their path. Corruption and injustice trickle down to everything, which gives the story an edge, embracing both the personal and the political. It also says a lot about the people of Myanmar, who despite all, strive their best to be free.
Adam Courtenay
This book tells the story of a truly unique period of Myanmar's recent history through the author's time spent living and working in the country. Jessica Mudditt does a terrific job of weaving her personal history with the situation in the country which is made all the more poignant by what is taking place there today. Her reflections on peace, freedom, media and people's desires for a better life are a compelling story of a country and people that have suffered so much and deserve so much better. Highly recommended.
Amazon reviewer.
December 15, 2021
I really liked this fast-paced and fascinating memoir. Jessica’s love of Myanmar and its people is evident throughout the book. Her descriptions of her job as journalist and also her work at the British Embassy were captivating. She achieved success as a journalist through tenacity and hard work. It was especially interesting to read about the history and culture of Myanmar and the time period in which the book takes place, as Myanmar transitioned to democracy, although short-lived. It was disturbing to read about the politics, increasing prejudice, and the justice system of the country. This book was a quick read, and it was hard to put it down. Jessica is an excellent writer and I look forward to any future books she may write. Thank you to Goodreads for the e-reader version of this book.
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