Myanmar whisky
From time to time our friends give us odd gifts which we’re not always sure how to utilize or when the appropriate time to drink/eat them would be. We’ve had a few bottles of fine wine which we’ve been saving for a special moment but still feel they are too nice to open just yet. Sadly, this evening I think I made a joke that maybe wasn’t taken as inappropriate, but actually felt inappropriate to myself and in many more ways reminded me of something that has been concerning Waki and I lately. After a few glasses of wine and some talk about odd foods of the world, I stood up and pulled out a bottle of Myanmar whisky we had sitting on our shelf for the past year. Never daring to open it as it’s ranks up there with vintage wine from mainland China, I had almost forgotten we had it, and was rather excited to have remembered it at that moment. It got a rise out of everyone and I chuckled a little at this bottled oddity. Then it struck me that it wasn’t funny, and that our friend who gave it to us meant it as a funny joke for us at the time, but that friend is actually in Myanmar now. She works for an NGO there and left over a year ago to live there. We haven’t heard from her since then, and we’ve attempted to email her since the storm and haven’t heard anything. We’re hoping she is alright, or that she is already back in Japan, but we’re not sure as we don’t know anyone else who has contact with her. I still can’t imagine drinking Myanmar whisky, and I’m sure she had a good laugh giving it to us as a gift so long ago, but it’s turned from a gift into a reminder that our friend may still be there, and it’s a tragic mess over there right now.
