For day four in Yangon we participated in a Semester at Sea
Impact Field Program. The Impact programs are geared towards service and
community involvement. We (about 40 people) started out the day with the
shuttle into town, a ferry ride across the Yangon River and then a bumpy ride
in four hot, mosquito-infested, vans across the eastern edge of the Irawaddy
Delta to the small town of Twante. There we explored the local market—where
Joel and Will both found some very cheap soccer pants (plaid ones for Will) and
we visited pottery shops where large water holding receptacles are made with UN
funding. These pots are made with a mix of ground rice hulls which then make
the pots porous enough to allow water to seep out and in the process be
filtered of many impurities.
After lunch we then descended upon the orphanage attached to
the Phayagi Mingalar Monastery (Buddhist). The orphanage has the feel of a
boarding school. Here 900 students are housed, fed and taught by volunteer
teachers. Many of the children are survivors of cyclone Nargis that killed over
a 100,000 Burmese living in the Irawaddy Delta. Others of the children were
sent to the orphanage by parents who no longer can provide for the children due
to the destruction of crops and fields by the cyclone. We took with us
indestructible soccer balls, badminton equipment, special Burmese face cream
for face painting, thousands of tooth brushes, and a monetary contribution.
After a welcome ceremony we were turned loose to play with the middles school
kids—the elementary children had testing that day. It took a while to get play
groups going, but before long Joel, Will, two SAS female students and about six
Burmese boys (in sarongs/longyis) started playing soccer on the coarse, hot
sand of the school yard (which really tore up the boys feet). Marie and Sarah
stayed in the large school hall where a dozen or more groups of female students
and females from SAS braided hair, painted faces and then played games like
duck, duck goose. I roamed around taking photos of all of the activites. After
90 minutes of hot and humid fun it was time to leave. I don’t think we made
much of a lasting contribution to the lives of the children, but we did provide
a good excuse for them to skip classes and have some fun with some very
supportive and loving foreigners. Hopefully our visit and the accompanying
gifts showed them that there are people who care about them. I have always
thought that running an orphanage would have been a fulfilling career. I still
think that.
For our final day in Yangon we decided to ride the entire route
of the circle line train. It was an entertaining three hours watching people
come and go as we passed through interesting urban and rural landscapes. I
stood at the open door most of the time taking photos. At about midpoint of the
journey, most of our car had emptied of its passengers. I was standing near the
door when a man approached me and motioned for me to sit down. I thought it was
a curious request and didn’t think it was necessary, but when he motioned a
second time, I decided to take heed. Moments after sitting, the car burst alive
with new passengers, leaping through windows and doors to then pull in bale
after bale of vegetables headed to market. Before we knew it we were all pinned
to our seats by an aisle stacked full of produce. Sarah ended up sitting
between a Buddhist monk and a female farmer. It was one the most entertaining
five minutes we have had this whole journey.
Watch a video clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEUtBnyHy4o&feature=youtu.be
Watch a video clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEUtBnyHy4o&feature=youtu.be
We then returned to Scott Market for Marie and the boys to
have a turn at shopping. While Marie and Sarah shopped at one stall for longyi
(with the help of Sarah’s friend form the other day), the boys and I picked out
male longyi (Burmese sarongs) from a neighboring stall. We then visited our jade
nativity friend where we picked up a few more gifts. A final purchase was some
wood carved sling shots for Will to give to friends, but they were confiscated
by ship security because they fall under the list of weapons banned from the
ship. We had hoped that the strict security office would give us a professorial
break (I told him we would hide them from our boys until the journey was done)
but that doesn’t seem to have worked. My guess is they have been incinerated
with the ship trash and other confiscated contraband.
Additional photos added much later:
He made the nativities! http://beitemmett.blogspot.com/2017/08/jade-nativities-from-myanmar.html
Sailing down the Rangoon River
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