We went for dinner at the Queen Inn GH where we had planned to stay on our second night in Nong Shwe and had a real belly laugh, most notably when John, straight faced as you can imagine, said that when someone (male) annoys him on a bus journey; he sneaks his hand onto his leg. The following morning, we set off for Inla Lake at 0830; John Ada, Jair, myself and Y, a Burmese chap with his heart set on finding a western girlfriend and Catarina, who was new to the group. We had a wonderful day, driving in the boat through villages where everyone, but especially the children, were delighted to see us. These people allowed us to take the most beautiful photos of the entire trip, reinforcing the fact for me that if a beautiful photo is taken, the subject is the true artist.
We went to a market and to various other shopping opportunities where dollars were the pricing system, making us a little suspicious that these ventures were all government run. I limited myself to a few small pieces of silver that I had really wanted anyway but it was hard to resist some of the silks when we saw first hand the work that went into them.
It was a very hot day and when we came home we were all tired. We went on adventure to the internet café where normal email access isn’t possible, but with the help of the resident computer guru I was able to see emails from people and, after about 15 minutes, was able to send a one line email to Monty. Then we met up with Italian Andreas and played ‘21’ until betting with the salt shakers and other condiments took its toll. In the morning, we made plans to move to Mandalay in a taxi. Suffice it to say, this story is a lot longer than the blog will allow me to share for the moment. We (in one way or another) secured bicycles for a few hours this evening and immediately all got separated, all having different but lovely adventures. I hung out in the local post office (exciting I know - LOL), telling them of my time growing up in a post office just like theirs.
I will be very interested to find out how many of the 18 cards that I posted to you today will actually arrive – bearing in mind that the messages I put on them were suitably innocuous and favourable to Myanmar…Then I went to a Wat and was invited to tea with some men who didn’t speak more than 2 words of English and watched some very skilful traditional ball game – bit like volley ball but with a harder ball and no hands..
As I have been going through Myanmar, I have been far too busy and excited to surrender to the pull of home that I felt so strongly when I was in comfortable Thailand last week. Never the less, work has been on my mind, not least of all because of the figures for HIV in Burma, which I read before I arrived. At any opportunity, I have mentioned that I work as a nurse with people with HIV in the hope that people would ask me about it so that I could perhaps learn from them or teach them. Tonight I met TT; a wonderful, strong, and typically beautiful 32 year old Myanmar woman, who has set up her own restaurant here. She did us the honour of sitting with us when I remarked how lovely her English was (a comment that seems crass now, but I am just so glad she sat with me). She told us a little about what she does and I told her what I do – to cut a long story short, she is worried that about 40% of people here are ‘sick’. Naturally, her dignity and the seriousness of her conversation didn’t stop my persistent Israeli friend from trying to hit on her! LOL
We went to a market and to various other shopping opportunities where dollars were the pricing system, making us a little suspicious that these ventures were all government run. I limited myself to a few small pieces of silver that I had really wanted anyway but it was hard to resist some of the silks when we saw first hand the work that went into them.
It was a very hot day and when we came home we were all tired. We went on adventure to the internet café where normal email access isn’t possible, but with the help of the resident computer guru I was able to see emails from people and, after about 15 minutes, was able to send a one line email to Monty. Then we met up with Italian Andreas and played ‘21’ until betting with the salt shakers and other condiments took its toll. In the morning, we made plans to move to Mandalay in a taxi. Suffice it to say, this story is a lot longer than the blog will allow me to share for the moment. We (in one way or another) secured bicycles for a few hours this evening and immediately all got separated, all having different but lovely adventures. I hung out in the local post office (exciting I know - LOL), telling them of my time growing up in a post office just like theirs. 
I will be very interested to find out how many of the 18 cards that I posted to you today will actually arrive – bearing in mind that the messages I put on them were suitably innocuous and favourable to Myanmar…Then I went to a Wat and was invited to tea with some men who didn’t speak more than 2 words of English and watched some very skilful traditional ball game – bit like volley ball but with a harder ball and no hands..
As I have been going through Myanmar, I have been far too busy and excited to surrender to the pull of home that I felt so strongly when I was in comfortable Thailand last week. Never the less, work has been on my mind, not least of all because of the figures for HIV in Burma, which I read before I arrived. At any opportunity, I have mentioned that I work as a nurse with people with HIV in the hope that people would ask me about it so that I could perhaps learn from them or teach them. Tonight I met TT; a wonderful, strong, and typically beautiful 32 year old Myanmar woman, who has set up her own restaurant here. She did us the honour of sitting with us when I remarked how lovely her English was (a comment that seems crass now, but I am just so glad she sat with me). She told us a little about what she does and I told her what I do – to cut a long story short, she is worried that about 40% of people here are ‘sick’. Naturally, her dignity and the seriousness of her conversation didn’t stop my persistent Israeli friend from trying to hit on her! LOL
1 comment:
The game is Takraw or something. Like hackysacking but a million times more athletic.
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