This is the first full weekend I’ve been “home” in Laos for over a month… which means a certain degree of boredom and an obvious excuse for getting back to posting.
Wa Net Kone village, Myanmar – 7 Nov 2013
The village elder ducked inside his small grocery shop with its woven roof, open walls and a wood plank floor. He emerged with a packet of Kleenx and a bottle of ice-cold water. I hadn’t even asked. He just noticed that I had a bad head cold and a dwindling tissue supply during his walking tour of the village.
Beautiful Burmese hospitality.
This village, part of a humanitarian development project, was my first encounter with rural Myanmar.
I was here for communications training, teaching field staff about the basics of storytelling – writing, photography and video. My boss, who really did most of the training, had to stay at the office in Yangon, so I was on my own. While my students were off producing their own stories about the community, I was able to do a little exploring.
Now that I was refreshed with cool water and a new supply of tissue, the village elder continued his tour and our next stop was the village primary school where his daughter taught.
Inside was one long room, the four ‘classrooms’ separated by moveable screens pasted with colorful alphabets and animals. The windows on either side of the room were wide open, providing a cool breeze through the school. Behind the school were acres of rice paddy.
The youngest children sat on their small benches, wearing dark green and white school uniforms working on their mathematics lesson. Most wore thanaka on their faces, a traditional protective sunscreen/beauty treatment worn by many people in Myanmar. They were so stinkin’ cute!!
My colleague Khaing Min offered to walk with us as our translator. He is a spectacular photographer, so I was thankful he was there… even more so when the kids’ eyes widened at the sight of a tall, white sweating lady walking around the village!
It was so hot. It was a little embarrassing. When you’re pale and freckled, it’s hard to hide the fact that you are hot. Several women who felt sorry for me fanned me at lunch, probably worried I’d pass out. And Khaing Min thought it was a hoot to carry an umbrella for me during our 2-hour tour.
So many people in Myanmar and Laos carry umbrellas, not for the rain, for the sun! That little patch of shade feels so good.
The best part of the tour was the new Early Childhood Care and Development center, for pre-K children to get a leap on learning. When we first arrived, they were all sleeping on mats – rows and rows of sweet little kids. Their lunch baskets were lined up on the small tables. And their backpacks, not much different than any pack I’d see in the U.S., were neatly hung on pegs on the wall.
You could tell the teachers cared very much about the children, rubbing their backs to help them fall asleep again if they awoke, and the classroom was full of color and illustrations. Clay-sculpting lessons had taken place before nap time; so there were little families of animals on the bench outside- the little water buffalo were my favorite.
When we left the village and walked into the fields, I was pinching myself. Rice paddy surrounded me, and there was a golden temple sparkling in the distance. It was harvest time, so Khaing Min kindly asked a farmer to show me how they harvest rice. A man who was tagging along on the tour ran out with his blade to show me. I was cracking up when Khaing Min asked him to put on a traditional hat for my photos. Authentic photography? Kind of.
By the time we walked back into the village, all the preschoolers were up from their naps! We made another visit to the education center. They were waiting to be picked-up by their parents, so they were milling around on the porch. I loved seeing them act like any old kids: Fighting over plastic chairs, pushing each other around, laughing together.
It was such a great day! My students were so excited about what they had produced- they worked so hard. On the bus ride home we snacked on cookies and soda and the bus was a-buzz with everyone sharing what they had done.
Though physically I felt awful, and my cold was no better, it had been a beautiful day.
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