13 Jan 10

waking to the sunrise

I forget how much I love mornings because I always sleep through them. I woke up this at 5:00 this morning to the church bell and the sounds of the village worship service. The songs were beautiful and so joyful- wonderful to listen to as I rested on my bamboo mat. The village people told us last night that we were exempt from the service this morning because they knew we were tired from traveling but they would like us to come tomorrow. I don’t know if I will be any less tired tomorrow but I am excited to experience their worship.

We watched the sun rise behind the church, which was absolutely beautiful in the calm of early morning. I was excited to find many wildflowers behind the church as well- so different than what we have at home.

Breakfast consisted of sticky rice, dried fish, butter sandwiches, and tea. I’m happy that I finally started liking tea before the trip! (I have always wanted to be a tea-drinker and finally learned to like it=) Katie and I joked about how airline food would be good after ten days in Burma. I don’t know what we were thinking- these people are going to prove us so wrong!

“I have enough for now”

I am fascinated by the education here. We visited the school this morning (6^th, 7^th, 8^th grade). The teacher was twenty-one years old- she said she was once a freelance teacher but when the cyclone hit she lost her entire family and she felt obligated to come back and serve her own village. She is not paid but she is supported by the village. When we asked if she had enough supplies to teach, she pointed to a tiny basket which held two books and a few pieces of paper and said she had “enough for now.” I thought of my own classroom during student teaching- the shelves of books, computers, supplemental technology and endless resources that aided my lessons, and find it hard to imagine teaching with so little with which to work.

The school is open on all four sides so during the rainy season the floor is entirely mud. The chairs are plastic lawn chairs that are carried from the church to the school and back each day. We asked the students their favorite subjects, which turned out to be English, history, and science. They also learn Burmese and math. I wonder how much English they learn as the teacher had to use the translator in order to talk to us.

A Joyful Noise

When we returned to the church. All the village children were inside singing Bible school songs. Our guide said they meet three times each week to do this. I was amazed by the enthusiasm of all the children- especially in watching the boys. Boys in American often have an attitude when it comes to music but here they were excited to be singing. Girls were situated on the right side of the room and boys on the right. A few of the songs had motions with them and some were even in English, although it took me awhile to realize this because of the children’s accents. They asked us to sing for them so we quickly brainstormed and sang “Peace Like a River” and “I’ve Got the Joy.” We were obviously not as practiced as they were as a group but they loved it anyway.

“no hope”

We boated two hours to the small village of Kat Thar Baung. This village was completely wiped out by Nargis and there are only a handful of houses rebuilt. We ate in a large house seated on the floor- apples, bananas, pineapple, fried fish, wafer bars, tea, and coffee. Many gathered in the house while we ate and afterward discussed their village and effects of Nargis. (I got to hold the baby!=) We also discussed women’s outlooks and one of the comments that struck me was they often feel there is “no hope.” All of their sewing machines were washed away in the storm so there is no way for them to make an income. They are doing so much work to rebuild their lives there is not much opportunity for anything more than survival. There were many goodbyes afterwards and pictures with the women of the village. They were so eager to help us- one little girl noticed us looking for the bathroom, grabbed my hand, and led us all to the back to find it. Something about her guidance touched me- even though it was a simple act of finding the bathroom, her willingness to help was so sincere and said more than her words could have.

We visited one other village today- we all thought for some reason that we were headed back to our lodgings but suddenly we found ourselves being led onto two smaller boats and taken up a smaller river to another village. We found that although we had not been expecting this, the people here obvious had, for there was a second lunch laid out for us- larger than the first and to be honest, a feast- this picture of me attempting to open a prawn to eat it. I was too stuffed to eat it, but felt obligated to try it because of their animated motions showing me how to open it correctly....=)

The people were so excited to see us- as soon as we were off the boat they all wanted to shake our hands. I am amazed how forward these people are. If anyone visited us at home we would be so reserved at first but they are eager to greet, to help, and to get to know you.

Bedtime thoughts

It is 8:45 and we are going to bed. We are so tired and sticky after these two days. I would hate for anyone showered to get on our bus tomorrow because we reek. Shower tomorrow though…..

I notice these people here are never as rushed as we are in America even though they have so much to do to rebuild their lives and we have only our ready-built lives to keep up with. I find it amazing that all our technological advances that are meant to make life simpler actually make it so much more complicated.