Outside Yangon

The ship arrived along the delta that had been inundated by the 2008 typhoon -- 200,000 to 300,000 people died.  The US offered to help, and our offer was refused.

Along the Yangon river, the colors were mostly shades of brown, with a little dark green.  Our ship docked at the new port, in a rural outlying area.  The first trip into town was eye-opening.  Again there were largely shades of brown with some dark green.  At every crossroad there were people waiting, and stands set up to sell snacks.  It turns out that people were waiting for infrequent and overcrowded buses -- and so selling snack to those people made sense.

We were overwhelmed with the trash along the road.  Actually, near the food stands there was less trash.  Later we watched as people swept up the trash in the mornings, raising large quantities of dust, and lit the little piles of trash on fire to burn them.  The trash included a lot of plastic, and the irritation in my eyes was probably related to the burning plastic, as well as the burning of the nearby rice fields.

And the men really did wear skirts -- longyi.  And the women and children (and occasionally men) really did wear the yellow bark extract on their faces.  It is supposed to keep the skin soft, partly by providing protection from the sun.  In another couple of days, we were completely acclimated and did not notice these things.

We did a Semester at Sea day trip to another outlying area.  After taking the bus into town, we took a crowded 2-story ferry across the Yangon river to a crowded landing area.  People were boarding the ferry at the same time as people were disembarking -- general chaos. Venders were selling quail eggs, dried snacks, guava, date/plum-like fruit and other food.  The water was approximately the color of chocolate mousse.

From there we went in smaller vans along a 1 to 2 lane road.  Along the road we saw a man leading a pig on a rope (think Mother Goose), a cart drawn by oxen, and a field being irrigated by a foot-driven tredle pump.  We were taken to a rural market -- it actually had most of the same items as the urban markets we had been wading through.  Live fish, dried fish, assorted greens, interesting fruit, bars of soap, plastic carriers, flip-flops.....  I did find a cute Dahlia-sized granddaughter dress in the market for $2.00.  At that price, I could not bring myself to bargain.

We also went to a small pottery factory that turned out utilitarian pots.  The person seated on the floor with the wheel had enough clay loaded to make about 6 pots -- about 1 per minute.   The wheel was turned by a standing woman kicking it.  Even the little pots were too heavy for a souvenir.

Perhaps the most interesting stop was the Monastery/orphanage.  Our students really came through with games that could be played with little language.   And they used the tour guide to translate instructions for some of the games.  We had brought badmitten -- which they enjoyed.  We watched a death-defying climb to get the shuttlecock off the roof (successfully).  I tried origami, and interestingly, one of the kids (maybe 10 years old) already knew how to make a crane.

More than half of the students in my classes today want to return to Myanmar -- me too.  It will be very interesting to follow this place for the next 10 and 20 years.