day 51 (anzac day) – i got up early and had breakfast. i’d made a promise with sonia and juan to go bicycle riding with them. shinya wasn’t coming with us, he’d decided to spend the day hiking in the hills. we did a circuit around the north of naung shwe, including the small lake, and took in some sights. the biggest part was hiking up a small hill to shwe lin pan pagoda. the ride back down was fun, cause it was mostly down hill. we zoomed back to the hotel and i spent the afternoon relaxing and reading burmese days by george orwell. i bought a copy of the book in bagan and had got about a third of the way through.
i had a late afternoon shower (it was really hot), then met shinya and sonia. we went into town for a 90 minute burmese massage. the massage was good and after it we all felt relaxed. they even applied some eucalyptus oil to our skin and advised not to shower until morning (to let the oil soak into the skin). we decided to go back to the restaurant where we’d got gnocci a few nights earlier. the three of us had gnocci and shared a pizza. sonia and i drank mojitos which were very strong (well, mine was) and very minty. feeling a little happy and with a nice buzz going, we cycled back to the hotel and i went to bed.
day 52 – the previous day, shinya had got incredibly lost in the hills outside naung shwe, the village surrounding inle lake. finally returning from his adventure, he told us that he’d found (by chance) a small school. the school was a summer english camp conducted by a local burmese guy. he had seven students. shinya promised the teacher that he would return to the school, so shinya, sonia and i cycled there after breakfast.
we arrived just on 8am which was the time he began school. for the first part of the lesson, we sat in the back of the room and he taught for about half an hour. i noticed something a bit strange about the lesson during his introduction ‘rote’ work. he asked each of the kids (whose ages were about 15-18) some general questions: name, age, etc. he asked some of the students if they were married. one girl answered “no, i’m a virgin” and the rest of the students laughed.
the day’s lesson was diseases. it was a disorganised and sometimes very inconsistent. the lesson (to me) seemed partly irrelevant. he’d included gonorrhea in amongst the general diseases (heart trouble, lung disease, etc) and had mentioned abortions too. he also misspelled hemorrhage. the teacher, however, was very nice and seemed genuinely interested in teaching the kids. there didn’t seem anything untoward about the lesson at all. i decided to look at the students’ books while he was teaching. flicking through a couple of pages i noticed a page on body parts. penis and vagina were both there. rather than being all conservative and offended, i decided that sexuality is much more open in burma and they can talk about such things much more freely than we do.
the lesson continued for about 30 minutes before he asked each of us to teach the students something. it’d already been an interesting morning and we were having a lot of fun. i volunteered to go first, since i’m a teacher, to give the other two time to think of something. i decided to keep it simple and practical. i taught them large numbers under the guise of ‘money’. the students (who had only been learning english for a few weeks) took to it quickly and already understood up to hundreds. i taught them up to billions and how to break large numbers down for reading and speaking. most of them picked it up and understood it. one girl, who sat at the back, was quite fast and mostly understood what i was teaching on the fly. the craziest part of the lesson was when i explained how important it was to understand large numbers … especially if those numbers represented money. the teacher chimed in and said “no money …” to which the students immediately chorused “… no honey” before laughing hysterically. sonia looked positively shocked and i admit that i was also a little stunned. we laughed together and kept going.
sonia went next, talking mostly about switzerland (her home). she told them about chocolate and cheese, the countries around switzerland and the local topography (lakes and snow capped mountains). the students followed it mostly, but seemed to have very little understanding of geography, since they don’t know anything at all about europe. shinya went next and they didn’t know anything about canada either. so instead of teaching them about canada, he decided to review basic introductions with each student.
as an after thought, i asked for a few more minutes and taught them handwriting skills. i’d noticed that their handwriting was attrocious. this is partly because their teacher’s handwriting was attrocious and partly because burmese writing is very curly and loopy (lots of circles), so when they write, they tend to use curly, loopy letters for english. the worst part of their writing is that some of their letters are print and some are cursive, which is very difficult to read. i explained how important neat writing was and told them that if they wanted to get a job, it was terribly important that their writing be neat and clear. i put the alphabet (small and capital letters) on the board and said that this is what letters should look like. the students wrote it down.
we’d been there a while and it was time to leave. we took some photos with the students and said our goodbyes. we got the teacher’s address (he doesn’t have email) and promised to write to him and send photos.
on the way back to town, we got to talking and decided to help them out a little. we planned to buy a world map for the classroom wall so that he could teach basic geography and info about other countries. reaching town, we looked around and had no luck finding a store with maps. a strange thing, actually, was that shinya and i both commented on how many maps we saw for sale in yangon. it seemed to be a big industry for some strange reason. however, in naung shwe, there were none to be found. shinya went off on his own and found a bookstore. he bought seven burmese/english dictionaries (one per student) and an abc poster with correct writing technique on it. he’d bought it all for around $5. the same store said they could get english world maps that same day. we ordered maps and went to check email at the slowest internet cafe in the world. then we went back to the hotel to relax. i read my book and talked to a british traveler who’d been through nepal and tibet. i asked lots of questions about passing between the two countries and he confirmed my suspicions that the only way to get through is with a tour group.
at about 5pm, shinya and i went back to the bookstore. they’d found some maps … all in burmese. shit! we bought one (70 cents) and took it, along with the dictionaries and writing poster, to the school. when we arrived, some of the students’ parents were there. the parents were arriving for dinner and had come from all over the district. it was going to be a special night. we gave them our gifts, had some coffee and said goodbye again. they seemed very happy for the dictionaries and we told them how important it was to study. jokingly, i told them that they could use english to make money and said “remember, no money …” and they, predictably, replied in turn “… no honey”. we laughed, got on our bikes, and cycled back to the hotel. i had noodles for dinner and went to bed early.
the morning at the school had been quite an education for me. the students, all older teenagers, were paying $50 a month for the lessons. the were sleeping at the school, kind of like a camp, and spending their days studying english. the students learned quickly. $50 is a lot of money for burmese families, especially people in this district. so the students were under a lot of pressure to study. their motivation was to get out of myanmar. apparently, many of them are trying to get jobs abroad, particularly in malaysia and thailand. their families all hoped that these children could learn english, cross the border (legally or otherwise) and get work in other countries … which would be much more lucrative than staying in myanmar. it was a big risk and a big dream. i also learned that obtaining a passport in myanmar costs about $1500. the cost is not bureaucracy, but bribery. much of that money goes to greasing the wheels enough to get permission to own a passport. it’s clear, then, why so many burmese opt to cross the mountains illegally into thailand.
day 53 – i had breakfast and said goodbye to sonia. she was flying to yangon early and had already packed. we exchanged email addresses and promised to meet again in europe. i walked into town and bought my first longyi. it’s purple and white. a longyi is the traditional dress of burmese men and women. they both wear longyis, although the style is a little different. men’s longyis are cotton and fairly plain in design. women’s longyis are always much more beautiful. longyis are a long, circular piece of material that wraps around the waist. it’s basically a shapeless long skirt. the woman in the shop showed me how to wear the longyi, which is quite simple to wear but difficult to get to look good. i had some difficulty tying it properly and it kept coming loose.
then i walked back to my hotel, packed my bag and braced myself for the long, shitty ride to bago.
