Closing ceremonies at water projects

One of the requirements of providing funds for water projects is that we inspects them when they are completed. We've been to about a dozen now--taken dozens of pictures and had lots of formal pictures taken. It seems to be a big event in the villages, and as we see how happy they are to have better access to water and realize how important having clean water is to them, we have come to appreciate the many blessings we have that we take for granted.

Formal pictures are taken at nearly event. The ones in front are teachers, the men in white jackets belong to an organization that makes it possible for us to get out into the countryside.

Many of the villagers had never seen a digital camera or perhaps even seen themselves. It was fun taking pictures and then showing them. Not time for great poses!

A group of boys -- curious and waiting to see what they looked like in the camera.

And the girls wanted their pictures taken too.

We've shaken a lot of hands in the villages we've visited. Many mothers wanted their children to shake our hands. They were less enthusiastic than their mothers.

Many of the older women sat under a covering while we were served a lunch--many dishes that they had prepared. It's always a challenge to be polite but also careful. Many of the foods are unfamiliar. If we're not having a meal, we're often served fruit, that's been peeled and open to flies, though they use fans to keep them away. Bananas taste good and we can peel them.

I think for many we are the first foreigners that they've every seen. We're certainly surrounded and watched.

At each of the ceremonies, there are some beautiful girls dressed in their finest, and others behind them with trays that hold scissors. So some of us pose with the scissors for pictures and then cut the ribbons. Only after that is the water turned on if there's a motor to start.

And part of the ceremony is making a speech and listening to others. Dad explains about LDS charities and the church in each one.

This is after the ribbon has been cut. A bit out of order.

We were amazed at the size of the buckets (large) and the ones filling them (small). Balancing the buckets on their shoulders must be the easiest way of carrying it. Here they are waiting for the water to be turned on.

And here they are filling the buckets. Most of the wells are pipe wells, quite small, but then a deisel engine pumps the water into a cement holding tank. The engine is usually turned on two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. For many, these projects mean carrying the water only a few blocks (or the distance of that would be) instead of several miles.

We look with amazement at what is carried on mostly women's heads. They seem to walk so confidently with their loads. These jugs were not small, and full of water, I'm sure they were not light. This woman needed help to lift the container to her head.

But she had it up and was leaving. Her face was covered completely with the mixture of a compound that comes off the bark of a tree and is combined with water. It's a protection from the sun. Some women wear it like makeup, but many children's faces and arms are covered with it.

Some women put a wrapped cloth on their heads before they left the jugs onto their heads. I imagine it gives a little cushion for them and aids in balancing the load.

I have some more pictures from this trip, but this is getting long. Dial-up service to the internet is a real test of patience, but it's surely better than not having it at all.

We are going out to the closing of another project on Friday afternoon. We're told it's quite close by--just an hour by car and another hour by boat! Stay tuned for more adventures.

From our January trip

We traveled for nearly a week early in January, flying to Mandalay and then from the airport with is an hour away from the city, traveled west and north to a number of ceremonies for water projects. Since I can't post all the pictures at once, these are a few that I've grouped together. We were traveling with Dr. Win, so he took this picture as we stopped to visit a pagoda that had been carved out of stone.

One of the attractions there are monkeys who beg for food. Dr. Win bought some small plums which he hid in a sack behind his back and while he was talking to us a monkey jumped up and grabbed the sack. They are quite proprietorial about their areas and their food.

The steps are quite uneven, and I probably needed the help, but I feel like an old woman when I get so much help!

We crossed a bridge and saw that ground that had been flooded from the rains was being prepared for planting. So much soil is in the water during the flooding that as the water recedes the soil that is left is very good for planting. We've seen a couple of tractors, but most of the work done is by oxen as the plots are not very large.

As we go along these dusty rough roads we pass many ox carts, the main way of transportaton for many out in the countryside.

We know we're definitely in a third world country when we see bridges like these! Doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

And we know we are in the tropics when we see bananas growing!!

We stopped one late afternoon at this pagoda. It was closed so we weren't able to go inside but were still required to walk barefoot on the grounds. This pagoda is known for the 500,000 carved images that are on the walls. Each of those towers has tiny buddhas along each of the rows!

The people we meet as we travel are much more meaningful to us than the pagodas we see. I think this is a beautiful face.!!

More to come in the next blog.

Some pictures from December excursions

Here are some pictures taken when we visited several villages mid-December. The Burrs who supervise us in Hong Kong were here and were seeing first hand some of the projects. All three couples and them went. We traveled by van, boat, and jeeps to reach one site.!! One of the places we visited was south of Yangon and near the Andaman Sea. We saw the damage the tsunami had done there, walked out on a pier to a pagoda that once was part of the village but now is almost in the sea. A delicacy of the people is dried fish, which is being done here.

After walking out to a site, we came back and were given coconuts to drink the milk from.!

A classroom. Children sit on benches. Teachers have a blackboard. Not much else. They are taught to read and write English --- copy it, but don't have much understanding of it.

We were presented with a whole branch of red bananas --supposedly the most tasty. It took 10 days for them to ripen enough to eat them. And they are good!

There's usually some kind of formal ceremony before the water is turned on and here there are three of us cutting the ribbons. And then the water is turned on.

These people were waiting for the water to be turned on. We were a bit concerned about the kind of buckets they were using. Some were old paint cans. But the electricity was off (something that happens quite often) so here we weren't able to see the water turned on.

These boys were waiting for their turn to get a school kit. The majority of the children have this white "stuff" on their faces. It is made from the bark of a tree and we are told it is a mild cooling astringent that protects from the sun. I think they have fun putting it on.

It was a fun experience.

We went out to several villages the middle of December to inspect and open some water projects. While there we presented school kits to about 50 children who had been selected by their teachers as achieving excellence. All school children wear white tops and green skirts or longyis.

On Christmas day after Sacrament meeting we had a fried noodle lunch and then went in buses to a Catholic run Old Folks Home. About forty members and friends went and we sang four carols in four different rooms. In one of the rooms after we were done two men stood and sang a song to us. Good experience. Afterwards we went back to the church and had ice cream. A very different Christmas for us but we surely felt the spirit.

On Christmas day we met at the church for an enactment of the nativity story. We probably had more participants than observers but it was very nice. Mary and Joseph (their English names as well as the parts they took had their first child in October. It was fun to watch them enact the parts of the angels, shepherds, wise men.

My thanks to Lucy

The last month has been a frustrating one in trying to write on a blog. So many thanks to Lucy who has set up a new one. I think I got lost in the process of setting up with a new computer since our old one crashed. I started the blog OurMyanmar Mission on the office computer in what was called a "beta" account--anyway to make a long frustrating story short, I never have been able to get back to it. Probably a number of "senior moments" involved. But I will try to post some pictures this afternoon when we return from church. Today we have no assignments as the person who works at the US embassy is back from a long vacation in the US will now teach the SS class I've been teaching. The gospel doctrine class is taught in Myanmar without translation so I will take my scriptures and read. We're looking forward to a visit from the mission president and one of the counselors in the area presidency on Wednesday evening. The mission president will interview four young men who are preparing to serve missions. When called they wil leave a big hole in the branch as they are the ones who do most of the translating. Also one of the three couples here, the Checketts, will be released the first week of March. He's been serving as the branch president so that will be another big hole. And we're told that a third couple has not yet been called so we will probably have several months with just us and the Joneses here. Again, thanks Lucy. Pictures later.

I am helping my technologically challenged mother in her quest to document their mission in Myanmar. Hopefully, this will work!