… A day of Silence …
April was a month of festival holidays: a New Year’s celebration both in
Bali and in Myanmar. April was also a month that spun into a wealth of
brilliant unexpected inspiration moments in room 5, surprising news,
unexpected turn of events, closing ceremony and wrap up in NayPyiTaw.
New Year’s Celebration in Bali, in Myanmar: Nyepi a public Hindu holiday in Bali …
The Myanmar parliament in NayPyiTaw, is closed for 2 weeks, however we
were away for almost 3 weeks, which includes wellness days away from the
ongoing Cuso Myanmar’s drama. For example, instead of receiving a
constructive response, dialogue, we are either told ‘It’s classified
information (when it’s not and may be looked upon as a legacy that was
left behind to share and disseminate among volunteers), OR, solve it,
and if we don’t like it, Leave!’ Of course this is Old news , I’m
afraid. This thread of old news, I understand has traveled to various
Cuso volunteers whose placements throughout Myanmar haven’t worked out.
As a result, dissatisfied with their placements, dissatisfied with lack
of support, transparency, and no one to turn to, they have left their
placements prematurely.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018, Kevin and I arrived in Bali, Ubud to be
exact, for a well-deserved holiday with lots things to do to distract us
away from the misery, from endless unethical political situation at
work .
Ubud is dotted with a myriad of temples, shops, cafés, restaurants … and yes, Western people that we can talk too …
As you may have well guessed, we’re not really museum or temple
goers, instead, we’ve relished the cappuccinos, café lattés, good
Western food and a good 2 – 3 hour walk early in the morning while Ubud
still sleeps. A spa with a good massage and or a healthy lunch awaits us
each day, before having an afternoon snooze. Just what the doctor
ordered!
We also toured the island where we swam, read, slept a lot and did
day tours. Considering that April is the hottest month of the year in
Southeast Asia, Bali, on the contrary was comfortable in every aspect of
the word …
Saturday March 17, 2018 was a public holiday in Indonesia. Marked on
the Balinese Saka calendar, the Hindu community that mostly lives on the
island of Bali celebrates Nyepi, the Day of Silence a.k.a. the Hindu
New Year. Nyepi is a day of reflection for the Indonesian Hindu
community. As a result, all activities come to a complete standstill
from 6 in the morning to 6 at night! This means that Hindus are not
allowed to cook, work, eat, talk, use their cell phones to communicate
with the outside world, nor are they allowed to listen to music, or use
any type of transportation … In other words, locals stay home with their
families for a day of silence.
While we were in Bali, Myanmar celebrated the Water Festival known as
the Thingyan Public holiday or Myanmar New Year. The Thigyan holiday,
an auspicious day that last 3 days, is a time to wash away sins and to
begin anew. Unlike the day of silence practiced by the Balinese people
however, the Myanmar people, sing, dance on streets and use trucks with
heavy water pipes to either hose people down or use water buckets to
throw water at each other …
For us, for me, like the Balinese people, it too, was a time of
reflection of our year in NayPyiTaw, Myanmar. It was a time to try and
make some sense of some things that worked, and some things that still
nagged me at the core. Things that still needed to be ironed out,
especially now that the big boss was no longer in sight to bat for me.
U Bone Kwi Aung had been conveniently shuffled a mile away, so it
seems, to another Chamber, the Phyitu Lower House. Now that he was no
longer working with me, for instance, Parliamentary staffs had been told
that they were no longer allowed to help with the Myanmar translation
or to help out with the last minute details of the book. However,
ignoring the risks, the requests, the staff felt it important to
complete their project and consequently went ahead with it. What’s more,
the bid of the closing ceremony orchestrated by the same two expat
individuals who disputed with the leaders, that it was of no importance
for my students (whom I had for the year), to have a year end
celebration, despite having gone through the proper channels for
approval …. However, in the end, on our return from Bali, miraculously
things fell into place.
NayPyiTaw in Bloom … Unexpected turn of events at the Parliament
Every tree, bush, plants, tall, thin, fat are in bloom. With
multi-coloured flowers lining the NayPyiTaw boulevards, a new wave of
young, eager–looking potential recruits have been invited to the Myanmar
Hluttaw Union Assembly, Pyidaungsu Zabuthiri building to be tested in
law, economics, and IT skills. Results will be posted in the large white
board in the open hallway , just outside the library. Like children,
they gently place their right hand on the back of the person’s shoulder
(in front of them) to form an impeccable row. The rainbow longys, mostly
women with few men, stand in row upon row to answer to the roll call,
to their names, while there is much shuffling back and forth (from some
leaders) to oversee that each row is in a perfect line. Shouting and
excitement and clarification continue throughout the roll call as par
for the course; to ensure that all requirements are met before testing,
oral interviews begins.
On our return from Bali, U Zaw Hen, Director General of
Pyidaungsu, (once ordained as a Buddhist Monk), had returned to work,
the parliament in NayPyiTaw with a shaved head (from his time away at
the Yangon Monastery) to mark the Myanmar New Year 2018. With a smile, a
nod, hands firmly pressed together in a prayer, he said ‘I spent 3 days praying in a monk’s monastery to wash away my sins and to give hope to the people of Myanmar’. Now ordained, he also said, ‘I will be spending much time caring for my ill-health mother in Yangon’.
He too, with his other colleagues had arrived to work early to tests
the kaleidoscopic-looking newcomers. Later that day, despite testing,
interviewing and dealing with a backlog of urgent matters that needed to
be attended to, U Zaw Hen took care, took the time in dealing with the
unresolved ‘closing ceremony’ issue. In the end, he and other
leaders of the Myanmar Hluttaw Union Assembly, Pyidaungsu Zabuthiri
building overruled the 2 expats and approved the go ahead with the
closing ceremony …
Surprising News
Nwe Nwe Soe: April was month with surprising news. Nwe Nwe Soe,
who eagerly tried to reach me while we were away in Bali, bounced-in
with joy into my office first thing Monday morning to announce that she
had been accepted to join the 6 months’ Parliamentary Institute of
Cambodia (PIC) Fellowship Programme: July to December 2018. Whilst in
Phnom Penh, Nwe Nwe Soe, 6 colleagues from Myanmar together with Lao
PDR, Myanmar and Thailand will also join the Regional Fellowship Program
in Parliamentary Research. She is absolutely thrilled and couldn’t
believe her luck after having applied with PIC 4 times. With this
unbelievable news, Nwe Nwe Soe, also told me that she and 4 other
parliamentary staff were invited by Myanmar Westminster Foundation for
Democracy (WFD) to spend the first week of May with the UK House of
Commons Parliament to learn and observe some of their strategic plans,
tools to take back with them in Myanmar. Later, I learned that U Bone
Kyi Aung was too, one of the chosen invitees for this UK trip.
Kyaw Nain Tan: Remember, the line manager that in so many ways
appeared to be agitated, obligated to drift wherever the wind blew
because he was managed by so many people, including the 2 expats ?
Remember how he had arrived at the Myanmar Hluttaw Union Assembly, the
same time as me? Well, NayPyiTaw is indeed in bloom with surprising
news! With a wide grin, from ear to ear, he too bounced in to my office
to say that he was finally leaving the NayPyiTaw Parliament and joining
the Yangon Ministry of Education at the end of May where he could be
with his wife and son. Since this surprising news, Kyaw Nain Tan became
friendlier, transparent, and more respectful toward me. A ton of weights
fell off his shoulder as he spoke to tell me that he was no longer
working with Cuso Myanmar or had to answer to the 2 expats. Throughout
the rest of April and May whilst we worked parallel to each other, Kyaw
Nain Tan seemed happier, his shoulders lighter, more erect as he walked
with an air of confidence around the office.
Ni Ni Aye: When I first arrived at the Hluttaw, I was greeted
by a stern-unhappy looking woman, who not only escorted me to my office,
to my desk, after barely meeting the line manager, but to tell me how I
should dress for work: long skirt with a long sleeve blouse. This
revelation was made only to Cuso Volunteers. However, paid international
business partners’ attire, although (some) came to work dressed
inappropriately, nothing was said. Ni Ni Aye, like Kyaw Nan Tan, had
been demoted, transferred from department to department throughout the
Hluttaw with a bad reputation attached to her name. Unfortunately, any
one with a bad reputation ended up working in one of the busiest
department in the Hluttaw, the Research department where I was base.
Despite this however, Ni Ni Aye had some very good attributes to her
name. She spoke English very well and spoke it better than most in the
parliament. As a result, for a short while, she was based in the
International Relations department where she dealt with international
expats’ entry work visas and general documents for Myanmar. She later,
joined the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) department and, at the end
of May will take over Kyaw Nan Tan’s position at the Research
department, where she was, alas, originally posted.
Once I really got to know the real Nyi Nyi Aye, I found her to be
professional, efficient, and extremely effective in her work! Some
parliamentary staff would say that despite her bad temper, sometimes
offensive and abrupt disposition, she’s ‘open and direct and a really good manager and knows the Hluttaw inside out’.
To say that she is a hard worker is an understatement! She is
competent, skillful, capable, talented officer. I found her to be warm,
fun and easy to deal with. In the end, it was a pleasure to work with
her.
At the end of my placement, Ni Ni Aye was frank with me and revealed
that it was the 2 expats who instructed she and Kyaw Nain Tan to follow
their orders. Through them, as messengers, they’d oversee that no
parliamentary materials was shared with Cuso Volunteers. They’d cancel
Cuso Volunteers ‘ requested meetings with the JCC, cancel invitations to
events for Cuso volunteers (democracy day), excluded Cuso from social
events and so forth. Ni Ni Aye personally apologized in the end for 2
expats’ unethical behaviour. She also wanted to let me know that her
hands were tied and that her job was on the line if she spoke up. In
short, she didn’t have a voice to bat for others.
Thet Oo Zaw was one of my students who didn’t like to miss my
class. As a shy student, a man of few words, he hardly spoke in class,
let alone comment on anything that was discussed in class. Today
however, was different. There was a break through with Thet Oo Zaw! For
the first time, during one of our many-heated discussion, he got up from
his roller chair to announce that he too, had something to say.
Mindful, careful of what he was about to say, ‘though this is my opinion and we are in Room 5’.
He and others talked about the role of wealthy Myanmar’s businessmen,
the rich powerful retired Tatmadaw generals; from terrorism, persecution
and inhumane treatment against the Rohingyas to corruption and greed …
Indeed, that day our discussion turned into a wealth of brilliant
unexpected inspiration moments in Room 5, both from Thet Oo Zaw’s
perspective and from other students who had built up the courage to
express their thoughts about the sad state of affairs of their country.
Closing Ceremony
Despite the political problems I experienced throughout my placement,
despite the last minute bid to deny the closing ceremony for my
parliamentary students, despite the rough start, success prevailed! My
motto: Keep an open mind, observe, listen, wipe the slate clean, be
objective and receptive to new ideas …
Today, a year later, my 60 parliamentary students received their
certificates, together with a recently published Parliamentary Resource
Curriculum that magically arrived at the Hluttaw Union Assembly,
Phidaungsu on the morning of the closing ceremony. Like the house of
cards, U Bone Kyi Aung, a high parliamentary official and others like
him that were reshuffled somewhere a mile away in the grandeur of the
parliament, was leaving for the UK the morning of the closing ceremony,
and, still had set aside, his time and energy to honour my students at
the ceremony. With his usual grin, his usual firm handshake, he said, ‘I wouldn’t miss the closing ceremony for the world’. The Myanmar people opened their hearts, gave their love, their friendships …
Sadly, Cuso Myanmar staff were not interested in taking part of the
ceremony, despite the fact that they were invited by both the Hluttaw
Union Assembly, Phidaungsu parliament and me to attend.
‘Good afternoon to all you;
Letting you know that I’m about to write to JCC, who arranges our
activities and the rooms, to request Room 3 to hold a closing ceremony
for 90 people on April 27, 2018. Will one of you be able to attend the
closing ceremony – is it customary for a Cuso Myanmar to attend such an
event? I have also invited both Geoffrey and Francois to attend this
event, which they have already accepted. Will keep you posted with
updates re the closing ceremony .’
Cuso (LF) Myanmar’s response ‘… I know that our travel budget is very
much diminished this coming (new) year so she (Cuso administrator) will
have to see if it is possible.’ ‘…. pomp and ceremony mean nothing!’
For my parliamentary students and me, it’s about celebrating the
successes and milestones together with the people whom they got to know
and to love.
Wrap up in NayPyiTaw
Once the ceremony was done, and books, the parliamentary curriculum was
disseminated among parliamentary staff and leaders, I spent Monday at
work to wrap up loose ends, to say goodbye over luncheons and dinners
with close staffs, friends, where we cried, laugh and cried again …
News travel fast! Since the book was published, since the closing
ceremony event took place last week, people that we don’t know, boldly
come up to us Cuso volunteers, introduce themselves, shake our hands,
and with a smile say, ‘You must be Cuso’. ‘We hear good things
about you, about the great work that you’re doing here’. ‘Your English
book is one of a kind. The first ever to be published in Myanmar!’
What’s more after reviewing the book further, after the ceremony, the
Hluttaw parliamentary leaders printed 35 more copies for the
parliament. And Cuso Country Office Myanmar also printed more copies.
More later …in the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for May 2018….:)
Sunday, 29 April 2018
Thursday, 29 March 2018
Myanmar has a new president
March news: everyday was Christmas
More later ... in the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for April 2018….:)
Small mangoes, hundreds of them now
maturing from our 5 mango trees in our little courtyard are strewn everywhere, some
dropping-down like bombshells on tin roofs, the well to be exact, orchestrates the
crashing of a tambourine-like sound when mangoes fall and smash to the ground each day. 2 days ago, heavy winds brought down 2 heavy
large mango branches across the driveway.
Neighbours from every household immediately came to our aid with their
machetes to cut down the heavy branches to clear the driveway. Like the well-orderly maintained roads of
NayPyiTaw, our driveway and courtyard was methodically done in an systematic
fashion where everyone seemed to know his well-defined ‘duty’! The son’s next door’s duty was to pick up the
debris for a bomb fire to be had on our front lawn.
On the way to the market, throughout the
month of March, small white, red and blue flags lined the dirt roads to the
open field behind us where a large stadium was built to raise funds for the Monks. Each day, deafening music for everyone to
hear bellowed throughout the neighbourhood.
Rejoicing this occasion, Thanakha
locals from the various communities, walked with friends and family to the
stadium to pay their respect and to donate food and or small amounts of money. This celebration is done every year
throughout Myanmar to raise funds for the Water Festival in April.
Through the last part of March, Kevin and I
spent a week in Yangon at the printing shop for the formatting of the
Curriculum. It turned out to be a more
complicated exercise than expected because, their software programming didn’t
have the Myanmar 3 (or any other Myanmar number) Language installed on their
computer, and the company was not prepared to install it. To compound the problem further, the designer
had never designed or formatted a book and I ended-up doing most of the work, showing,
helping the designer where the icon tools were located on the computer. He didn’t speak English and we seemed to play
charades for on-going comprehension … :)
On a sunny beautiful clear blue sky, a day
where I thought we were progressing well with the book, and with one of my many expeditions to the
outside bathroom, their guard dog that normally is placed in a shady spot well
away from the printing factory was let loose on that particular day and bit me!
This
dog had several dog bites from other dogs in the neighbourhood and, had also recently bit other
western foreigners.
The people took good care of me and immediately took me to the hospital
for a rabies shot. What concerned me more was not the dog bite, but the
blasé comportment from Cuso Myanmar. They didn’t bother reporting this mishap, concern for the safety of volunteers, to
Cuso Canada. This is an on going problem that is very real in developing countries to
warn Cuso volunteers of this problem. In
my opinion, it is critical for Cuso Volunteers to be well aware of dog bites in
developing countries, so that not only are they well prepared for this inconvenient mishap that may happen, but to be
inoculated against rabies before the start of their placements and while in
placement if necessary!
March
was a month that could have been Christmas everyday or Ground Hog Day, where
something, a day is repeated over again or caught in a time loop. In this case, in room 5, Everyday was gift day! I was either showered with several gifts or a
significant gift of some sort each day from my 2 classes. After each gift giving, my parliamentary
students sat me on a chair, preceded in taking their flip-flops’ off, formed a
semi circle around me and in unison knelled down and bowed 3 times to the
ground saying a prayer. At first, I
wasn’t sure what to make of it all. My
parliamentary students explained that, ‘Teachers
are one component of the Five Infinite Venerables in Myanmar. After
the Bhudha, the Monks, I was like their parent, their mother, their teacher of
love, of a higher order. They said that they, 'Wanted to
pay their respect, gratitude and love for me.’ At these words, I relented and began to
weep. They wept of joy with me! My
students indeed, opened up their hearts,
gave their love and their friendships … Naturally, I too reciprocated and fell in love with my students. We had become family. In my class their was never any right or wrong answers. The goal is to bring people together for fun and easy learning. It is to generate insights, ideas, questions for conversation ... I feel truly honoured!
Below is a letter from my parliamentary students explaining the meaning of gift giving, honouring and paying respect to their teacher.
'Dear Alice,
Teachers are one component of the “Five Infinite Venerables”, along with the Buddha, Dhamma (teachings of the Buddha), Sangha (the order of monks) and Parents.
U Aung Thin, a retired teacher from Yangon University, said Buddhists consider their teachers almost like parents. In Myanmar, this kind of ritual (pay homage to their teachers) has a much longer history.
Below is a letter from my parliamentary students explaining the meaning of gift giving, honouring and paying respect to their teacher.
'Dear Alice,
Teachers are one component of the “Five Infinite Venerables”, along with the Buddha, Dhamma (teachings of the Buddha), Sangha (the order of monks) and Parents.
U Aung Thin, a retired teacher from Yangon University, said Buddhists consider their teachers almost like parents. In Myanmar, this kind of ritual (pay homage to their teachers) has a much longer history.
Every year at Thadingyut (in
October) , present and former students pay homage to their teachers at
ceremonies across the country. Especially it is a way of remembering
and honouring those people in society who (teach) pass on their skills
and knowledge to others.
“A good teacher is like a family member
to students. They mean a lot to their pupils – they’re a guide, leader, mentor,
parents and friend,” To address someone as Sayar (male
teacher) or Sayama (female teacher) means you consider
them not only a teacher in the conventional sense but also as a “life mentor” –
someone who guides their students through the ups and downs of life. We pay homage to our teachers by kneeling before
them and paying obeisance with joined hands, and bowing, in order to show gratitude and
reverence and an opportunity to ask for forgiveness ( Example : If we make a
mistake to you or annoy to you) , often involving gift-giving.
Love You Alice,
Phyo, the Senior and Junior voices of Myanmar‘
Other news in room 5 where all the learning happens, an American teacher who was instructed to teach English to the same students for more than 6 hours a day for the month of March, approached me half way through his term and admitted that his students were falling asleep because 6 hours of English was too much, too long! He observed my class 3 times and invited me to his class for some suggestions. One of which, I suggested that he use the 'people centred' approach in order to keep the students engaged with their learning. That afternoon, we simply got the students to form themselves in groups of 5, to brainstorm insights and ideas on chart paper their morning lesson. Tape they coloured written charts on one of the 4 corners of the room (Room 3 is a large room). Each group to rotate every 5 minutes to read and share within each group what other groups had said about their morning lesson. This activity lasted approximately 25 minutes. Students were smiling, full of energy, had a glint in their eyes for approval and wanted more ...
March 28, 2018, 7 days after former president U Htin Kyaw stepped down due to poor health, a new elected president (former Pyithu Chamber NLD MP speaker) U Win Myint was appointed by the counsellor. The 10th president was inaugurated, swore an oath in office today, March 30, 2018, together with the 2 vice-presidents: The 1st vice-president, U Myint Swe from the military group who acted as president for 7 days until a new president was elected, was appointed by the Tatmadaw chief. The 2nd vice-president is Henry Van Thio from Amyotha Chamber NLD MP group, was elected by the people.
Other news in room 5 where all the learning happens, an American teacher who was instructed to teach English to the same students for more than 6 hours a day for the month of March, approached me half way through his term and admitted that his students were falling asleep because 6 hours of English was too much, too long! He observed my class 3 times and invited me to his class for some suggestions. One of which, I suggested that he use the 'people centred' approach in order to keep the students engaged with their learning. That afternoon, we simply got the students to form themselves in groups of 5, to brainstorm insights and ideas on chart paper their morning lesson. Tape they coloured written charts on one of the 4 corners of the room (Room 3 is a large room). Each group to rotate every 5 minutes to read and share within each group what other groups had said about their morning lesson. This activity lasted approximately 25 minutes. Students were smiling, full of energy, had a glint in their eyes for approval and wanted more ...
March 28, 2018, 7 days after former president U Htin Kyaw stepped down due to poor health, a new elected president (former Pyithu Chamber NLD MP speaker) U Win Myint was appointed by the counsellor. The 10th president was inaugurated, swore an oath in office today, March 30, 2018, together with the 2 vice-presidents: The 1st vice-president, U Myint Swe from the military group who acted as president for 7 days until a new president was elected, was appointed by the Tatmadaw chief. The 2nd vice-president is Henry Van Thio from Amyotha Chamber NLD MP group, was elected by the people.
More later ... in the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for April 2018….:)
Tuesday, 27 February 2018
There is something magical about the sea ...
February news ...
There is something magical about the sea … the ocean, about the way it moves. How the moon pulls high tides and low tides in and out at certain times of the day. Each day the sea is different, the landscape changes from champagne sand to aqua oceanic sea, to a spectacular orangey-red sunset. This makes the day magical with full of possibilities!
In mid February we had a Cuso Annual Volunteer Conference, some 15 hours bus ride from NayPyiTaw. The conference was held at GnweSaung Beach, where all Cuso volunteers from various ‘pockets’ of Myanmar met to share their experiences in their field. Evidently, we talked about the successes, the milestones, the challenges, the next steps ... At the end of the conference, instead of travelling back with the Cuso group to Yangon and on to NayPyiTaw, Kevin and I used our 2 day travel departure time to stay in GnweSaung Beach. We moved to Eskala resort for a couple more days to enjoy a small holiday by the sea. Aside from enjoying Cuso’s volunteer company at the conference, Kevin and I had a lovely time soaking up the sun, swimming in the sea, strolling on the beach. All we had to think about was 'how we wanted our eggs done ... ' Just what the doctor ordered!
It is clearly the dry season. As I step on every stone, slightly raised on dirt lanes in our neighbourhood, on the way to the market, mound firmly in the ground on the way to the market, I’m reminded of the time when local Thanakka men, women, children collectively worked together, racing against the anticipated monsoon to fix the pot-holes with soil and stones of different colours, shapes and sizes. With the dry season, children are now home from school for the next 3 months and return to school mid May. On our return from Gnew Saung Beach, Kevin, at the market, was greeted with a pleasant surprise. The main area where he normally buys produce, the bamboo poles were raised approximately 2 feet higher, above Kevin's head so that he wouldn't bang his forehead against the pole. The locals were quite delighted with themselves, making a point of letting Kevin know that the bamboo poles were raised up for his benefit ... :)
February was month where more shuffling occurred among parliamentary staff and officials. Like the House of Cards, officials and staff are conveniently, regularly shuffled to different departments throughout the Hluttaw – the parliament. The big boss, whom we, developed a close relationship, whom I worked with throughout my time at the parliament, he too was moved to another department, a mile away from HR department, so it seems, without any explanations. The HR staff that I’m connected to went on with their business as per usual. One of the parliamentary staff, a few days later, had quietly and discreetly placed a tattered note in room 5, in my class, on my desk with instructions of the big boss’s whereabouts.
The following day, the big boss approved, the people’s book that we created from the grassroots up, to have it printed in late March, before the end of the Cuso fiscal year.
Elsewhere in the parliament, an official celebration of a 2-year term at the Hluttaw took place at the large parliamentary-dining hall. The Tatmadaw, the MPs, Cuso Volunteers, Officials, some parliamentary staff and expat business staff were invited for the luncheon to hear the Lady give a speech on peace, in Burmese. The Tatmadaw, MPs and expat business staff sat at the front, while Cuso Volunteers Officials with some parliamentary staff sat at the very back of the room.
February ended with some confusion for some. Though it ended with both the EU and the UN jointly imposing sanctions against the government for the ongoing atrocity, others are not in sync and are turning a blind eye to all available queues: 2 expat business staff, a branch of the UN are still providing lavish lunches in lavish hotels for workshops that could easily be conducted at the parliament for $0 – zero dollars. Could it be that the $2million funds, (which these expats are receiving per month) be redirected where it counts? Another competitive expat business tourism staff also placed at the parliament is planning in mid March to take a group of staff to Germany for a tourism experience. They too, like the 2 aforementioned expats blindly go about business as usual.
Cuso as always, step up to the plate where things are done in a timely way and successfully with spending $0 dollars at the parliament. Oronie managed to merge the 3 chambers on intranet within 2 hours and yours truly was able to produce a curriculum that make sense to the people from the grassroots up.
More later ... in the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for March 2018….:)
In mid February we had a Cuso Annual Volunteer Conference, some 15 hours bus ride from NayPyiTaw. The conference was held at GnweSaung Beach, where all Cuso volunteers from various ‘pockets’ of Myanmar met to share their experiences in their field. Evidently, we talked about the successes, the milestones, the challenges, the next steps ... At the end of the conference, instead of travelling back with the Cuso group to Yangon and on to NayPyiTaw, Kevin and I used our 2 day travel departure time to stay in GnweSaung Beach. We moved to Eskala resort for a couple more days to enjoy a small holiday by the sea. Aside from enjoying Cuso’s volunteer company at the conference, Kevin and I had a lovely time soaking up the sun, swimming in the sea, strolling on the beach. All we had to think about was 'how we wanted our eggs done ... ' Just what the doctor ordered!
It is clearly the dry season. As I step on every stone, slightly raised on dirt lanes in our neighbourhood, on the way to the market, mound firmly in the ground on the way to the market, I’m reminded of the time when local Thanakka men, women, children collectively worked together, racing against the anticipated monsoon to fix the pot-holes with soil and stones of different colours, shapes and sizes. With the dry season, children are now home from school for the next 3 months and return to school mid May. On our return from Gnew Saung Beach, Kevin, at the market, was greeted with a pleasant surprise. The main area where he normally buys produce, the bamboo poles were raised approximately 2 feet higher, above Kevin's head so that he wouldn't bang his forehead against the pole. The locals were quite delighted with themselves, making a point of letting Kevin know that the bamboo poles were raised up for his benefit ... :)
February was month where more shuffling occurred among parliamentary staff and officials. Like the House of Cards, officials and staff are conveniently, regularly shuffled to different departments throughout the Hluttaw – the parliament. The big boss, whom we, developed a close relationship, whom I worked with throughout my time at the parliament, he too was moved to another department, a mile away from HR department, so it seems, without any explanations. The HR staff that I’m connected to went on with their business as per usual. One of the parliamentary staff, a few days later, had quietly and discreetly placed a tattered note in room 5, in my class, on my desk with instructions of the big boss’s whereabouts.
The following day, the big boss approved, the people’s book that we created from the grassroots up, to have it printed in late March, before the end of the Cuso fiscal year.
Elsewhere in the parliament, an official celebration of a 2-year term at the Hluttaw took place at the large parliamentary-dining hall. The Tatmadaw, the MPs, Cuso Volunteers, Officials, some parliamentary staff and expat business staff were invited for the luncheon to hear the Lady give a speech on peace, in Burmese. The Tatmadaw, MPs and expat business staff sat at the front, while Cuso Volunteers Officials with some parliamentary staff sat at the very back of the room.
February ended with some confusion for some. Though it ended with both the EU and the UN jointly imposing sanctions against the government for the ongoing atrocity, others are not in sync and are turning a blind eye to all available queues: 2 expat business staff, a branch of the UN are still providing lavish lunches in lavish hotels for workshops that could easily be conducted at the parliament for $0 – zero dollars. Could it be that the $2million funds, (which these expats are receiving per month) be redirected where it counts? Another competitive expat business tourism staff also placed at the parliament is planning in mid March to take a group of staff to Germany for a tourism experience. They too, like the 2 aforementioned expats blindly go about business as usual.
Cuso as always, step up to the plate where things are done in a timely way and successfully with spending $0 dollars at the parliament. Oronie managed to merge the 3 chambers on intranet within 2 hours and yours truly was able to produce a curriculum that make sense to the people from the grassroots up.
More later ... in the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for March 2018….:)
Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Fresh Bananas from our tree
January news ... Happy New Year!
This morning we were awakened to a fresh bunch, a hanging cluster tier bananas to eat with our muesli. All in courtesy of our humble neighbour! With a smile and a nod, he came around our house this morning to deliver bananas, while we sat on the porch with a hot cup of coffee in hand to ward off the early morning chill of 13℃ . (yes, it gets that cold!). Last night, our humble neighbour, who endlessly goes out of his way for us, had freshly harvested bananas from our tree for us to have for breakfast this morning. What a treat! Banana fruits develop from the banana wine colour heart in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers known as ‘hands’, with up to 20 banana fruit to a tier.
Shortly after our banana harvesting adventure, we’ve since noticed that 3 new banana shoots are already sprouting from our old banana plant that was recently cut down to the ground.
Here on the home front, Kevin and I take advantage of cool January temperatures to take a stroll either in the Herbal Garden grounds or within the neighbourhood. The soft breeze almost engulfs us with whiffs of snowy-white perfumed flowers that guard the Iron Gate. Our humble neighbour, on one fine day, aware of the heavy scented gust that too gushes his household, demonstrates the process of what the white flower seed can do. The benefits. White flowers, some already in seed clustered on stems, our humble neighbour seems to perform a crushing magical motion for us to see; his hands pressed together with a plant seed between his hands, he shows us how seeds can easily soften into a powdery form. Proud of the outcome, with a heavy throaty chuckle, he announces how this fresh powder is unique to Myanmar and how readily available it is for anyone to use and how good it is for a woman’s skin. With this wealth of information, I offer him to pop by our little courtyard to harvest them at any time he so wish to share with his wife and eldest daughter … J
Interestingly enough, one of our individual speaking presentations at the parliament is to do with ‘fashion’ that defines who we are as a person. What compels us to be who we are and to do the things that we do? Is it environment, our upbringing, our culture, the language we speak, I ask? Questions for conversation are what we highlight regularly in the classroom.
Talking about highlights, at dinnertime in January, a black Mercedes drove in to our parking lot to request our passports and updated visa. The 2 official immigration officers and the dual role individual: driver and English interpreter, stated, after scrutinizing our official documents 3 times over, that our papers were in perfect order. Despite the fact, that the interpreter had assured us that we no longer needed to show our papers at the NayPyiTaw immigration office the next day, Cuso SuSu had already warned us of our immigrations visit, that it was indeed necessary to go through the immigration official procedure through KoAung, our go between person who ended it up looking after things for us. Naturally, this was another immigration routine check –in to ensure that our papers were in order!
When it rains, it pours, or better yet, there’s never a dull moment to be had! That same evening, the right-hand hinge of the iron-gate rusted off its hinge. However, nothing could be done with it immediately, because we were leaving for the dentist in Yangon. As a result, the Iron Gate was left open at the discretion of the humble neighbour who looked after things for us during our absence.
Elsewhere in NayPyiTaw, at the parliament, the parliamentary leaders met with us Cuso volunteers, Geoffrey and I and other International Business staff to welcome us to the New Year, to recapitulate some of the good work that we were doing for the parliament and what were our next steps?
The 3rd week of January brought us another Cuso Volunteer. In courtesy of Cuso SuSu , we dined at the Tai Restaurant just outside the SweKyaBae township to welcome the new volunteer François. Naturally, at the parliament on Monday morning, I was disappointed to move out of the parliamentary Research ~ HR office to join Geoffrey and François in the old JCC room sandwiched between the Research and International parliamentary offices. Rationale: Parliamentary officials felt it best that we Cuso volunteers share a room separate to parliamentary staff.
Yes, we thought long and hard about our wish for all you to ring in the New Year in. Together with good health and happiness, we've added an extra hope for 2018, another wish for you to experience, something extra. We wish you wonderful friendships, a skill that captures your imagination, a job that offers fulfilment, and, of course, new things in your life that will make your heart sing like the 2 birds who sing to us every morning at the wake of dawn, preparing a bird’s nest on one of our mango trees.
On this happy, joyful note, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for February 2018….:)
This morning we were awakened to a fresh bunch, a hanging cluster tier bananas to eat with our muesli. All in courtesy of our humble neighbour! With a smile and a nod, he came around our house this morning to deliver bananas, while we sat on the porch with a hot cup of coffee in hand to ward off the early morning chill of 13℃ . (yes, it gets that cold!). Last night, our humble neighbour, who endlessly goes out of his way for us, had freshly harvested bananas from our tree for us to have for breakfast this morning. What a treat! Banana fruits develop from the banana wine colour heart in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers known as ‘hands’, with up to 20 banana fruit to a tier.
Shortly after our banana harvesting adventure, we’ve since noticed that 3 new banana shoots are already sprouting from our old banana plant that was recently cut down to the ground.
Here on the home front, Kevin and I take advantage of cool January temperatures to take a stroll either in the Herbal Garden grounds or within the neighbourhood. The soft breeze almost engulfs us with whiffs of snowy-white perfumed flowers that guard the Iron Gate. Our humble neighbour, on one fine day, aware of the heavy scented gust that too gushes his household, demonstrates the process of what the white flower seed can do. The benefits. White flowers, some already in seed clustered on stems, our humble neighbour seems to perform a crushing magical motion for us to see; his hands pressed together with a plant seed between his hands, he shows us how seeds can easily soften into a powdery form. Proud of the outcome, with a heavy throaty chuckle, he announces how this fresh powder is unique to Myanmar and how readily available it is for anyone to use and how good it is for a woman’s skin. With this wealth of information, I offer him to pop by our little courtyard to harvest them at any time he so wish to share with his wife and eldest daughter … J
Interestingly enough, one of our individual speaking presentations at the parliament is to do with ‘fashion’ that defines who we are as a person. What compels us to be who we are and to do the things that we do? Is it environment, our upbringing, our culture, the language we speak, I ask? Questions for conversation are what we highlight regularly in the classroom.
Talking about highlights, at dinnertime in January, a black Mercedes drove in to our parking lot to request our passports and updated visa. The 2 official immigration officers and the dual role individual: driver and English interpreter, stated, after scrutinizing our official documents 3 times over, that our papers were in perfect order. Despite the fact, that the interpreter had assured us that we no longer needed to show our papers at the NayPyiTaw immigration office the next day, Cuso SuSu had already warned us of our immigrations visit, that it was indeed necessary to go through the immigration official procedure through KoAung, our go between person who ended it up looking after things for us. Naturally, this was another immigration routine check –in to ensure that our papers were in order!
When it rains, it pours, or better yet, there’s never a dull moment to be had! That same evening, the right-hand hinge of the iron-gate rusted off its hinge. However, nothing could be done with it immediately, because we were leaving for the dentist in Yangon. As a result, the Iron Gate was left open at the discretion of the humble neighbour who looked after things for us during our absence.
Elsewhere in NayPyiTaw, at the parliament, the parliamentary leaders met with us Cuso volunteers, Geoffrey and I and other International Business staff to welcome us to the New Year, to recapitulate some of the good work that we were doing for the parliament and what were our next steps?
The 3rd week of January brought us another Cuso Volunteer. In courtesy of Cuso SuSu , we dined at the Tai Restaurant just outside the SweKyaBae township to welcome the new volunteer François. Naturally, at the parliament on Monday morning, I was disappointed to move out of the parliamentary Research ~ HR office to join Geoffrey and François in the old JCC room sandwiched between the Research and International parliamentary offices. Rationale: Parliamentary officials felt it best that we Cuso volunteers share a room separate to parliamentary staff.
Yes, we thought long and hard about our wish for all you to ring in the New Year in. Together with good health and happiness, we've added an extra hope for 2018, another wish for you to experience, something extra. We wish you wonderful friendships, a skill that captures your imagination, a job that offers fulfilment, and, of course, new things in your life that will make your heart sing like the 2 birds who sing to us every morning at the wake of dawn, preparing a bird’s nest on one of our mango trees.
On this happy, joyful note, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for February 2018….:)
Saturday, 30 December 2017
Year end - Looking through the lens of a foreigner
December News - a point of view
December consisted of weddings, luncheon celebrations
to Christmas gatherings; Instructing a new set of ESL classes to making some
progress with the Resource Activity Book known as ‘English Voices of Myanmar’. From
looking through the lens of a foreigner over the last 6 months in NayPyiTaw to
our usual theatre of humanity in our local neighbourhood.
Our neighbours across the road continue to
endlessly entertain us with the usual theatre of humanity. What with the older sister and brother
holding, dropping their large woven garbage bamboo basket, alternating between
picking- up fallen garbage to racing behind the navy blue garbage truck with other
children teasing one another, while Kevin right behind them watch the ins and outs on the way – taking part of
the charming chaos; To grandpa’s new diverting scheme in keeping his grandson
busy with this and that, taking a risk in cajoling him only to find
that his family has already left for school, quietly, wide eyes watching
them drift by from a distance… While mom still bellows Myanmar words that we still
don’t understand. This time not at her son, who by this time is at the end of
the dirt road far from her, but hollerss at another family whom they share their
little compound with … :)
December began with a luncheon celebration
to welcome new parliamentary staff, bestowed and organized by parliamentary officials, which I gladly attended with the office staff. Everyone raved about the Indian chicken curry
with chapatti especially prepared by talented parliamentary staffs for this
special occasion.
On the weekend, in early December, we celebrated
another special event. Kevin and I
attended my colleague’s wedding at the SweShiDaw restaurant where, on our
arrival, arm in arm with one of the hostesses, we were ushered to the parliamentary
officials’ tables rather than having the opportunity to sit with my colleagues,
which I would have preferred; simply, to reconnect with them and to introduce
them to Kevin. The bride and groom,
fixed smiles, were donned in beautiful attire and tirelessly walked from table
to table for snapshots. We had a lovely
time and food delicious.
For Christmas, we Kevin and I had a festive BBQ dinner party with
friends and had a delicious decadent unique meal. Definitely mouthwatering range of
flavours and textures that consisted primarily of several meat dishes: Italian
sausages, pork chops, steak, spareribs with wine, beer, cocktails to ring the New Year in – the 2018 count down …The
company, the food, and relaxing ambiance was more than I can say. We’re so lucky!
As for work, my old class, though
previously agreed by the officials that I were to have them for one full year - 2 terms, was dissolved for reasons I will never know and 2 new sets of ESL
classes were constructed. However,
something good always comes from something that one may naturally be
disappointed with at first.
Initially with this sudden change, it meant
that I had little time to hold my small parliamentary group or my MPs’ English
conversational group or in developing the Resource Activity Book that my former
students and I began to write from the grassroots up. However, my new classes are just as smart and
geniuses and talented as my former 2017 parliamentary class!
That is to say that although the Resource Activity Book ‘English Voices of Myanmar’ is
progressing at a slower pace, with the consent of the big boss, I was able to touch base, reconnect with some
of my former students for the Myanmar translation. I have also been given the consent to work
with some of my present students to work on the book.
As for looking through the lens of a
foreigner over the last 6 months in NayPyiTaw, we had some very good times and
some challenging ones.
We feel very fortunate to have landed in a
local community, living among the locals to experience the special things that
we would never otherwise have experienced, if we had stayed in a hotel where
other expats are expected to stay . By
day end, a surge of excitement rushes over me, down my spine as I enter our
little dirt road and pass children squealing with delight, neighbours waiving and chatting and
Kevin sitting on his red chair awaiting for my arrival from a hard day’s work.
Though we have a TV with one channel, TV
is the last thing on our minds. To date,
I’ve read 19 books (different genre). Normally, at home, I might be lucky if I
read 6 – 7 books the most in one year. As
soon as I finish reading one, I’m already excited to start working through another; another story of people’s lives, love, friendship, their hopes,
wants, etcetera. That's when you realize how lucky you are to have the life that you have. I’m in the process of reading ‘Hotel on the
Corner of Bitter Sweet’ , Jamie Ford. Look it up – it's a good read about love and friendship between an American-Asian couple.
More
will be posted at later time ....:) In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots
of laughter for January 2018....:)
Sunday, 24 December 2017
Happy Holidays ....
Wishing
all you in Cambodia, Myanmar and around the World a very Happy, Healthy Holiday Season
and a Prosperous New Year 2018 – We wish you a year filled with love, joy
and much more !
We miss
you and often talk about the good times that we had together ...
Kevin,
(my accompanied partner, my husband) and I have ventured off once again across
the Ocean. This time to Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar ... !
We look
forward to sharing our ongoing adventures with you.
More
will be posted at later time ....:) In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots
of laughter for the rest of December .... Alice / Kevin Chandler xo
Friday, 22 December 2017
Yamin Mg Mg
About Me – Brief Biography
I
am Yamin Maung Maung. I was born in 27th of March, 1991. I have five
family members. My father is an officer working at the Myanmar Railway station
at the Ministry of transportation. My
mother is a good housewife. I have three siblings including me. I have two
younger brothers. They are University students
As my saying childhood, I started school at the age of 5. I was a primary and high school student at the No. (3), B.E.H.S Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, Yangon. The schools are located on the Upper Pansodan Road and a school for only girls.
In 2007, I passed the matriculation exam and received an A.G.T.I Diploma in 2009. Then I joined the Eastern University of Yangon and specialized in Physics starting with 2nd year. I didn’t need to attend from the 1st year as I got the A.G.T.I Diploma.
In 2011, I graduated with a Bachelor Degree of Science in Physics. In 2013, I got this job as a Lower Divisional Clerk at the Speaker’s Office of the Pyithu Hluttaw. After my 1st year, I was promoted to as an Upper Divisional Clerk 2 years later I was again promoted as a Deputy Staff officer on 2nd June, 2017. I still work at the same office with 4 years experience at the parliament here in my section.
As my saying childhood, I started school at the age of 5. I was a primary and high school student at the No. (3), B.E.H.S Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, Yangon. The schools are located on the Upper Pansodan Road and a school for only girls.
In 2007, I passed the matriculation exam and received an A.G.T.I Diploma in 2009. Then I joined the Eastern University of Yangon and specialized in Physics starting with 2nd year. I didn’t need to attend from the 1st year as I got the A.G.T.I Diploma.
In 2011, I graduated with a Bachelor Degree of Science in Physics. In 2013, I got this job as a Lower Divisional Clerk at the Speaker’s Office of the Pyithu Hluttaw. After my 1st year, I was promoted to as an Upper Divisional Clerk 2 years later I was again promoted as a Deputy Staff officer on 2nd June, 2017. I still work at the same office with 4 years experience at the parliament here in my section.
More will be posted at a later date … 🙂 In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for December and the New Year …. :)
ကိုယ်ရေးအကျဉ်း
ကျွန်မ၏အမည်မှာ
ယမင်းမောင်မောင်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၁၉၉၁ ခုနှစ် မတ်လ ၂၇ ရက်နေ့တွင်မွေးဖွားခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကျွန်မ
တွင် မိသားစုဝင် (၅) ဦးရှိပါသည်။ ကျွန်မ၏အဖေသည် နိုင်ငံဝန်ထမ်းတစ်ဦးဖြစ်ပြီး
အမေသည် မှီခိုသူဖြစ်သည်။ ကျွန်မတွင် မွေးချင်းမောင်နှမ ၃ ယောက်ရှိပါသည်။ ကျွန်မအပါအဝင်
တက္ကသိုလ်တက်နေဆဲဖြစ်သည့် မောင်လေး ၂ ယောက် တို့ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
ကျွန်မသည်
ကျောင်းနေအရွယ် အသက် (၅)နှစ်မှ စ၍ မူလတန်း၊ အလယ်တန်းနှင့် အထက်တန်းများကို အ.ထ.က (၃)
မင်္ဂလာတောင်ညွှန့်၌ တက်ရောက်ပညာ သင်ကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကျွန်မတို့၏ ကျောင်းသည် အထက် ပန်းဆိုးတန်းလမ်းမပေါ်တွင်တည်ရှိပြီး
အမျိုးသမီးများသာ တက်ရောက်ရသည့် မိန်းကလေးကျောင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂၀၀၇
ခုနှစ်တွင် တက္ကသိုလ်၀င်တန်းစာမေးပွဲ အောင်မြင်ခဲ့ပြီး ၂၀၀၉ ခုနှစ်တွင် A.G.T.I
(IT) ဒီပလိုမာ ရရှိခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၂၀၁၁ ခုနှစ်တွင် သိပ္ပံဘွဲ့(ရူပဗေဒ) ကို ရန်ကုန် အဝေးသင်တက္ကသိုလ်မှ
ရရှိခဲ့ပါသည်။
၂၀၁၃
ခုနှစ်တွင် အငယ်တန်းစာရေးအဖြစ် ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော်ရုံးတွင် အလုပ်စတင်ဝင်ရောက်ခဲ့ပြီး
တစ်နှစ်ကြာသောအခါ အကြီးတန်းစာရေးအဖြစ် ရာထူး တိုးမြှင့်ခြင်းခံခဲ့ရပါသည်။ အကြီးတန်းစာရေးလုပ်ငန်းတာဝန်
များကို ထမ်းဆောင်ခဲ့ပြီး ၂ နှစ်ပြည့်သောအခါ ၂၀၁၇ ခုနှစ် ဇွန် လ ၂ ရက်နေ့တွင် ဒုတိယဦးစီးမှူးအဖြစ်
ထပ်မံ၍ ရာထူး တိုးမြှင့်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကျွန်မသည် ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော်ဥက္ကဋ္ဌရုံး တွင် လွှတ်တော်ရုံးဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ် တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေသည်
မှာ ၄ နှစ်ကျော်ခန့်ရှိပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။
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