So just to mention that I cannot upload all the pictures, nor blog about the entire trip, in one post. Reasons being that a lot of the pictures are in Gus's computer, like huuuuge files that take a long time to upload, so I can't manage all of it at once. I think my blogger account limits how many I can upload as well. So I will be blogging in parts, the main highlights of the trip and whatnot.
I visited Burma from the 12th to the 19th of March. I'm going to be honest here. Am I a radically different person? No, I'm still me. I still have my materialistic tendencies and my selfish ways. But I've realized that bits of me have changed, little bits. Subtle ways that I only began to notice after a few days of being back. Suddenly I wasn't that interested in shopping anymore. When I leave my room I make sure all the electricity is turned off. I try to save money when I can. And I thought a lot more about everything that I usually dismissed without a care. I still think about Burma a lot.
Context: I was there with Gus and his family. His father is Burmese, so Gus has lots of relatives who still live there. His father also set up campus crusade in Burma, and so there's a lot of staff there that we met up with as well. We were extremely well taken care of. What I was most impressed and touched by were definitely the people. Not just the people we met, but people in the streets as well. Because Gus's father speaks Burmese we spoke to several strangers and that made the trip a whole lot better.
Background: Burma is extremely poor. If you don't already know, it is under militaristic rule. The junta is internationally famed for human rights violation, corruption, repression of democracy amongst many other things. It is one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the most shut in. Two revolutions in 1988 and 2007 met with aggressive military crackdown and unnecessary deaths. Burma is nowhere closer to democracy than it was 10 years ago; neither is it a benign dictatorship similar to Singapore. Wiki Burma to find out more.
When we arrived in Burma and some bags rolled around at the belt, we realized lots of our bags had huge crosses drawn on them. We had lots of bags because we brought things along to donate. Not just our bags, but you could see other people's suitcases, huge white X's drawn in chalk. This meant that they had to be opened and checked by customs officers, even though they'd already been through scanning at Singapore's airport. In Burma you'll see lots of official workers walking around with crests sewn onto their sleeves or badges on their chests. At the airport the customs officers wore white. Outside in the streets, military officers wear dark green uniforms. We were picked up by Gus's father's staff at Burma's campus crusade, and we rode a pick-up truck to our hotel.
This guy was really funny. He has the nicest smile and he speaks a little English. He's married with one daughter. His name is Lim Piu (I'm really spelling by what I hear, it's probably wrong) and he really helped us out those few days. He has a really strong faith, I can't even begin to describe.
In the pick-up truck! That's Gus's sister, Annie.
Another thing is, all the cars in Burma are old as hell. I'm talking about seriously old, from the 80's sorts of cars. Not even the cool vintage kinds, but just the rickety, broken down kinds. Apparently Burma buys a lot of its cars from Singapore, old stock that nobody wants anymore. I'm not kidding when I say it's almost 95% super old cars. The newest car I saw was maybe just one Honda Jazz.
Sights like these are common. Bikes packed tight as sardine everywhere. Lots of people in Burma sell bicycles, mostly because that's how a lot of people get around. And the bikes are really, really cheap. Gus's sister ended up buying a really nice, quality one for 100SGD max. And men and women both wear those sarong things. They're called long-jis in Burma, and literally everyone wears them.
Another common sight: roadside stalls. And you can see that they're really, awfully small and unstable. Just a few cardboard pieces, some wooden beams knocked together and that's someone's livelihood. They're everywhere. What's sad is you also see the people who man the stalls, sometimes they're extremely young girls or boys, maybe 19, 20? And they're already resigned to a life of doing that.
We pulled into a small side road that ran along this body of water. There is a house by it that Gus's father built for the staff of campus crusade. Some of the staff live there and they have meetings there, things like that. Surrounding the water you have lots of little houses. Maybe houses isn't even the right word. Huts, just a lot of what seems like straw being stuck together to make walls.
I could be wrong because I can't exactly remember, but people in Burma sell the things that this girl is carrying. They're meant for birds. Because Burma is largely buddhist, they believe in good deeds and being rewarded for performing good deeds. So they sell these food things for birds so someone can hang it on a tree and perform a good deed.
Women brick-layers. I get depressed looking at men brick-layers and Burma has women brick-layers. They're all on the way to do construction work. I can't decide if it's devastating or amazing. Again, you can see how young some of these girls are! And so quickly resigned to lead such a life. Also, see what the woman on the right is wearing on her face? It's called tha-na-ka. And it's basically the residue when you grind a tree bark and mix it with water. All the women in Burma wear it, even some men. And I'll tell you this: people in Burma don't have pimples. The thanaka is seriously good. It protects the skin from dirt! I tried it on on my second last day and holy crap that stuff is awesome.
So most houses don't even look like this. This is already one of the better ones. Think about it: if you saw this in Singapore you'd think it was one of the poorer houses, and yet in Burma this is pretty good. At least it has stable walls, a balcony, windows, etc.
Although Burma is largely buddhist, it is about 8% of Christians. The government doesn't condemn Christianity so they get on quite well and without disturbance. We visited a neighbourhood in which almost the entire community was Christian and it was lovely. Everybody went to church and knew each other and they were all so passionate.
Another common sight: kids chilling by the side of the road. Literally, sitting down doing whatever they can entertain themselves with. They don't need iPhones or iPads or gameboys or whatever. They seriously entertain themselves with crap off the floor. Once in awhile there is a ball, but most the time they really just do what the picture shows. And they're okay. They smile, and they laugh, and they have fun.
This man's story is short and sad. He was walking around the Christian neighbourhood I was talking about. So one of Gus's relatives who was showing us around said, "It's very sad. He used to be a good man until somebody gave him the pills." Her English wasn't very good but she meant that he started taking drugs. And degenerated. Which is depressing... I'm not sure of the drug culture in Burma, we didn't talk about it a lot. If anyone knows please enlighten me.
Another roadside stall. This was SO. SINFUL. I mean it's oily as hell, the oil literally seeped through the plastic bag he put the snacks in. They're basically fried quail eggs. And they taste pretty awesome but are so unhealthy I couldn't even force myself to eat more. We got I think 5 of those round things for SGD1? Maybe even cheaper. Shit I think it was cheaper. This man pushed his cart around trying to sell his food.
At night we went to the campus crusade house for a welcome dinner. It was also Gus's father's birthday. There were so many people! And everyone was so inviting towards me, I felt so loved. That is Gus's grandma. Swear she is the cutest old lady you will ever meet. In Singapore all she does is eat and sleep, but she's super healthy. Anyway, in Burma she was like a superstar! Because everyone knows her and they missed her a lot. Anyway this picture is so cute, haha. There were lots of kids there! Many of the staff are married with children.
THIS BABY IS 5 MONTHS OLD. That's his mother, and his father is a recent graduate. He was studying to become a pastor and was recently qualified. They live in a tiny hut near the house. It's really just a small place, stuffy with no proper lighting or anything. The walls are so thin, made out of straw (I think. I'm not sure what that material is). But he is a super happy man (see below), so is she, and so is their baby. HE IS THE CUTEST BABY.
The condition of their house is so unstable they had to move out for a few days that it was raining in Burma. And it wasn't even raining super bad. It was normal showers... and their house was inhabitable for those few days. That's the state of things, but they are still so happy.
These three girls were cute. They were wearing the same clothes! Haha. But look at the two helpers on the right. They're from the villages, far from Yangon. Their families send them to the city to become helpers so they can send money back home. And these girls were super young, maybe 15 or 16?
This is most of the campus crusade staff. As you can see it's really big, and everyone is really happy. It's a pretty awesome bunch of people.
This other baby was super cute too. THEY WERE INTERACTING. But this picture is so funny haha.
I talked to this lady for a long time and we never swapped names. Not sure why. She is a lecturer at a school of theology. She used to teach I think kind of like secondary school, but says she left because she couldn't stand working under the government. She studied in Singapore for a few years. She says that when she was in Singapore, she knew everything about the world. But when she came back, she didn't know anything. She didn't know that Libya was having protests and rebellions, neither did she know about the Japanese tsunami at the time. But she is so insightful, so thoughtful. She told me about how many of the female undergraduates in Burma come to Singapore to work as maids, because that pays even better than any job they can find in Burma. How sad is that? She was wonderful and I loved talking to her so much. And isn't Gus's grandma just damn cute? Hahahaha I love her so much :)
So that was the first day. After that we went back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Just a look into Burmese society and the kind of people that I got to interact with. Also, I really saw the lack that people in Burma have and the excess by which we Singaporeans live. And in contrast, I see, ironically, how contented people are there, and how frustrated we are here. There has to be a problem there, right?
When I update next, I think I will talk about my trip to the villages. That was another eye-opening experience... also, we visited the slums. The poor parts of Yangon. As well as did some tourist-y things like Shwedagon temple, Chinatown and Bogyoke market.
Picture credits to Gus. (follow him on twitter, he likes getting requests: @fabregusgus hahahaha)
