A DAY IN THE LIFE

IMAGES ADDED THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 UPON ARRIVAL BACK IN RANGOON

Outside of Kalaw about forty minutes or so lies a Da Nu village surrounded by lush farm fields and low lying hills and mountains. We spent much of the day there visiting and learning a lot about everyday rural life in the hills away from outside influences.

While on our way, we stopped at a watering hole next to which women were busily washing clothes at an adjacent well while water buffalo wallowed in the river and small buses, motorcycles and trucks rumbled over the nearby bridge. While there we talked with an older woman tending the water buffalo, as open and friendly and unpretentious an “informant” as one could wish for – and typical of the folks we met all day long.

When we arrived in the village, we passed on to our hosts the various lunch ingredients we'd been sent out to buy in the Kalaw morning market (another task made delightful by the friendly reception we received from various market vendors when we approached with Burmese language shopping lists in hand).

Then we clamored aboard some “Chinese water buffalo” motorized vehicles to drive up the hill to the local monastery. Once there we helped clean up the main sanctuary being swept in preparation for the upcoming End-of-Buddhist-Lent celebration and then sat down to talk with two of the resident monks.

Next we made a delightful stop at the local village school where we were royally entertained and in turn entertained the students with iPad images, poems, stories, songs and the Burmese national anthem (which the kids belted out with great gusto).

We walked back to our host's home for lunch and an extended question-and-answer session during which we probed numerous characteristics of village life. Two insights Lee found particularly striking: when asked what they wished for in the future, all four hosts (father, mother, son and village secretary) answered :”to achieve Nirvana”; when asked what the most significant change they had experienced in their lifetimes was, all pointed to the recent change in the political climate. Wow!

Our visit ended with a vigorous session of drumming and dancing, attracting more and more attention from neighbors who all gathered around to watch and wave good-bye as we pulled away, headed back to Kalaw.
 

Quite a day! Quite a day!

On the return trip we alighted for a walk through another village, partially, we suspect, so that we would work up an appropriate appetite for yet another yummy Burmese dinner later in the evening at the Seven Sisters Restaurant in Kalaw.