Bhurma

We arrived into Burma, specifically Mandalay, 3 days ago.  Burma is an incredibly poor country due to a corrupt government which is a dictatorship.  Burma was only recently opened to tourists when Aung San Su Kyi was freed from house arrest in 2010 after 20+ years of house arrest.  She has led the movement for democracy through the NLD party (National league for democracy).  Her father was a well known general (the father of independence from the British) who was assassinated by the communists.  Even though there have been some important decisions that the government made, that have held the country, the country is still incredibly poor and not well managed.  Even though Burma is a very large country, it has a small population of about 60 million people - most of the country is rural, approximately 95%, and the population is spread out.  Mandalay is the second largest city with a population of 1 million.  The largest city is Rangoon aka Yangon.  Although Yangon used to be the capital, the generals moved it because it was also the home of Aung San Su Kyi and they didn’t want it to become a center for her political movement.  The present capital is….., a town of little consequence.

Yesterday we visited a very rural village on the banks of the Irrawaddy river.  Adults with white skin and different colored hair are already very interesting, but a child with blond hair is fascinating.  My sister and I were stared at constantly and everyone wanted a picture with us.  My mother brought an instant camera with us so that she was able to take pictures to give to the people.  They found this very exciting, especially the children.  Most of these people had never seen a picture of themselves - some didn’t even have a mirror.  Most objects in the village, including the houses, are very beaten up and re-used by several generations.  Some boys were playing volleyball over a fishing net using a ball that was probably 20 years old.  They were very good players.

The general store in the village. 

 Someone's house.

 The village school.

A classroom in the school.

The girls and women wear Thanaka on their faces.  The traditional purpose is as sun protection, but it has turned into a form of fashion putting stripes of it on your face, is a common thing.  It’s a yellowish paste made out of tree bark.

Most people treat us like we are from outer space.  At the hardware store we picked up a large nail and my dad demonstrated hitting it with a hammer.  But, the villagers seemed to take this as a question to what it does and they put the nail to some wood and imitated banging it like we didn’t even know what a nail was.  It was very funny.

 A village pig for pork.

 A water pump linked to a well for fresh water.             

Some of the children in the village watching us.