Day-to-day life in Myanmar

[Caldera]

Thanks a lot for your very interesting updates from Myanmar, Simon! I hope you'll keep them coming.

 

What you've been doing there for education for many years (just looking at your poster and app) has been amazing work. I hope you'll have the energy, good health and motivation to keep it up for many more years, and I wish you all the best.

[simon43]

As usual, I get up at 6am for an exercise walk/jog of about 2km, to help to keep my lungs clear.  For now, this is just up and down the road outside the hotel.

 

The fresh vegetable seller is already doing business, and yes - that woman does have a bunch of bananas on her head.... and why not? 🙂

 

[SAFETY FIRST]

On 11/21/2024 at 4:13 PM, simon43 said:

I'm teaching Science at an 'international' school in the city.  As I'm a scientist,

Not a Rocket Scientist by any chance?

 

You may get some work on the side, a war monger, militarist could do with your skill set. 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by SAFETY FIRST

[chiang mai]

Just now, SAFETY FIRST said:

Not a Rocket Scientist by any chance?

 

You may get some work on the side, a war monger could do with your skill set. 

 

As it happens Simon was a rocket scientist but was not able to renter his old field of training here in Asia.

[simon43]

1 hour ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Not a Rocket Scientist by any chance?

 

You may get some work on the side, a war monger, militarist could do with your skill set. 

 

Lol, yes a rocket scientist (in a way).  I designed equipment and antennas for military, weather, scientific and TV satellites.

 

As to the military angle, when I was last working in Naypyitaw, I designed and started to build a small, academic'Cubesat' on my kitchen table - small satellites like these are rather easy to build... here is the (defunct) link to my website at the time.

 

https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/C4E22AQFu9_Qyj5vMUA/feedshare-shrink_800/feedshare-shrink_800/0/1576925697917?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=M2fO2DC9I3qWNlTju0sTByelPTE-CSRg17UVh4-boLU

 

This little bird was going to transmit images of famous Myanmar sites (Shwedagon Pagoda etc) down to earth - a purely educational project. My plan was to ask China to take it up to their space station on their next Astronaut visit, 'open the window' and chuck it out into space.

 

All was going wonderfully until I got a visit from 'the military', who were very friendly and asked if I could help them to build a satellite!

 

So I decided to put that Cubesat on the back-burner for a while...

 

 

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by simon43

[recom273]

On 11/23/2024 at 9:44 AM, simon43 said:

 

Hi Card, there are plenty of dogs, but (unlike Thailand), I have never had a problem with those dogs?  They looked rather meek last week. The only 'savage' incident was a Burmese woman who was insistent that I buy her Buddha flowers 🙂  (I didn't!).

 

As to helping with the education in Myanmar, of course this is really difficult to figure out something that actually will benefit the local students.  My view is that donating to the big charities is akin to throwing your money down the drain! Many years I sat down (with myself) to try to figure out a way that my small amounts of $ could actually make a difference.  So I wrote an Android learning app which allows students/teachers to download videos while in a wifi cafe, and then to study/watch those videos 'offline' at home.  I add to these videos most weeks, and they have lesson content that mirrors the Myanmar school curriculum.  (I am also going to add videos in Burmese that help students to learn Korean and Japanese).  Some of these videos are created by myself, and the others are downloaded by me from YouTube.  Does that break the copyright rules? Probably.  But I make no money from these videos and my conscience is clear.  Of course, most poor kids won't have a mobile phone, but their local teachers certainly do, and it;s important to educate the teachers, so they can pass on this knowledge to others.

 

The other way to help is to buy school books etc, but in the current state of the country, it's impossible to physically travel to many areas. You also need to be sure that you are not 'throwing loads of mud at a wall in the hope that some will stick'.  I used to visit each school or orphanage, make a note of how many students and what grades, and then 'customise' the contents of my donation box to ensure that my $ was actually going to help those students.  Now, since I am stuck in Mandalay, I have a list of all the government schools, monastery schools and orphanages in the city that I can try to help.

 

I take the view that since I have managed to survive for 22+ years in south-east Asia on a relatively small income, I will be able to continue doing that on my UK state pension.  I don't need to leave money to my overseas family, so I might as well use it to make a small difference to the lives of others who - by fate of birth - were born into the situation where they find themselves today.

 

I had a colleague who was working at an international school in Myanmar, idk if there was any truth in it, but he said he was teaching kids of the generals and the financial rewards were very attractive.

 

Im currently teaching online in an African school, although the country has been war torn for many years yet these kids wear gold watches and brand name sport shoes. 

 

Do you get the feeling you are teaching the kids of the elite? How do you feel about that?

[Burma Bill]

4 hours ago, simon43 said:

As usual, I get up at 6am for an exercise walk/jog of about 2km, to help to keep my lungs clear.  For now, this is just up and down the road outside the hotel.

 

The fresh vegetable seller is already doing business, and yes - that woman does have a bunch of bananas on her head.... and why not? 🙂

 

 

Hi Simon. 

With the greatest respect to your fascinating posts, I hope you do not mind me posting one or two photos from my visits to Burma - such happy memories! The lady with the bananas on her head reminded me of three ladies struggling with a heavy basket of pineapples at Hsipaw Station. Not on heads, but the basket was eventually carried on a shoulder, guided by the other ladies!

 

[Patong2021]

A rocket scientist who teaches English. 😶‍🌫️

Have you ever read the Myanmar Sanctions of 2021 (updated October 2024), particularly Regulations 26 and 27,  Prohibitions on the provision of technical assistance, financial services or funds relating to military goods or technology? I was wondering how you would explain your presence in a country that is subject to multinational sanctions, if you ever travel to the USA or a Commonwealth country?

 

Do you have a contingency plan if you need to evacuate? Are you registered with the UK?  

 

In respect to lodgings, I was once told that one of the better areas for  peaceful living was around the universities (e.g. the medical school and the general campus).  There were a number of foreign company owned residences (serviced units) for their employees in the area too. With the international sanctions and civil issues with a resulting exodus of foreign labour, I expect that some of the residences might be open to other foreigners living there.

[simon43]

42 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

A rocket scientist who teaches English. 😶‍🌫️

Have you ever read the Myanmar Sanctions of 2021 (updated October 2024), particularly Regulations 26 and 27,  Prohibitions on the provision of technical assistance, financial services or funds relating to military goods or technology? I was wondering how you would explain your presence in a country that is subject to multinational sanctions, if you ever travel to the USA or a Commonwealth country?

 

Do you have a contingency plan if you need to evacuate? Are you registered with the UK?  

 

In respect to lodgings, I was once told that one of the better areas for  peaceful living was around the universities (e.g. the medical school and the general campus).  There were a number of foreign company owned residences (serviced units) for their employees in the area too. With the international sanctions and civil issues with a resulting exodus of foreign labour, I expect that some of the residences might be open to other foreigners living there.

Hi, I'm fully aware of the relevant sanctions.  At the time of building my Cubesat (2017) there were no sanctions, and the project was purely for educational purposes.

 

When I taught in Naypyitaw, certainly some of my students were senior military/police, and again - there were no sanctions at that time.  Nowadays, I doubt very much if any of my students are from police or military families, for the simple reason that they would not be welcome at the school.  I'm teaching at a grade 2 school, with a much lower salary than my Naypyitaw job.  This is because:

1 - I also teach online, and don't need a high salary

2 - I will soon start to receive my UK state pension, so don't need a high salary

3 - This job gives me free time to further my educational charity work

 

I think teaching primary grade science to 8 year olds will not see me fall foul of any sanctions 🙂

 

Similar to Thailand, landlords do not like to rent to foreigners, because they must then register the presence of the foreigner to the authorities, which then exposes them to demands for tax payments...

 

I never bother to register with the UK embassy, because experience demonstrates (in many countries), that the UK embassy has little interest in helping the citizens of their country....

 

@BurmaBill, yes please do post your photos!  Perhaps others can also post photos of this amazing country.

Edited 3 hours ago by simon43

[Burma Bill]

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

@BurmaBill, yes please do post your photos!

 

Thank you Simon. 

Just one of the Kuthodaw Pagoda in Mandalay which houses the World's largest book (Google/wikipedia) - absolutely amazing!

Created by King Mindon in the 19th century, 729 stone inscription "caves" each containing a marble tablet representing a page of the book Tipitaka Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism, each page being inscribed on both sides in gold. A more recent tablet (730) has been inscribed representing UNESCO recognition.

 

 

[Mahseer]

For anyone tempted to visit Burma aside from Mandalay Rangoon is perfectly safe with just the odd barbed wire barricade outside a building or two. Have visited 3 times in the past year and will visit again next month if I can get permission to travel to Keng Tung. Other tourist cities which are presently open includes Bagan, Kalaw & Nyaung Shwe (Inle Lake) along with the beach areas to the west of Rangoon but don't expect to see more than the occasional tourist in any of them.

 

Direct flights to Rangoon from Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

 

Be safe folks.

[simon43]

@BurmaBill, wonderful photo.  I don't have to teach at the school on Mondays, so I usually walk round the moat (almost 8 KM!), then up and down Mandalay Hill. So your photo location is exactly where I was last Monday?

 

@Mahseer, I want to try to get to Inle Lake/Nyaung Shwe maybe at Christmas to visit some orphanages that I previously donated to..  There is the home for disabled kids/adults just outside nearby Taunggyi, an orphanage in Taunggyi, one in Nyaung Shwe, Sasana Orphanage just outside the town, yet another poor monastery school at Htet Eian (near the vineyard) and another orphanage at Mine Thaut, by the lake. An Italian charity that I work with supports staff to look after the boys at Sasana, so I will try to visit to report on this.  The only practical way to get to Nyaung Shwe from Mandalay is by 6 hour bus journey, but I'll have some holiday time at Xmas to do this 🙂

 

Please keep the photos and reminiscences (real word?) coming!