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| Saint Matthews Baptist Church from the orphanage side. Our home away from home. |
I will call this part 1 but I have no idea how many parts there will be. As with most of my writings, it is always a process and like life who knows for sure when the end will be. All I can control is the beginning of the story.
Our school has one of the most amazing opportunities for students and teachers to reach out to various parts of Asia over our Lunar holiday and on spring break. Last year it was Thailand. I didn't think it could get much better. This year I decided to sign on to go to Myanmar. Myanmar, as in a country almost nobody knows about. Now if I say Burma then there is vague recollection but almost everyone, including myself, needed to get out a map and figure out where I was headed. Why did I go to the second most isolated country in the entire world? Go into a country ruled by the military and one who has no desire to have a relationship with the outside world?
I went because it was on my heart to go. I knew I needed to go. I knew in my soul that I was supposed to go. Wherever you are in your idea of religion, sometimes you can feel an energy resonate so strongly in you that you are better served not to doubt it. That was the case with this journey.
So in February I packed up some clothes, joined 3 other teachers and 14 students and headed on a six hour plane ride to Yangon (formerly Rangoon). We made it in around 1 or 2 in the morning Korea time, waited in line to get through customs and then boarded a charter bus for a 10 hour overnight trip to Pyin Oo Lwin and Saint Matthews Orphanage. We all slept as best as we could on the bus. That part was a bit of a blur just due to fatigue and the fact that the night was such a deep black that you had no way to see the countryside.
Our beautiful Hotel Eden harkens back to the colonial British rule. It hasn't been kept up since it was most likely abandoned but when you look in and around it, you can picture the way it may have once been. It could have really been someones Eden at one point. Although quite rustic by our students standards, it was as clean as it could be and I felt it would be fine for our needs. Pyin Oo Lwin is about 3500 feet above sea level and I was pleasantly surprised at the weather and happy I was not going to be in 90 degree heat the entire time. Some parts felt a little like home, I mean if you ignore the bamboo and avocado trees.
The sounds of everyday life were different here than those in Korea. The biggest thing I noticed from the very start was just the quiet watching of the locals. For my story I will call them Burmese, as that is what most of them appreciate being called. No matter the age, they always are watching these strangers amongst them with curiosity and not with malice. Most spoke or understood English but chose more to watch than to engage at first. The kids didn't seem to notice this silent watching so because of that, they were free to be themselves. So many times the Korean students never get to just be free to laugh, relax, enjoy the feeling of being still. That in itself is a blessing.
In most cases, I would say that this is the last moment that they would get to do that. Luckily, it was only the beginning......
