Only dead fish go with the flow
The flow this week has been a true ride of a tricycle with only two wheels: a bit slow at times, some bumps along the way, tight holding onto while riding down the hill and seeing one wheel left behind. But there are no obstacles that can’t be jumped over. That unless they are called Covid-19.
The week started at the pace of having all the time in the world. Naw Kham had to leave the village to travel to the capital Naypyidaw for finalizing some paperwork on the other ongoing project that Mondo along with Estonian company MasterPro have initiated: solar panels for Namlan Boarding House, CRED Office and some families and households from rural villages of Shan State. So Estonian solar panels will bring electricity to small villages in the other end of the world where still the power is unavailable due to remoteness of the area and economic unaffordability for a lot of families. I have a high respect for the whole project team and knowing that this will not be their last initiative here on sustainability and recycling issues, then even more so.
As said, Naw Kham was on the road and is actually on the road since. As this is the first time for Myanmar’s Customs to have that kind of donation to deal with, then there are no worked out laws or common practice in this field in the country yet. But documents still need to be filled out and signed and authorized, because paperwork is highly valued here. A lot of documents are needed from a lot of different sources, but unfortunately one problem remains: no one knows exactly which documents to write and to formalize, even which ones to ask. Therefore the huge container of solar panels has been in the port of Yangon, hopefully gently held and taken care of by the local Customs Office since January. I have still high hopes that by fall this year they will be up on the roofs in Shan State villages.
To use the time of working alone further on with the new school project wisely, I took a train to visit some education centers in a town called Pyin Oo Lwin, right on the road from Mandalay to Hsipaw. The small city is probably the most similar one to European urban lifestyle you could ask for. Horse carriages driving the foreigners, one of the most beautiful botanical gardens I have witnessed, hotels being built as fast as Flash runs and even the first modern shopping center that has become „The“ place to be for youngsters and pigeons. Train ride this time was a memory which I’ll ramble on about when turning eighty-four and rocking on in a rocking chair reminiscing about all my adventures. I got a seat in the first wagon right behind the locomotive this time, couldn’t be happier. The beginning of the ride was a bumpy one where you hop on the seat regularly so that your smartwatch starts an automatic training thinking you’re jumping up and down. Some co-passengers did not feel too well after a while so I was glad about the lack of windows in the train which led me pondering about the laws of physics yet again: why something thrown out in one window while moving in a high speed is coming back inside from the next window. But being a total ignorant of the field I didn’t get too far with this and my train of thoughts was interrupted by a loud „bang“. Looking ahead I saw that the locomotive had left us. Handbrakes in all vehicles are from now on highly honored! But to my destination I reached and the city is delightful.
Pyin Oo Lwin is the home for many public and private schools and since 2017 there is also an International School applying Waldorf initative in their curriculum.
I got to meet the Office Assistant in Lotus Garden International School who was willing to tour me around the school and the huge garden and answer all my questions on their starting years. Luckily, I also met with couple of students whose English is better than mine already in grade 7 and who shared their thoughts on the education possibilities and the future goals in that area. International schools in Myanmar are not yet unfortunately recognized as schools under the law of education. They don’t follow the governmental curriculum, they can work out their own or adapt some known initiative from any other country which is not acceptable by the laws here. Working out non-governmental curriculum was actually the one thing why we were also considering going this way while starting with the school project. But due to non-recognition as a school establishment, its students are not eligible to sit for the matriculation exam in the last grade nor are they allowed to enroll Burmese universities. That’s why most of the students are either planning on going to universities abroad after graduating or enroll in the public school for the last school year. So I got the confirmation there that this is not the way to go with in Namlan as most students can not afford going to study abroad for post-secondary education and it would not be fair to take away the possibility from them to continue the educational road locally. While Naw Kham was also in between for a while, a private school or an international school, then now we have decided to go on with the private school concept. The visits to other cities and schools have helped us a lot with developing the idea further and I’d say that we are beginning to see the full picture now while the theoretical plans are near the finish line and the actual implementation plan can soon take over.
Everyone has most probably heard that there is a special situation right now in the world. Or if you haven’t yet, you probably have noticed the lack of some products in the supermarkets and might have wondered about the cause as this is slightly irregular event of running out of spaghetti and paper at all shops all at once. The fact is that no country is untouched of the subject and Myanmar, neighboring with China, India and Thailand is probably no exception, one might think. Believe it or not, it might as well be as there is still not a single official case of Covid-19 here yet. Nevertheless, that said, within past 24 hours of travelling from Pyin Oo Lwin to Hsipaw to Mandalay in a different set of vehicles, my next transportation option will probably be an airplane. I’m unfortunately sitting in the airport in Mandalay and having to say goodbye to this beautiful country and its genuine and welcoming people who have taught me a lot. My mission here has been cut short, but leaving physically doesn’t mean we stop working further. We still have the plans to finish so the process continues: just over the world wide web from now on. So, dear quarantine, I’ll come home to work!
