WJ READER'S TRAVEL TALES


Excerpts from MARILYN’S LETTERS HOME to ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
from the country of MYANMAR (old BURMA) -- DECEMBER 2005 - JANUARY 2006
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12/26/05 from BAN KRUD, a small town in the South of Thailand
Dear "Group": In my first email I left out sooooo many things. I'll try to fill in a few gaps today.
Some of you know that one of our missions in Myanmar was to take medical supplies. I had two
35 lb. boxes of out dated and surplus stuff from Providence Hospital in Anchorage. Others had
brought a lot of items too. Early on, in Yangon (Rangoon), our guide took us to a monastery.
There, 130 kids from poor families or with no family live as nuns/novitiates. The head monk
could hardly believe what we were giving him. Doctors visit each month so these technical items
will be well used. We were allowed to stand between the rows of girls and boys as they lined up
to receive their one mid-day meal. You could sense their resolve and commitment. Their quiet
countenance was nearly palpable. Rice had been cooked in two separate vats, each with the
volume of a heaped bathtub-full. Also, donations of soap and other essential items were given
from some wealthy Thai family wanting to spread international good will and “make merit” in
the Buddhist tradition of giving.
Everywhere we went members of our group gave all sorts of toys and other stuff like Avon
perfume samples, hotel soaps and shampoos, notebooks and pens and markers. You should have
seen kids and adults playing with bottles of bubble-making liquid. At first they were timid, then
squealing and jumping after the floating bubbles. A couple of little kids under 1 year were being
carried, each in one basket at the end of a 10-foot pole across their mother's shoulder. Did they
beam when Carolyn handed each a little stuffed toy. So did their mother who'd probably never
even desired one for her kids--if she'd ever even seen such a thing. Food to eat was about as far
as she'd been able to think.
I took 200 pins from our Alaska State legislators. Also hundreds of old buttons from my mom. I
had packaged those up in small baggies. I never took these things out unless we were just about
to board our bus again and only if I had at least 30 in hand. I'd start and be mobbed, only trying
to be sure the littlest kid or the shy adult also got one before I escaped thru the bus door. Then
they clamored at the window. Yes, some of them wanted us to buy, buy, buy. And buy we did!!
Sometimes just for sanity we'd retreat to the bus, check on our money situation and then deal
through the bus window. Needless to say, I tired of those business transactions in about 5
minutes. But the other way to look at it is that this is their industry, their bread and butter. We
(hopefully) were doing a small part to directly enrich the economy of the every-day people.
Another importance of foreigners bargaining with kids and adults is that these are their English
lessons. Most are not shy and really want to practice. Youth would earnestly approach us saying
they hoped to graduate and become a guide, quite a prestigious occupation. English is studied
from age 5; that is if the kids are going to a school. Some of the remote areas have no school, or
one that is open sporadically at the pleasure of the government. Again, I'll close. Happy 2006 to
every one of you!! Around this world we are all ONE -- people, that is. Never mind the
administrations, which have their own agendas!!! Love Marilyn


1-10-2006 after 5 weeks and a day, I arrived home in Anchorage, satiated from my travels and
experiences in Myanmar, one of the most exotic and least free countries of the world. During the
final two weeks, I had journeyed back to Thailand where I reconnected with students, teacher colleagues
and the land, bringing full-circle my teaching experience there last year. Now I look forward to a return
someday to Myanmar and other Asian destinations. My advice: GO! Travel the world and meet the everyday
people. Spread the peace and light. Our world will be better for it.


One excellent source of information about Myanmar today and its history is the book, Finding
George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin, published in 2005 by The Penguin Press, New York.





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