Teaching English and Shwedagon Pagoda, 11/231- 11/25

 

I've loved teaching English with this group of trainees—they have a wonderful sense of humor, with a broad range of fluency and shyness—and apparently they are finding the classes fun and enjoyable.  We've done everything from role plays practicing describing how their company can help prospective clients, and handling client complaints, and using an

Appointment-Making handout exercise I'd downloaded before leaving—to reading aloud from a story book I'd brought, working on pronunciation—to  collaboratively creating a story (complete with enchantments, ogres, and heroes), each contributing a line at a time—to interviewing each other about their hobbies, their favorite beautiful place, and their most scary experience (my most recent one being driving in Yangon traffic).

The youngest student in the class, 17, Aung Myin Thu, named the Nargis cyclone of a few years ago as both his most scary and his most beautiful experience--seeing the roof of his house fly off and away (he was inside when it happened) and seeing trees uprooted and fly away in the sky.  He's the website developer and designer there, and he showed me his current village on googlemaps, embellished with some high-rises and Ufos he'd created—and he found my house on googlemaps too.  It was so amazing—he was able to find Solano Ave and 838 Stannage (with Bonnie's car in the driveway); the plum tree in front of the house is in blossom.  It was as clear a picture as the photo I'd once taken.  Although shy, he also is hilariously creative in our business role plays, and has a wonderful sense of humor, coming up with responses that have everyone in stitches. His father is a painter, and he clearly shares in his artistic sensitivity, and has a wonderful sweetness to him.

The company, whose name is Biz Leap, apparently was begun just a few months ago, and many of the young trainees are from Nyunt Than's village, children of relatives or friends or that he met and invited to come; one had come through a friend who was working there.

Last night four of the staff took me to Shwedagon Pagoda, very beautiful with the pagodas so brilliantly golden against the dark purplish clouds in growing dark, and the birds in the sky above catching the reflected lights below, sudden momentary flashes of light catching one's eyes.  Everywhere local people, mingled with tourists, and groups of Thai and Burmese monks were walking with flower sprays, or kneeling in prayer; and everywhere there were candles burning, shrines with brightly colored pulsating electric neon lights, and golden spires. Especially intriguing were the carvings of two quite expressive figures bordering one of the Buddha-holding niches.

And everyone, everywhere, even the littlest monk of a group of four, taking pictures with their cell phones.

In the brightly lit downtown area we passed through afterwards, the same new Western influence manifested themselves in a huge Swenson's ice cream parlor, some fast food stall with uniformed vendors, flashing advertisements, and, as everywhere, myriad mobile phone shops. We ate in a little shop, Shan soup. We were looking for mohinga (my request), and it wasn't available. But this morning, some delicious mohinga awaited me for my breakfast when I walked over to BizLeap. 

We've been on break the last couple hours, as they are all on a conference call to the U.S. with Nyunt Than.  Another afternoon everyone went over to a nearby storefront to work on the Khan Academy Translation-a-Thon. (The Khan Academy is an organization offering free online classes around the world; and people volunteer to translate the lessons into their respective languages: it's an incredible resource.) However, as often is the case, the internet was down, or at least so slow and sluggish as to be unusable.

I'm learning a certain amount of needed flexibility, between slow internets, and several hour breaks while the trainees take care of client work announced to me at the last minute, et cetera.  However, there are also incredible timely unfoldings such as the precision timing of my return from my evening walk last night to U Kyaw's hour-early arrival with my supper, I walking up just as he turned his car into the lane. And on the whole, even with the unexpected and vague, everything works out in its own timing perfectly.

About time to start up again, so will sign off for now.  Will probably head up to Mandalay on Wednesday.

Wishing you all Happy Thanksgiving,

Zoe