The Lotus Wish, Buddhist-Muslim relations, and Mandalay Hill

Dear All,

Thursday January 16

Went to Roma’s room for breakfast. It was a feast: greens, fried fish, rice, and mohinga too. Mosquito net is lifted, blankets folded up, and the two person bed in the four-bed room transforms into a table and sitting area.  Pictures of singer Justin Huber and world figures such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lincoln, Einstein and others decorate the walls.

breakfast in Roma's room

The teashop class Roma facilitates also has a branch in Yangon (both programs are subsidized by Telenor, a Norwegian mobile company), where they have turned a bus into a traveling school that goes to different neighborhoods, teaching life skills, etc to their teenage and young adult students who haven't had the opportunity to go to school because of having to work; there is also a program for some who do really well to be able to go to a school program, with financial support given their families who have then to do without their help.

Turns out the Germans eat lunch together with the German couple, and Ollie has been eating with them this week, which is why only the Japanese teacher and Floridian have shared the lunch (which is very good, with several different varied dishes and not at all overcooked) we eat together in the little house opposite the office after the head monks have eaten. Between the last morning class and lunch I ran into Ollie the German teacher and a dynamic young Burmese woman who is studying education in Australia and is engaged in a storytelling project which gathers stories and tales from Myanmar and publishes them for children; she also presented a paper for a monastic education conference on If the Buddha Were a Teacher Now. 

stairs up Mandalay Hill

We got into a conversation about the Myanmar attitude to the Muslims (Mandalay is where the upheaval and looting of Muslim shops was last year) and how even intelligent, nice people Ollie talks to are discriminatory against Muslims.  She was asked—and refused—to sign a petition for a marriage law that bans marrying Muslims; she said there are some educated Burmese who are speaking out and respect differences; but it’s dismaying to see Buddhists adopting such un-Buddhist stances, just as seeing similar parallel situations in the world among other peoples from whom you just expect more is particularly disappointing.

Turns out, [I find out the next night] that there are a group of students and monks here who do outreach with young people in Mandalay trying to promote dialogue and understanding between Buddhists and Muslims, and the next night a group of about 20-30 students were taking an overnight bus to Lasho which is another area of conflict, to promote dialogue and peace.

STEEP steps near top of Mandalay Hill

Thursday afternoon, Roma and her friend brought me to Mandalay hill, which we climbed by winding road, taking several little steep dirt path shortcuts up rocks and tree roots.

 

"elliptical machines" at top of hill

  It was a very overcast day, so no sunset, and we began the barefoot descent down the long set of covered concrete steps that’s the main approach.  I was dubious about my bare feet surviving a half hour of concrete, so they asked a shopkeeper on the way down and he pointed us across the trees to a little-used stairway where we could wear our shoes (except for the little pagoda areas the stairway passed through), so that was a happy find. 

back steps down from Mandalay Hill

At the bottom we had some mohinga, then grabbed a little pick-up bus back. Roma went off to her teashop class, and I went to spend time at the Golden House with the children there, and then to the library for an hour with the ethnic and orphan children. 

 

practicing sentences with words ending with –s

  After practicing the sentences with words  ending with –s that I had typed up for an IBEC class and that we had gone over earlier in the week, and some conversation, I read the ethnic and orphan children a story called The Lotus Wish, to which they all listened quietly and very attentively.  When I got to the end, though, and asked a couple questions, it turned out all they’d understood was that the little Korean girl’s father was blind, and they didn’t understand the word “wish” at all.  I think I was able to communicate “want,” and that “wish” is a little like “want”, but certainly not the nuance of “wants” being generally more easily fulfillable that “wishes."  Today I have the word written down in Burmese, and my little phonetic pronunciation, so I’ll bring that….

Friday Jan 17

Rained a little during the night, and the online weather actually predicts thundershowers, which is unusual.  Today, my last full teaching day here, is more of a fading out than a grand finale.  After my morning third grade class, I attended a little skit presentation the older students did for the younger students around hygiene (washing hands with soap, etc) which was also an appeal for the foreign teachers to contribute to the hygiene fund to buy soaps etc.  Then, since I saw a teacher in the 7^th grade classroom already, I just let them go ahead and teach (and I’d already yesterday told the 6^th grade teacher she could go ahead and teach her class).  Then after lunch, it turned out there was a special lesson for the 8^th grade class, so I couldn't teach them, and when I came back to teach my afternoon 3^rd grade class, turned out they had a special program, too.

Was, though, able to find a short window around noon when the internet actually let me download a couple of book samples to my Kindle.  (I don’t think downloading a whole book from here is remotely possible, though.)  And have the time now to write this email.

Now, off to the Golden House, and later the ethnic and orphan children….

… Where we played a spelling game that they showed me, where you write a word on the blackboard that begins with the letter the previous person’s word ended with, as well as finishing the Ali Baba story we were reading.  Afterwards I boiled two eggs I bought at a stall in my electric teapot for dinner. (It's the first time I'd done it, but it worked.)  It rained this evening (unusual for this time of the year), and is going to be raining all weekend…… 

rain on 19th Street

 Today, Saturday, after working with the Golden House and with the ethnic and orphan children, will be my last day. It is quiet and deserted without the day students.  I go back to Sagaing Hills tonight or in the morning, and then fly from Mandalay to Bangkok on Monday, do the Ayutthaya boat tour on Tuesday, and fly back on Wednesday.

Love to all,

Zoe