Weekend!!\nAnd it couldn\u2019t be more welcome!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our first week here has been very intense and so much has happened\nthat it wouldn\u2019t all fit in one post. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We arrived at Aung Myae Oo monastic school in Sagaing around noon\nlast Wednesday and met the principal and (after some time) the\nproject manager (\u201cMarkus\u201d) for Mudita Foundation. He gave us a\nsign up sheet and timetable and a quick tour of the premises, then\ntold us we could do what we wanted for the afternoon. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Volunteer accommodation consists of one two bedroom \u201cstudio\u201d\nwith a fridge and \u201cbathroom\u201d, and, in the next building, a large\nshared room with a small private room inside it. The bathroom is just\na tiled room with a Western toilet and one pipe to which a faucet and\nshower head are attached. The water flows out through a hole punched\nat the bottom of a wall. \u201cMarkus\u201d showed us to the large room and\ntold us to each pick a mosquito net to sleep in. On closer\ninspection, we found that only one net had an intact zipper, so\ndecided to share it. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After lunch, we met up with the other volunteers who told us we\ncould help in the clinic. We soon discovered this is the area of the\nschool where help is most needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are about 3300 children in the school, of which about 2\/3\n(novice) nuns, 1\/3 (novice) monks and a small minority \u201claychildren\u201d.\nSome of the children live with their families nearby; the others are\nhoused in Aung Myae Oo or one of the surrounding monasteries. About\nfour hundred novices live in Aung Myae Oo. The dormitories are\nequipped with large wooden platforms on which the nuns (or monks)\nsleep side by side in their monastic robes (pink for girls, orange or\nred for boys). \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each dorm area also has shared ablutions, with \u201ccrouching\u201d\ntoilets and a large basin where the children can wash. Mudita\nFoundation has implemented a caretaker program, aimed to ensure the\nsmaller children (kindergarten to grade 4) get washed every day.\nHowever, sadly, with so many children, it seems about half of them\n(often the same) regularly miss shower time. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many children come to the clinic with skin diseases, rashes, ring\nworm, etc. resulting from the lack of hygiene. Some of the smaller\nboys don\u2019t seem to have been taught how to wash properly when going\nto the bathroom, and arrived with extended irritations around their\nbottoms. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We expected to find a nurse in the clinic (as per the information\nreceived before we arrived), but heard from the other volunteers that\nthere had been no nurse for at least one month. The volunteers were\ndoing what they could with the material and information available.\nOne of the most valuable routines introduced by the volunteers was\nthe washing of the children before treatment. Though this\nsignificantly increases the time it takes to treat them, for some of\nthem, it seems to be the only time they wash their heads, ears (and\nin some cases their whole bodies) in the day. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We spent the first afternoon helping out in the clinic, as best we\ncould, and in doing so discovered that the next day, Thursday, was a\nweekend. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday, \u201cMarkus\u201d brought us on an excursion to Hsinbyume\ntemple and Pahtodawgyi (unfinished) pagoda. In the afternoon, as I\nwasn\u2019t feeling well, I stayed in while the others went into\nMandalay. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day, we were hoping to rent a car to go to Dee Doke\nwaterfalls, about 60 km from the school. We went to the principal\u2019s\noffice and asked the principal and \u201cMarkus\u201d if they could help us\ncall a rental agency. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I won\u2019t go into detail, but in short we went from hearing that\nwe weren\u2019t allowed (legally) to rent a car, to being told a car\nwith driver had been called, to being told we had to go into Mandalay\nto get a car\u2026. Until finally, three hours later, \u201cMarkus\u201d\nbrought Marc to his uncle\u2019s place to pick up a car on loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We drove up to the waterfalls, Marc at the wheel, which took about\ntwo hours. Marc quickly learned the three basic rules to driving in\nMyanmar: drive on the right (though the steering wheel is also on the\nright), bigger vehicles get priority and when in doubt, honk. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drive \u2013 and short hike \u2013 were completely worth it! The\nwater is a bright turquoise, enhanced by the fact that the water is\nquite cloudy. The water was fresh and we all enjoyed a very welcome\nswim. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the waterfalls, we went into Mandalay to do some shopping\nfor the school and clinic (with funds collected by Elna, one of the\nvolunteers), then back to school to rest for the start of the new\nschool week.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Weekend!! And it couldn\u2019t be more welcome! Our first week here has been very intense and so much has happened that it wouldn\u2019t all fit in one post. We arrived at Aung Myae Oo monastic school in Sagaing around noon last Wednesday and met the principal and (after some time) the project manager (\u201cMarkus\u201d) for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[20,21],"class_list":["post-29539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-myanmar","tag-aung-myae-oo","tag-volunteering"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29618,"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29539\/revisions\/29618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kastoof-ontour.world\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}