Aung Myae Oo (Sagaing, Myanmar) – part 1 (arrival)

Weekend!! And it couldn’t be more welcome!

Our first week here has been very intense and so much has happened that it wouldn’t 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 (“Markus”) for Mudita Foundation. He gave us a sign up sheet and timetable and a quick tour of the premises, then told us we could do what we wanted for the afternoon.

Volunteer accommodation consists of one two bedroom “studio” with a fridge and “bathroom”, and, in the next building, a large shared room with a small private room inside it. The bathroom is just a tiled room with a Western toilet and one pipe to which a faucet and shower head are attached. The water flows out through a hole punched at the bottom of a wall. “Markus” showed us to the large room and told us to each pick a mosquito net to sleep in. On closer inspection, we found that only one net had an intact zipper, so decided to share it.

After lunch, we met up with the other volunteers who told us we could help in the clinic. We soon discovered this is the area of the school where help is most needed.

There are about 3300 children in the school, of which about 2/3 (novice) nuns, 1/3 (novice) monks and a small minority “laychildren”. Some of the children live with their families nearby; the others are housed in Aung Myae Oo or one of the surrounding monasteries. About four hundred novices live in Aung Myae Oo. The dormitories are equipped with large wooden platforms on which the nuns (or monks) sleep side by side in their monastic robes (pink for girls, orange or red for boys).

Each dorm area also has shared ablutions, with “crouching” toilets and a large basin where the children can wash. Mudita Foundation has implemented a caretaker program, aimed to ensure the smaller children (kindergarten to grade 4) get washed every day. However, sadly, with so many children, it seems about half of them (often the same) regularly miss shower time.

Many children come to the clinic with skin diseases, rashes, ring worm, etc. resulting from the lack of hygiene. Some of the smaller boys don’t seem to have been taught how to wash properly when going to the bathroom, and arrived with extended irritations around their bottoms.

We expected to find a nurse in the clinic (as per the information received before we arrived), but heard from the other volunteers that there had been no nurse for at least one month. The volunteers were doing what they could with the material and information available. One of the most valuable routines introduced by the volunteers was the washing of the children before treatment. Though this significantly increases the time it takes to treat them, for some of them, it seems to be the only time they wash their heads, ears (and in some cases their whole bodies) in the day.

We spent the first afternoon helping out in the clinic, as best we could, and in doing so discovered that the next day, Thursday, was a weekend.

On Thursday, “Markus” brought us on an excursion to Hsinbyume temple and Pahtodawgyi (unfinished) pagoda. In the afternoon, as I wasn’t feeling well, I stayed in while the others went into Mandalay.

The next day, we were hoping to rent a car to go to Dee Doke waterfalls, about 60 km from the school. We went to the principal’s office and asked the principal and “Markus” if they could help us call a rental agency.

I won’t go into detail, but in short we went from hearing that we weren’t allowed (legally) to rent a car, to being told a car with driver had been called, to being told we had to go into Mandalay to get a car…. Until finally, three hours later, “Markus” brought Marc to his uncle’s place to pick up a car on loan.

We drove up to the waterfalls, Marc at the wheel, which took about two hours. Marc quickly learned the three basic rules to driving in Myanmar: drive on the right (though the steering wheel is also on the right), bigger vehicles get priority and when in doubt, honk.

The drive – and short hike – were completely worth it! The water is a bright turquoise, enhanced by the fact that the water is quite cloudy. The water was fresh and we all enjoyed a very welcome swim.

After the waterfalls, we went into Mandalay to do some shopping for the school and clinic (with funds collected by Elna, one of the volunteers), then back to school to rest for the start of the new school week.